An historic event

This might be the "where were you when ..." event of my generation.

I'm having trouble taking in the significance; it feels like an ordinary election one moment, and then the next I'm struck by the import.  Jesse Jackson may not have thought he'd live to see this; my 91-year-old grandfather almost certainly didn't.  But he got a ride to the polls courtesy of Obama NY, and joyfully cast his ballot for not only our first black major party candidate, but now our first black President-elect.

Wow.  To be honest, I'm not sure that I thought I'd see this so early in my lifetime.  I'm still pretty young; and if I have kids in the next few years, it's not just that they'll live to see a time when a black man could be President; they'll be born while a black man is President.  They'll always live in a world where that's considered totally possible.  Amazing!  I totally want to have some Obama babies - as if I wasn't motivated enough to have kids.  ;-)

Obama isn't just a President for black people, nor is this just significant for minorities.  This really is a symbol of a different kind of America than we've been before.  Not everything has changed of course; Obama isn't Jesus, nor even a magician, although he's been touted as the second coming of everyone from Lincoln to FDR to MLK/JFK/RFK.  But we broke through something, with this whole election including Clinton and even Romney and Palin, showing that a wider segment of America could be our leaders than ever before.  It's not as wide as it should be; but the progress is visible, and it gives me hope.

John McCain recognized this, in such a gracious, public servant oriented concession speech; that's the McCain I wished I'd seen this election (although the crazy booing crowd kind of made it clear why he felt he had to lose that part of himself to try and win over his party).  And Obama's speech reminded me of the first time I heard him speak: not at DNC '04 but when he won his Senate seat, and spoke not as a partisan victor but as the sincere representative of his whole state, including those "whose trust I have yet to earn." 

Oh, do I hope he means that and can act on it.  This day is so much different from the heartbreak of 2004 for me - not because of a Democrat winning or George Bush being gone, but because I don't hear the vitriol, the undisguised bigotry from both sides of the "red/blue" equation.  Even Fox News commentators started to find nice things to say about Obama!  You do wonder where all that goodwill was for the past few months ... but I'll take it anyway, because it's a welcome change.

In the streets last night, I heard the kind of celebration we Bostonians reserve for a World Series or Superbowl win: strangers call and honk to each other as they walk or bike or drive past, and you hear this low roar of cheering as a constant background, rising and falling in waves.  Now I know I'm in Massachusetts, and not even everyone in my state was celebrating, let alone everyone in the country.  But I believe that we can find enough in common as far as what we want for our lives and our country to move forward together, and to find partners in former political opponents.

This is a big deal.  There will be armies of pundits breaking this down seven ways from Sunday over the next several weeks, and they'll do their best to kill all the magic.  But I will remember this day, where I was when it happened, and how unbelievably special it is.