Tears of hope

My eyes have welled with tears many times during the past two days:

Voting yesterday morning and sensing the spirit of democracy among the crowd;

Feeling a growing connection as the day progressed and I followed the accounts of citizens exercising their sacred right to vote;

Reading how others were seeing this historic day;

Watching the returns come in last night;

Awakening to find that the nation had elected our first black president;

Recalling the quote from Jonathan Alter that the first 16 U.S. Presidents could have owned Barack Obama as property;

Remembering what I was doing when I heard that Martin Luther King, Junior was shot;

Listening to the gracious concession speech by John McCain;

Hearing Barack Obama speak before 100,000 gathered in Grant Park;

Transported back to the Lincoln Memorial, while hearing NPR’s story of Washingtonians stopping there to reflect upon the historic significance of this election;

Seeing my children blind to the color of Barack Obama’s skin;

Grateful that America responded to its hopes and not its fears;

Really proud — for the first time in recent years — for my country.

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Dan

Thank you Gary. The years have not diminished your eloquence. Like you I was moved to tears as Barack made his speech in Grant Park. We are living witnesses to an event that will be taught in the future with the same respect and importance as the founding moments of our democracy. I regret that it may take generations to heal the economic and political wounds from 8 years of Bush.
Badger

My own eyes welled with tears as I read through this.

-Tarren