Today in America...A New Day

Today, I write as an American who is truly proud of his country. Proud that nationwide, not just in blue states, WE were able to look at the character of a man, and not at the color of his skin. Barack Obama will be the next President of the greatest country in the world!

I have written here before about how my father would tell me as a child that I could be anything I wanted to be…except President. “No black man will ever be President” he would tell me. When I told my father 4 years ago that I thought we may have found our first black President, he snickered and shook his head as if to say “yeah, okay”. My father died a year later. Last night I missed my father more than I have since the time just after his death. I wished that he could have been there with me watching history. It would have brought him great joy.

I have had numerous calls and emails telling me that it was me who told people about Barack Obama 4 years ago. Maybe it was for a few people close to me, but it was America who 4 years ago was introduced to a freshman senator from Illinois. A man who when he spoke, had a lot of Democrats thinking “uh oh, we just nominated the wrong guy”. Maybe we did, but last night we got it right. No more do we need to vote for the guy “we’d like to have a beer with”. Now, we see that it is okay, and probably better, to vote for the smart guy. I WANT someone smarter than me in the highest office of the land!

There are a lot of areas I could touch on here, but I’ll limit it to a few in the interest of time. First, “thank you” to those who came before us. Thank you to the people like John Lewis who were beaten down for marching for the rights that he was being denied as a man. He now serves in the same congress that denied him those rights. Thank you to the people who were attacked by Bull Connor’s dogs, and assaulted with fire hoses for asking for equality. Thank you for the people black and white who fought and died for something that they would never see, but knew that their children and grandchildren would. Thank you for Martin Luther King Jr. for looking over that mountain top and letting us know that there would be a time like we are living in.

Second, I would like to thank the Republican Party for making fun of the average folk. I will never forget the great deal of disrespect that Gov. Palin showed at her acceptance speech at the RNC. She made fun of President-elect Obama’s work as a community organizer. The audience laughed at this notion that this was not a real job. Well, guess how he won this election? A grassroots movement took place that only a community organizer could put together. That’s right! Organizing hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country who would go to knock on doors of strangers, place calls to people in other states while not having rollover minutes on their cell phones, and ultimately turn red states purple, or even blue. People like my cousin Aime and her husband Charlie who have taken great pride in their work for this campaign. Giving hour after hour, and day after day, of time for this movement.

Congratulations America, you (we) are about to have a President who is a national President, not just a red state or blue state President. This was not just a win of current blue states; it was a win of those states, plus half the states in between.

Today, I can tell my kids, that they too can be anything they want to be. There are no more glass ceilings. There are no more limitations on their dreams. There are no more excuses or reasons why they can’t be whatever they want to be. Today is a new day in America, and we will all ultimately be better for it.