Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Oh, it's a happy day...
History is a daily happening, yeah. Today is very historical. I feel like I have to make some sort of commentary about it, because, well...jesus christ. A person of color, the first out-and-out liberal, has just become the POTUS.
I never fantasized I’d see it happen. I couldn’t. My experience with national politics and politicians has been a downward spiral. I voted for the lesser of two evils so many times it almost became automatic. I didn’t think that when I marked Obama’s name on my ballot. But I wasn’t sure he’d win. I really wanted him to win, very much. But there’ve been so many disappointments....But he did. And then I started holding my breath: there are so many nuts with guns out there, and so many stunts to derail the inauguration.
My ex-wife called this morning and told me how she’d got up to listen to the inauguration and the radio wouldn’t work. She went out and sat in her cold car, surrounded by ice crystals, turned on the car radio and listened and cried for joy. That’s about how I feel. It started watching the celebration in Grant Park. That’s when we all started phoning each other and saying, “We won, we did it.” Then the breath-holding and child-like prayers—please, please let it happen. It happened.
Watching the whole thing on TV is watching the faces of the people. So many smiles and grins, people crying with happiness and relief, people dancing and waving. A national day of celebration of hope.
I didn’t think I’d see it.
But I did and it's wonderful.
I never fantasized I’d see it happen. I couldn’t. My experience with national politics and politicians has been a downward spiral. I voted for the lesser of two evils so many times it almost became automatic. I didn’t think that when I marked Obama’s name on my ballot. But I wasn’t sure he’d win. I really wanted him to win, very much. But there’ve been so many disappointments....But he did. And then I started holding my breath: there are so many nuts with guns out there, and so many stunts to derail the inauguration.
My ex-wife called this morning and told me how she’d got up to listen to the inauguration and the radio wouldn’t work. She went out and sat in her cold car, surrounded by ice crystals, turned on the car radio and listened and cried for joy. That’s about how I feel. It started watching the celebration in Grant Park. That’s when we all started phoning each other and saying, “We won, we did it.” Then the breath-holding and child-like prayers—please, please let it happen. It happened.
Watching the whole thing on TV is watching the faces of the people. So many smiles and grins, people crying with happiness and relief, people dancing and waving. A national day of celebration of hope.
I didn’t think I’d see it.
But I did and it's wonderful.
