change

I sit here, in Israel, a mere 4 days after voting for Obama in the states. Four days after a black man was elected President of the United States of America. I sit here, and for the first time in my adult life I feel unabashedly proud to be American. Tears stream down my face listening to Will.I.Am's "Yes We Can" video. And I ponder at how never before were my politically inspired tears a result of hope and not despair.

I am moved at the number of things that this election means. I am inspired, hopeful, excited... grappling to find the words to adequately describe the feeling flowing through my veins, the feeling that is so much deeper than what I can describe through my intellect.
I want to write about it now, so that perhaps in fifteen years from now when my children ask me how I felt at this historic moment, I will have the words I wrote to show them.

Just a month or so ago I was wondering at the people who told me that they do not like McCain but that they do not believe Obama, and would therefore be voting McCain. I was astounded that we have reached such a point of dissilussionment that we are willing to safely pick something we know is bad for us, rather than pick something we are afraid may disappoint us. I think that that very disillusionment is testimony to the very place from which our nation rose to elect its first black president.

I had been cruising at 47,000 feet for about 8 hours when the pilot announced that we would be landing in two hours, that breakfast would be served shortly, and that Obama won the election. I let out a small breath of relief and regained my childhood pride, for I didn't doubt he would win. I couldn't imagine our nation continuing down the path it has been on. Yet it wasn't until much later that evening (the 5th), in Israel and alone for the first time in hours, that I turned on the television and watched coverage of the previous day, that I began to comprehend the significance of what had happened, and what it means.

A man who was born into an era in which he did not have the right to vote will soon be sitting in the most powerful seat in the nation, and arguably the world. A country that enacted affirmative action in the last twenty years to right the wrongs done to African Americans has elected an African American to lead them out of the darkness.

This election highlights the road the U.S. has taken from racism to tolerance, and from tolerance to co-existence (for lack of a better word).