The Morning After (A Reminiscence in Reverse - originally published on 10/21/2008)

It is the morning of November 5th. Early. I could not sleep last night watching the late late late night talking heads going over how and why exactly the Republicans and the McCain campaign have imploded quite so dramatically and completely and reviewing the hisorical impact of the Obama election ad nauseum.

There is a profound satisfaction to watching the light come up on the first day after the first Black President has been elected in the United States. Watching television does not do this feeling justice. This is a national holiday of a new sort. This is a national day of genuine triumph - this is not the typical holiday in which the calendar simply by its inevitable progress presents a day in which we look to the past or routinely and passively pay homage to our family and its traditions. Today is a day of an earned celebration. It is a hard fought rite of passage with shameful years of torturous suffering and injustice and the tumultuous violent swings of a hard fought labor to give birth only to an era of uneasy balance between legislative gains and cultural defiance with the slightly transparent character of seething resentment (from many sides.)
Today is a day fueled by the deep satisfaction of recognizing that the light of Dr. King's vision has broken over the mountain top and is plainly and clearly in sight. The light from this change feels like a warm glow beginning to heat the earth after a long and cold dark night, but it is from within. Today is a day that we have all earned, regardless of party affiliation or political ideology.

I could not have anticipated how deep this feeling would feel. The satisfaction feels like it is in my bones and I cannot stop smiling at the sky. My eyes are tearing up because the world is definitely different and definitely better than it was yesterday - and than it has ever been in my lifetime. Today is testimony to the breath of life in Dr. Kings dream and to the aspiring dream of America of our founding fathers and their mothers. Things will never be quite the same again. The sky is alive with light and the air all around is a blank canvas of possibility. Today it means something different than it ever has before to be an American and I am happy with every fiber to be a part of it.

Now...obviously...this has not really happened yet. I am just excited (to say the least) at the possibility and I hope you are too. I could not resist the temptation to begin to contextualize what I hope to be feeling very soon now. Please get out and vote and feel free to send this or your own message about how you will greet the first day after a Black President is elected in the United States to others as inspiration.