with love for my country, with sentiment that has been buried under years and years of cynacism and bigotry and fear-mongering.
I'm still crying tears of joy and relief. On Saturday when Garrison Keillor lead his audience in singing first "America The Beautiful" and then the ultimate sap fest, "God Bless America" I couldn't stop sobbing.
I grew up in the fifties and through the indoctrination process known as school and church, I developed a deep and abiding love for my country and for it's founding documents. That love was sorely tested by the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. It was further clouded by the dark stain of the Vietnam War. But it was never so threatened as it was on Saturday, December 9, 2000, when Justice Antony Scalia issued an injunction stopping the count in Florida. I just sat down and cried my eyes out, feeling that we had just experienced a judicial coup d'etat, that my beloved country was gone.
I have a very mixed relationship with the flag. I find it close to impossible to pledge my allegiance to it. I would much prefer to pledge allegiance to the United States Constitution. But when I saw the Obama's surrounded by a sea of American flags, my heart stirred in ways it hasn't since Neal Armstrong landed on the moon. She's a beauty, that flag of ours and finally, at long last, I feel like we can claim that flag as our own, that we have ripped it from the cold, clammy hands of the wingers who have misused her dreadfully.
The groundswell for this feeling started Tuesday morning at 6:30am when I showed up for my tour of duty as a pollworker in a nice West Hollywood neighborhood. There was already a long line and instead of the usual grumpy but dutiful voters, there were happy, shiny people who parroted my sentiment, "Isn't this exciting!" The poll workers at my precinct were a motley bunch: an attorney, a research nurse, a house cleaner, an actor, a massage therapist and a musician. As we moved through the day the spirit of everyone was bouyant. Parents brought their children with them so that they could experience the joy of voting and get their "I have voted" sticker. We were at a school which not only held their own election (Obama won) but also came to visit the polling place and see the actual process in action.
The only sad note of the day was that we were not busy. We had a high rate of vote-by-mail voters and the bolus of early voters and our turn-out was close to 80% by 5:00pm. This left us with little to do but wonder about the results.
One of the workers had a smart phone that allowed him to get CNN. We checked it during a lulls and were uniformly pleased to hear that Obama was winning previously red states. Our hopes were dashed for a bit when one of the workers came back from a break and reported that some blue states had turned red (wonder which station he was listening to?).
At 8:00pm it was time to break down the polling place so we had no more news. I was driving home at about 9:30pm and listening to the radio, not certain what the results were. When I heard someone mention an acceptance speech by Obama I couldn't catch my breath. The tears flowed like a a waterfall. When I pulled myself together enough to drive again I stopped at a local store to pick up the most expensive bottle of champagne I could find. When I took it to the counter the cashier said, "This is amazing. Everyone is celebrating." And she was right. All up and down Santa Monica Blvd. the energy was palpable. People were laughing and cheering and hugging one another.
I took my champagne home and turned on/logged on. I watched that acceptance speech and was both tearful, maybe a bit fearful but in absolute awe of the entire process.
I know that Mr. Obama will disappoint me and make me mad quite often over the next eight (8) years, but I also know that the mere fact of his election, the improbability of it, the intelligence of it, has and will move my country toward progress and hope FOREVER! I declare here and now, I am proud to be an American.