When I started writing this, the tears were just streaming down my face.
I want to be crying these same tears come November 4th. I will be up all night if I have to...waiting to cry them. I've wandered around Kos today and seen so many positive, upbeat videos and diaries. I've read about a daughter of a slave who happily voted by mail for Senator Obama.
I read about Charles, from Boulder, CO, who admits that he probably won't be around for the next presidential election, but who has lived to see THIS one. His pride in the young volunteers for the Obama campaign almost brought him to tears (and it DID bring ME to tears).
A "Mr. November" video at this diary for some reason, was the one that finally broke me down.
You see, I am somewhat of a political pragmatist, usually voting for the least of two evils.
My bi-raciality (that's my own word, just made it up) actually has made me try to be even more objective when it comes to this presidential race. I've wanted to be absolutely certain that I was voting for this man because of what he will do for America, and for no other reason.
Sitting in my seat at the Democratic National Convention, I cried when the Martin Luther King video played. You see, I was born in 1964, the daughter of a white mother who was disowned by her wealthy family for marrying my poor, black, artist, father. I grew up in Oberlin, Ohio, for the most part, a town that we were proud to say was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad, home to the first private college to admit black students. I've sometimes found myself overwhelmed at the sight of black and white people together at the checkout line in a department store, recalling the stories my grandmother told me about having to wait for all of the white people in the store to be served (even those who came in after her), before she would be served. I marveled at the reality that in such a relatively short time, a major party actually had a black man as a presidential candidate, and I watched others around me moved to tears at THAT.
I've wondered sometimes how life would be for me if I had been born in those times, and am happy that I was not. I vote in every election out of a sense of duty to those, black, brown, and white, who sacrificed and even gave their lives to afford me that basic right.
After having listened to our candidate and his reasoned, intelligent policies...after watching him gracefully deflect mudsling after mudsling with the truth and only the truth...I know that I am voting for him for all of the right reasons.
I can now allow myself to genuinely feel the miracle of the moment, and feel the joy of knowing that we are THAT much closer, as a nation, to eliminating the racial barriers that have played such a negative part in the shaping of our country. I can, without the much-hyped 'hero worship' that the GOP so roundly derides, look at Senator Obama and see that his candidacy IS tranformational, much as John Kennedy's was. I feel so much hope for our country .. that an intelligent, even-keeled, thoughtful, caring man will again be at it's helm...I can feel the celebration coming on! I feel so much pride in him, a man who could be what my own son will grow up into, someone I can point to and say, "Sweetheart, see? You really CAN be president!" Words really fail to describe the hope and joy that is finally starting to sink into my psyche. What an example we are making for our children, and what an example we are setting for the world. As Senator Obama so simply yet eloquently stated, "WE are the change we have been waiting for". From the very bottom of my heart and with all of my soul, I am happy and proud of everyone who has helped bring us to this moment, from the Freedom Riders to those who worked to desegregate our schools, from Rosa Parks to Dr. King...this candidacy shows every single one of my people that it IS possible. With President Obama's help, any of our children who are willing to study and work hard WILL be able to go to college and make their own bright, shining path. We are finally on the verge of becoming the country that our founding fathers envisioned, and for this, and for the hope that is being given to all of us, even the more cynical among us, I am profoundly grateful.