This past July 18, my daughter Sovay Mandela was born.
Tonight, you people changed the course of her life forever, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Last July, I had no particular confidence that this election would turn out as it has. I remembered all too vividly what it was like four years ago tonight to sit in a Georgetown hotel room, staring in disbelief at CNN and frantically hitting refresh on Daily Kos, watching as America re-elected the current corrupt warmonger to the oval office. It seemed to me that given that unthinkable event, there was no depth to which Bush and his accomplices could not lead this nation - and it seemed that there was virtually no hope that decent human beings would ultimately succeed in wresting control back from the rightist thugs. So when Sovay was born, to say that I had trepidations with regard to the nation and the future she would inherit is a gross understatement.
Throughout this election season, I have been hesitant to be overly optimistic. If victory could be snatched from us so brazenly as it had been in 2000 and 2004, what confidence could I have that this time would be any different? I did what I could, within my limited means and abilities and the particulars of my circumstances (having a new baby on the way and/or in the house tends to limit your options, it seems) - I wrote my columns, argued with intractable friends and relatives, made donations where I could. But I didn't canvass; I didn't phone bank; I didn't solicit donations. In short, I didn't do the hard, grueling groundwork required to win an election.
But you people did. And not only did you do it, you did it brilliantly - and you made up for the comparatively lackluster contributions of me and others like myself who, however much they dreamed of an Obama victory, for one reason or another didn't get it together to contribute to it to the degree that I/we should have. And it's a marvelous victory, a seismic shift in the American political landscape, no less than the redirection of the American juggernaut away from the looming icebergs and towards a newer, brighter future.
But the big reason I'm grateful: You didn't do this for me...you did it for Sovay. She may never know enough about the realities of 2008 to truly appreciate your hard work and sacrifice. But thanks to you, her life is going to be better, her future brighter. She will grow up in a country transformed and renewed. And, fate willing, she will never know what it's like to live under a brutal and depraved regime such as that of George W. Bush.
On behalf of my daughter and the millions of other children like her: THank you all. Thank you so very much.