This historic moment is not by accident--the people of DailyKos have played an instrumental part in bringing it about and the rest of the diary is my attempt to thank all of you for what you have given me and, I think many others.
Tomorrow morning I am going to see Barack Obama at Memorial Coliseum in Portland. It is a great time to be a Democrat and what a great time to be here on this site.
About three and a half years ago I started lurking dailykos because I saw it on another webpage and got curious. At the time I was severely depressed about the country; I felt that no options were left, that we were under a fascist regime to be permanently held through fraud and deception with the complicity of the media. I was initially too scared to actually join because I worried about whether the government was watching. This may seem strange but I work in a field, with the sort of people to whom progressive thought must be expressed only quietly, sotto voce, only to selected people. But I started reading here, and I gained hope, and I gained courage by knowing that you, yes each and every one of you that I read here, were out there and proud, saying the things that needed to be said, and letting me know that I was not alone.
Over the time I have been here as a member, there have been many differences, but to all of you who support Hillary, and all of you who support Obama, and to all of the Edwards supporters, I want you to know that you have all made my life better. Even through the disagreement and carping, you have become my community, the people I depend upon for the diversity of opinion that slowly reveals truth through what the Greeks called the wisdom of the Agora. You were the people who get me through days when I would otherwise despair at the possibility that the majority of America just doesn't care enough to save those things that we should hold to be sacred: our rights, our liberty, our freedom of expression; legal and economic justice and equality; and the sanctity of the lives of those less fortunate than us both at home and abroad. You have upheld my belief in America,that there are still those who will fight for the founding statements in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal and possess the inalienable rights to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So I am going to a rally for the first and only African American/Kansas/Kenyan/Hawaiian/White guy ever to have a real shot at the presidency of these United States of America. And it makes me proud. Proud of America, but also proud of the genius of the moment (Germans would call it the zeitgeist) that has been generated in no small part by this website. I feel genuinely that you here, all of you, HRC and BHO and JRE supporters have helped to make this moment, a moment when we had a field of progressive candidates, possible in American history.
Hope starts as a small voice that calls a few who then call others.
Thank you so much