A night I'll never forget!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008. I worked until 6:30 pm, it was already dark out side, but a beautiful 67 degrees as I walked out of the office! As I arrived home I heard the television set boasting news and early election information. There wasn't any numbers in yet, but shortly returns began as the polls closed on the east coast and numbers were coming in...McCain was ahead and the thought of a repeat from 2000 or 2004 was on my mind. Things began to shift in favor of Obama. We had plans for joining the Story County Democrats at a local bar, Legends, to celebrate, but wanted to wait until later in the evening to join the crowd. So we sat on the coach, both Dan and I with our laptops, flipping channels between CNN, MNBC, C-Span, and for laughs...Fox News while I was Twittering, visiting Facebook, and reading Huffington Post updates. It was quite the night. We arrived at Legends around 9 pm and the place was hopping already. Media were set-up, Dems were mingling and keeping an eye on the multiple television screens throughout the restaurant. The place really got excited as Obama started gaining over 100 electoral. When he went over the required 270 the place went wild! Claps, cheers, dancing, jumping...it was wonderful. Several of the local and state elected officials were with us, lots of hand shaking, back patting, and hugging going on. We couldn't hear much of McCain's speech, not that we really needed or wanted to, but the body language was loud and clear - "Get me the hell off of this stage." I don't think McCain ever wanted to win, I think his selection of Palin was intentional to cause him to lose...in addition to his own personal/political challenges. When Obama came to the microphone the place was silent. The establishment turned up the volume on all the television sets and folks stood watching. As he spoke tears came to my eyes, the kept coming and ran down my cheeks, neck, and dampened by Obama t-shirt. He spoke for all that haven't been heard before. Obama speaks from a position of understanding privilege, dominance, subordination, and oppression. He understands the lived experiences of many who have never had someone with positional leadership and power. The hope the exudes from Obama has been absorbed by many. This IS the time for change, for paradigms to shift, for the world to come together and care for each other first and compete with each other second. It was a night I will never forget. My hope and dream is that we all not let this feeling of possibilities slip from our hearts and minds.