Tonight we witnessed History in the making. I never thought I’d see the first black president of the U.S. in my life time. I thought I’d see a woman perhaps. But even then, I expected that not to occur until 2020 or beyond. This evening I keep thinking about my son and what he will see in his life time. What will he think about this day when he looks back in history. It is for him that I write this entry to our blog. So he has some understanding of what his Mom and Dad thought about on this night.
SirEvil and I planned on sitting for several hours to vote. Experts at NASCAR tailgating, it was easy for us to plan on sitting and waiting. We packed our chairs, umbrella and entertainment and headed off to vote at 7:30am. But when we arrived, there wasn’t a long line outside the school as we expected. We decided to check out the line before unpacking. We went inside and we were directed to several lines based on our last names. My line had 2 people standing at the check in table. His line had about 30. We were pleased that our wait to vote wasn’t going to be long. All in all, we were in and out in about 30 minutes.
Perhaps one of the reasons was because we had no additional measures on the Virginia ballot. The only choices were for the Presidency, Senate and Representative. 3 choices we had already decided on before we reached the poles.
With all this extra time on our hands we out on errands. The electricity of the day was everywhere. People were asking”did you vote yet?” “How long was your wait?” We ran into people who were in and out like we were, but most of those were from our area.Just one town over (20 minutes away where we do our errands) we talked to several people who waited 2 hours in the rain to vote. The biggest message was, people waited, and they waited in the rain.
On the way home I mentioned to SirEvil that the world felt different. It was nearly 2pm and there was just a feeling that a major shift had or was taking place. It wasn’t just a personal feeling, something that would affect us and our personal lives. It was a real shift in energy that was global, cosmic even. A change in cosmic consciousness.
Back at home,the poles began closing at 7pm and we of course tuned into CNN and NBC. Switching back and forth between channels looking at returns for our state and the entire country. Of course our 3 issues for the presidency, the new state senator to replace John Warner’s seat, and the House of Reps seat held by Eric Cantor were on our minds. Neither of us wanted Cantor. He voted for the infamous $700 billion bail out package. Boo, hiss!
The first returns for Virginia were a win for Mark Warner who took John Warner’s seat. Appropriate, even though they’re not related, and from different parties, it was a good change. But we lost on the vote against Eric Cantor. He keeps his seat. Boo, hiss again.
The vote in Virginia was too close to call for Obama or McCain. It wasn’t until nearly 10:45 or 10:50pm that CNN projected Obama as the winner in Virginia. Then they declared him the winner in Ohio. They waited until the poles closed on the west coast and in Hawaii at 11pm our time; then they projected Obama as the winner for President at 11:04pm.
It was chilling and exciting all at the same time. That shift in energy earlier in the afternoon was definitely related to the election. But I don’t think we really realized how big that was until CNN and NBC covered the reaction not only here in the U.S. but around the world. Kenya, where Obama’s father was born and raised declared a national holiday in celebration.
Parties and celebrations broke out through out Europe as well as here in the U.S. The impromptu celebration at the gates of the White House was a perfect example of how excited most Americans were at the news. A career Secret Service Agent mentioned to a reporter that he had never seen anything like this in all his years of service at the White House.It was definitely an amazing coming together of emotions, energy and excitement throughout the world. And that alone gives one hope that perhaps the Universal Divine consciousness of all has shifted to a higher plane of coexistence.
CNN covered the crowds, spoke to anyone they could find. Jessie Jackson was captured in the crowd in Chicago where Obama was going to speak. He was shown crying for joy, but I must say there was something ‘staged’ about it to me. Jackson had made some pretty vile remarks about Obama during this election cycle, and it was some what disingenuous to me. They interviewed Oprah and it was interesting to hear her remark about a change in consciousness. SirEvil immediately said “That’s exactly what you said earlier today”. It’s nice to know it wasn’t just me.
We both had our own reactions to the historic news. SirEvil said seeing Jessie Jackson choked him up and even he shed a tear. For me it was seeing the tears and joy of people in other countries. I knew electing Obama would be a big step to returning respect to America’s reputation.But I didn’t think it would occur in one night.That alone is what causes me to tear up and cry for this election.
We of course watched McCain’s speech and I thought it was thoughtful and gracious. Nothing like his speeches during the campaign. Had he come to the podium with that humble attitude during the campaign, perhaps the election would have been closer. But even in his speech, there were remnants of hate mongers and bigots in the audience shouting out their ignorance that had been so cultivated by McCain and Palin during their campaign. What lost their effort was the hate they generated out of ignorant bigotry, the lack of understanding of what Americans were going through on a daily basis, and the fear factor of Palin possibly being in the oval office. In my opinion, the decisions of the campaign showed the lack of confidence and stability that we need right now in our President. From the choice of Palin,to the remarks about the economy, McCain lost this election. One can try to blame it on the Republican party being in control in the White House, or the financial crisis. But a good candidate could over come those blocks and still make a good run.
Obama’s acceptance speech was also gracious. But it also reached out across lines to those very people who were against him. He accepted them for their views, said he would listen to them, and that he wanted to be their president too. That we have an opportunity to reach across the isle and work together to repair the reputation of the country and the lives of all peoples. His speech was extremely inclusive and not just for Americans, but for the world. While he added comments of the American resolve to stand up against in justices and terror, that sign of strength wasn’t as ‘threatening’ as the rhetoric made by Pres. Bush. While it was strong, it wasn’t antagonistic. I think that’s the biggest difference between the old line of politics and the new. You don’t have to scream at your enemy to scare them. Doing so causes you to appear out of touch, or crazy. It doesn’t instill fear, but rather disdain. Obama’s strength is quiet, thoughtful and that should be more frightening to our enemies. Don’t fear the muscle bound monster, fear the intelligent soldier. It’s brains and not brawn that will win a fight.
But his speech, the night and the result of the election wasn’t about terror and strength. It was about hope, healing and bringing America back together again as one people and not as a divisive nation. Divided we fall, Together America is the greatest country on earth.