We Have A Chance, President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama
I was so incredibly happy (relieved, really) to wake up this morning to the news that Barack Obama had won the election. Thank God, and I mean that in the most literal sense.

After living through the 2000 and 2004 elections, I feared that McCain and Palin could persuade a lot of Americans to vote with fear, rather than with hope. They didn't succeed, good for you, America!

It's a good feeling to know that we have a chance to get our economy back on track. And to get people fed, sheltered, employed, educated and maybe even afford them the opportunity to see a doctor when they need to - wow, what a novel idea in the most wealthy country in the world. Maybe we can restore some of civil rights. Maybe we can really, truly devote some time, attention, and money to find something other than oil for our energy. Maybe we can start leading the way to help save our environment for our childern's children and their children's children. Maybe we can really, truly end the war in Iraq and bring our Soldiers home to be with their families and loved ones. And maybe, just maybe, we can find bin Laden and his thugs and end that mess in Afghanistan too.

I have hope for all of this to happen, but I know it will take time. It took (at least) 8 years to get us into (most) this mess, let's give Barack Obama some time and support to help get us out of the mess.

Over on thedailybeast.com, there are a couple of really good articles/blogs. The first one, from Politico, talks about "How He Did It". It says, "Last night, Barack Obama became the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to win a majority of American voters. How’d he do it? “With the near unanimous backing of blacks, the overwhelming support of youth as well as significant inroads with white men and strong support among Hispanics and educated voters,” according to Politico." Perfect.

The other blog is what I alluded to in the second paragraph (of this entry). It deals with the 9/11 fear. It's called, "The End of the 9/11 Era" written by Ezra Klein. He said, "Obama robbed fear of its ability to work through quiet insinuation. He forced America to confront its own subconscious. Obama actually is black. His middle name actually is "Hussein." He actually does know William Ayers. He actually was married by Jeremiah Wright. He actually had lived in Indonesia. These were not smears, though they were often used as such. They were facts.” And yet America overcame them, emerged from the clouds of 9/11: “Fear proved but a temporary detour from our history’s long arc toward justice." That's beautiful.

God bless America and God bless Barack Obama! And I mean that (again)!