God Bless You And God Bless The United States Of America

I cried like a frickin infant last night........and it was great. I had made a decision to limit how much television I watched, simply because I knew the pundits would be in mid-spin mode and I wasn't really trying to hear it, 'cause that was all I had been hearing for the entire length of the campaign and all it had ever been is speculation; I can speculate on my own, thank you. So, as soon as I walked into the house and my wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, trying to figure out what to make of the earliest of election returns, I stuck to my guns, hightailing it up to my bedroom and taking a short, well deserved nap. I dreamt of my grandparents and their insistence that I be aware of what was going on in the world around me and how important it was to vote and have your voice heard. In the same dream, I saw my pops, sitting on an overturned bucket in front of his house, grinning from ear to ear. He didn't say anything, he just sat there, seemingly taking the moment in.......right about then, I was awakened by shouts of joy coming from my living room. I grabbed the remote and turned on CNN and there stood Wolf Blitzer, stammering through the message he was trying to give: Senator Barack Obama of Illinois would be the 44th President of the United States. The tears came from nowhere, unexpected, urgent.....they ran down my face like they had been waiting to escape my eyes, and, now that I think about it, maybe they had......I had known it was possible, even probable that Obama would win, but up until that point, I had yet to brace myself for the impact of such a victory; I had yet to allow myself to comprehend what it all would mean to me......but there it was, for the world to see and know.....the candidate that I and millions like me had supported had won and for the first time in the 232 year history of this country, a man of color would assume the post of President.....and all I could do was to shed a few tears for the cast of my dream, my grandparents and my dad, and how much it would have touched them to have known that the work and the sweat and blood and tears of their forefathers was not in vain......I thought about the millions of folks that were new to the whole political process and how energized they had become in the effort to get Obama elected and how good they had to feel.....and then I thought about the process itself and the long journey taken to become the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D. C.....wow.....we have entered into a new era in our history and we have elected a man whose improbable journey carves an indelible mark in history books everywhere......we cannot squander this opportunity to do something different and better and we also must allow him the time and space necessary to unfurl his plan upon the landscape.......simply put, we have to let him do his job. Period. He's up for the task and we know he is.......we just need to pray that he has the strength and the support necessary to do what needs to be done. Thanks, America......God Bless Us All.