I Can Still Hardly Believe It

Last night, I stayed up waaaay too late watching the returns come in. They called Ohio for Obama with less than half the vote counted, and I didn't believe it would stick. They called Pennsylvania, and I didn't believe that would stick either. They didn't call Florida until 99 percent of the vote was counted ... probably a wise choice.

I remember 2000 all too well. I went to bed thinking Al Gore was my new president, and awoke to the nightmare of a Bush presidency.

The polls closed on the west coast, and the media called the election, and I cried. McCain conceded. I asked The Mate if that meant it was really over. I listened to Obama's speech, and I cried some more.

I went and woke up The Offspring to tell him the news. I wasn't sure if he really heard me, so when I awoke to go the toilet some time later, I told him again. "Mama, you already told me." This morning, I asked if he remembered that I told him in the night that Obama was president. "Yes, Mama -- twice."

Good.

Then I asked The Mate if Obama was still president-elect.

45 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Today we welcome, I dare to hope, a new era in which people will be valued for their talents, celebrated for differences in perspective and vision, but never again reviled because of the color of their skin.

2008 is not an end, but a beginning.