Wednesday, June 4, 2008

an emotional witness to history in the making

Last night, I was sitting on the floor near the TV. Jesse was laying on the couch right behind me. And Gracie-poo was laying on my belly and her tail was swishing about. Jesse was flipping the channels, looking for something to watch, while giving Gracie some love. And then CNN caught his attention. Wolf Blitzer was announcing BREAKING NEWS: Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Jesse and I knew that it was going to happen at some point. The AP reported during the day that Obama was officially the nominee. However, the Washington Post wasn't confirming it. Neither was CNN. So it seemed like every news source wanted to be the first to break this story, officialness be damned.

But as Wolfie explained the delegate math to me one more time and how Obama now had the required number of delegates, it really was official. And once that sunk in, I started to cry.

Oh hell, I'm such a sap when it comes to politics. But I seriously couldn't help myself. I was witnessing history. Even if he doesn't win the presidency (at which point, I will probably cry again), his nomination is an amazing event in American politics (disclaimer: had Hillary won the nomination, I would be writing a similar blog post). And I was here to watch all the drama go down and lead to this--a Black man as a presidential nominee.

So one day, when my beautiful biracial children start to get political (what's a good age to get them started? 5?), I can tell them about the biracial presidential nominee hopeful who started out at the bottom of the pack and somehow managed to win the nomination in the end (the story will have a much better ending if the nominee is elected president). It's an inspirational story that I hope my future children will find inspiring too.

Speaking of inspiring, this is from Obama's speech on race, 3/18/08 in Pennsylvania:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Maybe for one day, Dems, Republicans, Nader fans, whoever I'm leaving out, can we please just stop the fighting/debating/discourse for a second and appreciate how awesome it is to have a Black nominee for president?

Ok, maybe just another second....

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You may now resume whatever you were doing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While listening to NPR on the way home from work today and yesterday I too became overwhelmed with the fact that what's going on with the Democratic nominee is a major part of history. I think it shows, more than anything, how really, really ready America is for a change. And thank goodness, cause it's about damn time!

Anonymous said...

It is overwhelming. I am so afraid though that we are going to lose. clinton damaged him so badly. It's worse, I think, when someone of your own party throws the kind of accusations she threw at him. Everyone expects Republicans to smear him, say he is not ready etc. It has more validity coming from within the party. I started out respecting her so much; now i am very disappointed in her and actually actively dislike her. ~erika

an orange county girl said...

instatick--yes, america can change. and i think the fight for the dem nominee definitely showed that.

erika--actually, i think it says something that obama survived all of hillary's attacks. if he can take it from his own peeps, he can definitely take on whatever the GOP has for him.

however, i too am disappointed with hillary and the way her campaign was run. i think the mudslinging was unnecessary and over the top. towards the end, it reeked of desperation.