What Dreams May Come...

I am absolutely giddy so you'll please excuse any bad grammar or improper verb agreement. Today is not a day for my OCD. I write this early on the morning of the most momentous election day ever. I hope I'm writing this on the morning of the day when America really lived up to its potential and elected her first black president!

This isn't a racial thing in the way you may be thinking. I'm not saying that if John McCain were black I would have voted for him just as a thank you for 400 years of oppression. I wouldn't vote for a person based on race anymore than I voted for Obama when I still had Hillary as a choice. I'm rejoicing at the idea that Martin Luther King was right: the day really has come when a man is judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.

Imagine what this means! That someday, if a qualified person were to appear, we could have an Asian president, a gay president, a Hispanic president, a Jewish president or any combination/permutation thereof. I used to call presidential elections on the number of vowels in a candidate's name-anything too ethnic would never make it. Remember Dukakis? Or Ferraro? Guiliani? Yup, neither does anyone else. And with the notable exceptions of Kennedy and Eisenhower how many names can you recall that didn't sound like something out of the social register? I know "McCain" is an ethnic, Irish name but "Obama" is parsecs further away from middle-America's comfort zone.


Of course this means that we must stop counting on rich white folks to educate their kids properly just so we end up with a Chief Executive who has half a brain (the Bushes tried, I'm sure). We're going to have to start pumping real money into our public schools because maybe, just maybe, the poorest Dominican in Washington Heights really does have the same chance as the richest member of Skull and Bones.

Don't misconstrue: I always love my country. For the past eight years I loved her like the brain damaged trauma victim she's become. But today I feel something more. Pride I think it is. Pride in the ideals that make us different from every other place on the planet. The fact that reason, intellect and common sense beat out fear and cronyism and racism. Our founding fathers were nothing short of gods (albeit with clay feet) and perhaps we have finally lived up to the challenge of E Pluribus Unum-out of many we are one. And this is proved by the fact that we've chosen a person who exemplifies the diversity which makes us great. For the first time our president won't look and sound like a standard bearer for the priviledged few. We've gone and picked a black man with a funny name to represent us all and the world will take note that perhaps the teenage schoolyard bully has finally matured into its power. And to think it only took 232 years!

I've always believed that all people are created equal-I just don't think they stay that way. But this one event will do alot to level out the playing field in terms of how it will inspire a nation and generations of people heretofore marginalized. Today I believe that truly, anything is possible.

That having been said, if McCain wins I'm going to Mexico.