People were partying in the streets around here until 1AM, cheering and honking horns and drinking beer and celebrating. The excitement and hope, and restoration of dignity was obvious everywhere, and it was amazing to see and be part of.
I cannot count how many times in the past 12 hours I've heard or read "Finally I'm proud to be an American." At first I thought, "well, duh." I've always been proud to be an American, always, but perhaps I was proud of our history and the idea behind America (and my idea of America), not so much the people and policies of today. I guess this election has sort of changed that, now I'm genuinely, and completely proud of something that has happened during my lifetime.
But I think what makes me most happy is that people are proud to be American again. I'm just as excited and happy to see the 'racial barriers fall' (as the NYTimes headline puts it) as I am to see people have hope in our country again.
This is truly a great place, a great country, filled with great people and great ideas. It has always been, and I believe it always will be. I'm so glad that the people I identify with (liberals) can see this. I hope that as president, Obama will be able to live up to the expectations and needs of our country. And I hope this is a sign of even greater things to come, and not just a 'one step forward, two steps back' sort of thing, like Prop. 8 turned out to be.
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