Thoughts on Obama Victory

(I found this awesome pic of Barack Obama on the Flickr website at the following location.)

Let me take a few moments to reflect on Barack Obama winning the Presidential election yesterday.

I agree with everyone that this is a great moment in American history. It really is. Prior to this year, I honestly never really thought we would see a black President in my lifetime but I am so happy to live to see this day. Just to be fair, I should say that I did vote for Hillary in the primary and I did hold out to the end of her campaign to support throw my support behind Barack. I had my doubts about him. Until more recently, I never really saw the Obama movement in full force. Then the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger. In St. Louis 100,000 people came to see him. In Berlin (Germany), 250,000 people! Last night, over 250,000 people came to see him deliver his victory speech in Chicago. Awesome. Just awesome.

To be honest, I feel like I underestimated the idea of an Obama Movement. I never really considered it a movement until I saw the crowds. They adore this man. They see him as a symbol of all the things that America can become. Last night, I realized it when someone on the news started talking about how this was the first time since the Civil Rights Movement that young people got together and tried to create change in the country. This time however, they didn't try to create change outside the system, they did from inside the system. They used the democratic process against the establishment. What a beautiful thing. Perhaps this is all fantasy and nothing will ever happen, but let me believe it for now because it feels great. Part of me feels good b/c finally we get what was taken from us 8 yrs ago when we were robbed in 2000. We will never get these past 8 yrs back but maybe we will be able to fix what went wrong.

Finally, I am now ready to openly admit that during the past several weeks as election day was coming closer, I too started feeling like I was getting swept away by the Obama Movement. I will call it a movement because its just as much about the idea he is selling as it is about him. That's the beauty of the whole thing. It's an idea. The more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I become.

But in the next breath, let us be real about one thing - he has a lot of work to do. I hope he is up to the task.