A Witness To History

[REPOST from my MySpace blog on Nov. 6, 2008]


Last night, over 70 million television viewers, myself included, were witness to United States history. More than 130 million cast their vote - the most voter turn-out for a U.S. Presidential election ever. Over half of that 130 million, again, including myself, can be proud to say that we helped make that history possible for this country, and for the man himself...President-elect, Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama. That may sound very strange to some, but to me, it has a nice ring to it. For nearly two years, Barack (and his family) endured an uphill battle, but with each speech he made, and with each ear that fell upon his eloquent and carefully-chosen words, it wasn't so difficult to imagine Senator Obama behind a podium adorned with the Presidential seal.

Last night, before the first polls began to close, I entered a chatroom entitled "Obama Victory Room," I believe it was. After visiting a few other right-wing rooms, and developing heartburn from all of the liberal bashers, I had to go to a room that sided with my thoughts and feelings on the evening to come. I needed to be in a more supportive environment.

The most striking thing I noticed was the overwhelming words of encouragement for America and Obama by people signing online from Australia, Wales and even Iran. They wanted us to know that the world community has not yet lost hope in the United States, despite the previous 8 years. They KNEW that we could do better, and were confident that we wouldn't let them down this time.

The world looked on as the poll numbers gradually came in, time zone by time zone. I was absolutely glued to the Election Mix channel on DirecTV -- 8 different election news feeds on one screen.

Talk about spoiled.

Before the last handful of states had reported their votes, LONG before the last numbers came in, everyone knew it was over for Senator John McCain. Heck, even as the night began, McCain rally goers weren't really expecting a win. The mood was rather stoic.

Between the Republican and Democratic chatrooms, I noticed one very distinct and disturbing difference -- many of McCain's supporters were making such untrue and cruel statements, such as not wanting to be associated with a "beggar class" party such as Democrats.

So it's a class system again? And Republicans are apparently the "elite class"?

Personally, I don't want to be associated with a party of bigots, racists and immaturity. I could be irresponsibly generalizing, but this is what I witnessed tonight in mass quantities. It quite literally brought the trash out of the woodworks.

Case in point... once the reality of an Obama victory was indisputable, we started to see an influx of people enter the chatroom simply to spout off hateful threats, generously using the term "nigger" in their copy-and-pasted drive-by's. If you caught John McCain's concession speech, I'm sure you recall the childish boo's in response to the mere mention of Obama's name. You also may recall the applause given at the victory rally when Barack congratulated Senator McCain for a campaign well fought. This is a fundamental difference I have seen time and time again between conservatives and liberals in times of triumph and loss.

Despite the remarks, there was an undeniable feeling of accomplishment tonight. Above everything else, it was major victory against the very idea that anyone other than a white man would sit behind that desk in the Oval Office. It finally proves that this nation is not just occupied by multicultural citizens, but will finally be led by someone who represents this diversity. Werd.


Proudly American,

Lynne