No Madam Mossfern..I will not aim a mortar at you

[ChipperbackDemocrat]

But you cannot discount the deeper meaning of Barack Obama's win to me as a black man.

Tuesday night, I was at the house of a good friend surrounded by many friends and co-workers, mostly black..all of us under 40, many of us under 30.

As the night progress, you could see the tears and the smiles grow with each projection in Obama's column.
My grandfather said this is what he felt the night Joe Louis beat Max Schmieling. He said this was the pride he felt when Jackie Robinson took the field for the first time.

My mother saw the grainy images of nine schoolkids in Little Rock. She saw the sad images of four little girls in Birmingham.

She saw the dream take shape on the Washington Mall. That is what this November night was like.

Barack Obama for me was a culmination of things I never got a chance to witness, and things I did. This was Guion Bluford boarding the Space Shuttle. This was Doug Williams in Super Bowl XXII. This was seeing Andrew Young as an ambassdor and a mayor. This was seeing my second cousin proud and unbowed in Nebraska's Unicameral.

This was Lewis Hamilton a few days before, at the top as World Champion. And I shed tears for that, too.

It was sharing tears with Jesse Jackson. Remembering when he marched in my neighborhood in 1984 as he made his run for the Presidency. That run put the idea in my head, that maybe, someday in my lifetime I will see this. I just didn't expect it to be so soon. :)

What seeing "Barack Obama WINS!" poping up on every metwork was for me was the grand culmination of all the "firsts" I've seen in my young life and all the firsts and struggle that my parents and grandparents saw. For me, I can concur with Whoopi Goldberg, "I can finally put my suitcase down."

It also joyous because, we are running out of all these firsts! The progress is being made even in spite of all the resistance to the new day, the new day is dawning. The new day is here and that genie is now out of the bottle and its never going back in.

I understand where you are coming from. We have solid competent, intelligent leader running the ship. But please consider as we have passed the torch to a new generation of Americans, we've also passed the torch to a new way to think and a new way to see. We have closed a the book on what the "limits" are. We've taken away some power from the word "CAN'T". We've taken away some power of reactionaries who seek to sow division between us all. That is something worth celebrating.

[secondwind]

1. your eloquent post is worthy of K&R......

[babylonsister]

2. Recommend-excellent!

As a middle-aged white woman, I cannot share your experience, but would be happy to share your joy, because it is mine, too.

[blondeatlast]

3. Word, word, word! Thank you for saying what I was feeling! The best man won--

he just happens to be a member of a group that has been denied opportunities to lead.

Bravo!

Edit: Very proud to get this to the "Greatest!"

[blondeatlast]

4. We are running out of these firsts!" It can't come soon enough, but in the meantime,

those firsts are worthy of celebration.

Thank you again!