The Aftermath

Well, it was quite a night. And I was pretty close with my projection, though I got a couple of states wrong. 351-187 was the prediction, looks like the final tally will be 364-174, as Missouri is still un-called, but McCain will probably maintain his current lead.

Once the polls closed, and the networks released their exit polls, it was obvious that Obama had won Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, although the networks waited a couple hours to call them. So there was little suspense, little nervousness, mostly an emotional ride in the front row, witnessing history. Lot's of tears and reflection.

Reflection of being a young boy in Ormond Beach, Florida, where the blacks lived on one side of town, the whites on the other. Reflection of my realizing that, as i accumulated some black friends, that my families prejudices, and the prejudices of my friends were wrong, and we had to stand up and challenge that sort of nonsense. This was the late 80's, and it was still prevalent.

Finally a recognition that my kids don't know black and white. My kids aren't even feeling the historical implication of this election. Because as my youngest recently told me of a friend "She keeps telling me she's black and I'm white, but we're both brown. I am light brown, and she is dark brown". That's the future, and that's amazing. We made strides in the 60's, but those were legal strides, the divide was still there, I saw it in the 80's and the 90's. But my kids don't see it. So thier generation will be the post-racial generation, and we will finally be past all that in the near future.

I was getting a little disturbed about Obama hunkering down in Chicago since the election ended. But the 60 minutes interview put me at ease. He's not isolating, he's returning to family normalcy before the madness of the white house. Good on him.

I can't believe we did this. Yes we did. i am so proud of our citizens, i am so proud of our country. I wouldn't work for the military if i didn't love my country, because i do. but i have not been particulary proud of my country over the past five years. but i am there now.

God bless america. I am re-energized to work within the government to bring about the change our new Commander in Chief calls for. I can't wait.