Yes We Can!

What a tremendous night it was! I came home from voting feeling like I was setting up for a New Year's Eve party. Wil and I had invested so much time and emotion in this campaign, particularly the last six months, that the arrival of election day left us electrified and "giddy"!

We had the TV and two laptop computers tuned to the election. On CNN.com, we had several tabs open to the election results features. The electoral vote calculator was engrossing--playing with the states, predicting which way each state could go and how it would effect the election. By about 9:00 p.m., every calculation I made left me stunned by the inevitability of Obama's win. It became clear that even without a few eastern states that had not tallied yet, Obama would win when the west coast closed.

Minutes before 10:00 p.m., CNN announced that the west coast would be closing and projections would be made. At 10:00, I heard that the polls had closed, and suddenly the TV went CRAZY! CNN was flashing "Obama wins the presidency!" I couldn't believe my eyes--that it was over, that it was true, that Obama had indeed WON!!!!!!!!!

Obama's speech was exactly what I have been longing to hear a President say, that ideals like diversity, honor, dignity, caring for people's basic needs, could be real. I've wanted to hear that real people of all walks of life deserved respect and that we could all come together to renew pride in America and return dignity to all the people with deep social and financial needs.

Barack Obama has renewed my passion for this country, and I am ready to get to work to help make the change we need to see!