As I woke this morning to the fantastic news of Obama’s election I was, at first, speechless. It is only in the past hour that I have come up with anything worthwhile to say. It may be cheesy but, by God, it’s how I feel and I don’t care.
I didn’t sleep all that well last night due to two factors: one, my annoying tickly cough that won’t go away; and two, wanting to know the results of the election. I had planned to get up early today to see the results rather than wait up for what looks to have been an all-nighter. I was almost happy when my cough woke me at 1.30 this morning because I decided while trying to cool my throat with water I would look online to see what the results were looking like.
For you see, in the back of my mind, like that annoying cough that won’t go away was the fear that McCain might just pull it off. That we would be in for at least another four years of right-wing nuttery and hawkishness kept me awake last night. Just before I awoke at 6.30 to finally see the results I had a dream that McCain won. In that dream I sobbed…like a little girl…who had her toy taken away…by a bad man…named McCain.
I was so nervous as I got up, walked to the living room and opened the laptop. What was I going to see? My stomach was in my throat (along with the phlegmy cough) and I braced myself for the news. As soon as I saw Obama’s face and the headlines I shed a couple of tears.
I’m bloody exhausted from tossing and turning last night but I don’t care. It’s a new day for America and a new day for the world. Call it clichéd or call it kitschy but after eight years of Bush and many more years of racism all Americans, black or white, can now say “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”