OBAMA’S VICTORY IS ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE DAYS IN ALL OF AMERICA’S HISTORY
TO SEE THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO FILED INTO GRANT PARK IN CHICAGO AND TO SEE HOW PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD CELEBRATED HIS TRIUMPH WAS ONE OF THE MOST HEARTRENDING DAYS OF MY LIFE
THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAME THROUGH FOR ONE OF THE MOST INTELLIGENT, MOST MORAL AND MOST EMOTIONALLY MATURE MEN EVER TO RUN FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Yes we can! Yes we can! From the first time I heard Barak Obama speak, I heard greatness in his voice, and saw it in his presence.
When I read about his life’s story and watched him work in the U. S. Senate for the state of Illinois I knew that one day this bi-racial man whose father was from Kenya and whose mother was from Kansas would do great things.
I must admit that I was one step behind my son, Gavin, who was convinced from the beginning that Obama could be and should be president in 2008. He never wavered in his support or his confidence that in spite of Obama’s relatively thin resume, his brief service in the U. S. Senate and the racial bias that remained apparent in several portions of this country including my home state of Ohio and particularly in Ohio’s southwest portion of the state where I was born and raised, Gavin was steadfast in his faith that Obama could do it.
However, once I was convinced that he could defeat the Clinton’s superlative political operation, I became very active in his campaign both financially and professionally. Throughout the past two years I have written hundreds of letters, e-mails and op-ed pieces to newspapers and television and cable talk shows across the country; in the final weeks, my wife and I worked telephones on his behalf.
I have never had the luxury of living in a town that was liberal or Democratic, although I have been both a liberal and Democrat my entire life. I was shocked when I sent e-mails to several of my high school “friends” only to receive extremely hostile responses from people that I previously felt were rational human beings.
In these past eight years, I have alienated myself from people who I previously believed to be both friends and colleagues of the progressive agenda. Politics should not divide people, but I must admit that my anger at the Bush administration for it multitude of “sins” against the country, the constitution and the electorate itself often reached the boiling point.
And to be honest, I was very nervous in recent months that the Republicans would pull “on October surprise,” or some dirty trick for which they are well-known. McCain and Palin did throw the kitchen sink and the two-seater outhouse at Obama, but he did not respond in kind. He ran the kind of campaign he promised to run and the criticism he launched at McCain was based on the facts, the truth, and not some manufactured lie that was the substance of nearly all of the McCain television and radio advertisements.
Tears swelled up in my eyes as I watched the crowd gather last evening in Chicago’s Grant Park. Hundreds of thousands of people came together to celebrate the victory of their U. S. Senator and their hometown boy.
More importantly I cried profusely when I saw the masses of people gather in Washington, D. C. in front of the White House, most of the major cities throughout the country, but also in Kenya, Paris, France, and other major cities across the world. It was truly unbelievable. Never before has the election of an American president drawn such a worldwide response.
Candidly, I did not understand the criticism launched against Obama when he went to Europe and drew 200,000 people in Berlin and gigantic crowds in every city he visited. I was proud that at long last the world was once again full of pride for the United States of America.
This is one of the greatest days in our country’s history. We stared racism in the eye and defeated it. And the world will long remember that a solid majority of this great country is nothing like al Qaeda and jihadists think we are. Yes, we have a large number of people who continue to live in the past and we have a large number of ultra-conservatives who want to return to the “good old days,” but we have many more people particularly the young, the liberal Caucasians and the minorities who are not satisfied with the America Bush portrayed to the world. That world is not America and Bush is not an example of the American people.
I do not know how much of what Obama would like to do with American can be accomplished, but whatever it is yesterday, our electorate set the nation on a new path. God Bless Barack Obama and God bless the United States of America.
1:56:04 PM 
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