Good for You America

It's been 12 years since I was happy with the outcome of a presidential election. Eight years since I was proud of our president. I believe in Hope; it's not a fanciful notion, it's an essential element to the advancement of all causes. It is the pilot light of the human spirit and it has been the missing element in America for too many years now.

If we're going to turn the situation around, we need intelligence, honesty, strength, perseverance, curiousity, collaboration, cooperation and guts. But without Hope, none of those other things will matter. For me Barack Obama represents the return of hope.

Update: Lincoln weighs in:

Second Update: Talking with a friend about the crowds of people that materialized in cities all over the country following the announcement that Obama had won. In D.C. a couple thousand people appeared in Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House chanting "Yes we can! Yes we can!" Here in Seattle people poured out of restaurants and bars and formed an impromptu celebratory marched that wound through downtown chanting and cheering. These people and those like them across the country were rejoicing. The country was rejoicing. And it occurred to me that, though I have heard of rejoicing, I have never experienced it before. I've seen the country happy, but I've never seen the country tumble out into the streets and spontaneously erupt in joy. What does that mean about what this moment means?