feeling proud

I love the electoral process. Love it. I love the tacky, fragile poll booths with their old curtains, the ballot forms that look so serious, the heavy marking pens (such good quality pens), the little old people that sit as election monitors that act like they are at a funeral, that big metal box they put the ballots in, the stickers, the fact that my sister and I are still on the rolls right next to my mom (actually I think we're off the rolls this year). I love all of it.

Watching election coverage I can go either way. Tim Russert not being around is a bummer and I still remember Wolf Blitzer seeming like a complete idiot during the first Iraq War, so Wolf just isn't doing anything for me. This year though I sat at the TV and cried with Jesse Jackson, because it struck me that when my mom was 31 America wasn't ready for a black man to be President. When my grandma was 31, America wasn't really ready for black children to go to school. So I'm feeling the historical significance of a black being elected President of the United States of America. I promise you I like John McCain but my guess is that he is even just a little proud that the America he's fought for his whole life for is ready to elect a black man. That's why guys like John McCain fight, because the blessing of liberty is for every man, woman and child.