History Happens

As I stood in a not-so-long line yesterday at the polls, I was thankful for many things: early voting, patient poll workers, and a mild overcast day. Others in this country were not so lucky. In Virginia, lines were 5-7 hours long and they were wearing heavy jackets to keep out the cold. In one state, people stood in the rain and dripped water all over their ballots.

I did have some qualms about voting with blurry vision. Hobbit chose yesterday morning to destroy my only pair of glasses. I suspected a Republican conspiracy. I tried to repair the damage. The glasses were bent almost double. He had one lens in his mouth when I found him. A nose pad broke off when I tried to bend it back into place. He had eaten the latex off one earpiece, leaving a thin, sharp wire. I managed to get the lens back in and the glasses twisted back to a resemblance of normal. They sit cockeyed on my nose and one lens is closer to my eye than the other. I wrapped tape around the earpiece. I considered shipping Hobbit to Texas, a staunch Republican state.

I watched NBC's wall to wall election coverage last night with Brian Williams at the helm. Tom Brokaw provided commentary that only a well seasoned journalist could of this historic event. The images of the crowd gathered in Chicago moved me to tears at times. So many hopeful faces, young and old, black and white holding their collective breath. The interviews with older black Americans were poignant. They were people who experienced the civil rights movement, marched with Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. and believed that indeed, they would overcome. Their only regret was that their parents and grandparents hadn't lived to see this day.

I didn't think I would live to see this day either. A person with dark skin and a distinctly foreign name, chosen to lead our nation. I listened to Barack Obama's acceptance speech and when he said "It's been a long time coming, but tonight change has come to America," I wanted to believe him. He brought his family out on stage and mentioned that accompanying them on their move to Washington D.C. would be his daughters' new puppy. No word yet on what that puppy will look like or where it will come from. I had some fun this morning imagining what housebreaking would look like in the White House. Picture several Secret Service types, scurrying to keep up with Mrs. Obama and her daughters as they rush the new pup outside for a wee wee break. I predict that the next four years there will be more laughter in that big house on the hill, than there has been since the Kennedy children ran through the halls.