The Morning After

We did it. Oh, my gosh, we did it. Now what? Is there anybody else out there (other than, perhaps, our new president-elect) who is feeling nervous today? This is it, our big chance to realize a new America. Can we do it? I'm back at my desk today, filling in data. Will this be enough to make our world anew?

I must confess, I did not expect to feel quite this way this morning. All yesterday evening, watching the returns, I couldn't believe it. Might we really win this election? We, as in those of us weary of educational legislation that means our children do nothing but take tests; we, as in those of us weary of losing the goodwill of our allies in Europe, not to mention in the rest of the world; we, as in those of us weary of being lied to by those in charge of our financial system; we, as in those of us long skeptical of conducting a war in one place (Iraq) when our real enemies were still at large in another (Afghanistan); we, as in all those of us who, for the last eight years, neared despair and yet never threatened to "move to Canada"* because we still hoped that our country might yet realize the vision that we were born into back in the 1960s? But we did it. We won.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, eh? We don't have any excuses anymore. Nothing standing in the way of our hope for our country and our world. Except crushing financial crises, terrorists still at large, icecaps still melting, multinational corporations still vying for market share at the expense of our environment and the people who live in it. Oh, God, let our dream not die. We have this day won so much: a victory for all those of us who have dreamed of a society in which we might be truly color blind; a victory for those of us who believe that it is possible for anyone to become president, no matter his or her social background; a victory for all those of us who believe in these United States, not these Red States forever at odds with the Blue. We've got what we wanted: the world is watching.

Now what do we do?

*I know, I know, this is somewhat Donatist of me. Augustine would have something to say about this. It's a good thing for us that our president-elect is more Augustinian in his patriotic ecclesiology than I am. But, then, that's why we elected him, right?

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