Victory

Obama projected to win. This goes a long way toward undoing the angst I felt 4 years ago. We are a little closer to the country we should be now. We have elected someone who deserves to be president - Obama has been a superb candidate, and I see no reason not to expect him to be a very strong president. But the historical stuff - there's no denying the fact that America's treatment of Black people has been a disgrace. Slavery was a poison on our revolution, a poison in the country for the next 4 score and 7 years, cause of the horror of the civil war, which we are still suffering from. And we've only really started fixing that stuff in the last 45-50 years. Race is at the center of what has always been wrong about America - a point where America diverged from what it said it was. Our record on race has made mockery of our ideals. But we have gotten better - and this is a big big step in getting better yet.

It's thrilling. This is what America should be. This country is a mongrel country - we are many races many backgrounds many languages, many everything. It is thrilling beyond words to see how this has come about - the across the board support for Obama - taking back states won by the GOP recently, winning support from all kinds of demographic groups - it's wonderful.

And so? I am going to watch a bit more of this celebration, wait for Obama to speak... we're past McCain, conceding at the earliest possible moment - and doing so in an utterly gracious way. Now it's John Lewis expressing his astonishment at the changes he's seen in his life. It's something.