I didn’t have to stay up late last night after all. Not even two hours after our polls closed, even though N.C. was too close to call at the time, it was apparent who our next president was going to be. Our phone started ringing. You’d think it was Christmas. I felt like crying but squealed instead. We giggled a lot. But part of the time, we were somber even melancholy. We thought about our parents, grand parents and great grandparents who would never have believed this day would come.

It should not have mattered in the first place, it shouldn’t have been an issue, but damn, a black American is finally in the white house! I’m at a loss for words… It’s hard to describe how much pride I’m feeling right now. How much more the people I love? They who lived through segregation? They who couldn’t get a drink of water because they had a touch of black? They who couldn’t vote and were persecuted for wanting to vote? They who suffered unspeakable humiliation just for existing?

It’s not that a dark skinned person is finally president of this country, it’s not that that makes me happy. I am happy and I am hopeful that maybe there is a chance for people to change after all. I am hopeful that the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King’s talked of, of not being judged by the color of one’s skin, is finally sinking in. I think a lot of the celebration going on last night is not about having finally got one of our own in there, it’s that finally, we are being judged by the content of our hearts and mind rather than the wrapping it came with.

I was late coming in to work this morning. No, I didn’t go vote. I did that two weeks ago. I was late because I was watching Senator Obama and his family vote. I don’t know why, it just felt to me like I was watching history. I guess maybe I was. I know I was.

I was just thinking how proud my step-dad and my mother-in-law would be at this moment if they were still with us. I think this is a moment they never even thought would happen. It didn’t happen in their lifetime, but it did for their sons, their daughters and granddaughters. I am sure they would be beaming today.

The girls are off from school today. Durham schools have opted to give them the day off since most of the polling places here are in public schools. With the anticipated record breaking turn outs, it would have been a nightmare to have regular school session. Some people think the kids should have been left in school so that they could be witness to the voting process and the excitement that this particular election is generating. I think that the kids already are aware of the significance of these elections. My daughters (10, 15, & 16) actually watched the debates. They get the Saturday Night Live jokes. They discuss politics with their friends. They even argue about the issues. When I was that age, I didn’t even want to watch the evening news. So yeah, I think they are very aware of what’s going on. They have been going with us to vote since they were babies. And when they got old enough, they even voted in the ‘Kids Vote‘ corner of the voting center.

There’s less than two hours left before the polling places here in North Carolina close at 7:30 p.m. So there’s still time. If you’re in line by 7:30, you have the right to cast your ballot. GO VOTE!

Me, I’m going home to watch the numbers. Here in the East Coast, we’ll have to wait until 1a.m. until all the polling centers across the country. I hope I can stay up that late. Maybe I’ll be late again tomorrow morning. 

In case you didn’t see it this morning, here’s a video of Obama voting. He is so cute with his daughters.

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