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Counting down to Nov. 4, I wondered what the election would be like. A big game, maybe? If my candidate didn’t win, would I sigh like I did when the Red Sox got booted in October? Would I lose sleep, something that’s only occurred thanks to a few episodes of “Lost”?
I woke up at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5. I slept like a baby.
America came together on Election Day for an inspiring voter turnout and chose the first black president – only decades after those without white skin had trouble getting the seat they wanted on the bus. I witnessed history from my living room.
“These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face,” McCain said in his concession speech. “I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together … Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans, and please believe me when I say that no association has ever meant more to me than that.”
We now face a new concern. Can the 55.7 million Americans who voted for John McCain – as of press time – get behind Barack Obama as our president? Can we go forward with a nation more unified than ever?
Two things are undeniable with our new president-elect. One, our image will improve after smoldering in the dirt worldwide during the years of George W. Bush. I’ve spoken with friends around the world in Austria, Italy, the U.K. and Spain who view Obama in a positive light, indicative of a rejuvenated, optimistic perspective on our nation.
Moments after CNN.com and The New York Times’ Web site began displaying massive Obama victory headlines, I searched the Internet for international newspapers. Web sites from papers in Germany, Finland and Sweden were also proclaiming Obama the new president in massive, triumphant text. This morning, an English friend wrote me a message reading, “good news for all.”
The second truth is Barack Obama symbolizes hope, and I think even the most cynical Americans should think twice before questioning the man’s commitment to such a positive goal, even if they don’t share his vision of what that “hope” means. He wants change. He wants to set things right.
“That’s the true genius of America,” Obama said in his acceptance speech. “That America can change . What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”
I have a poster of our next president above my bed. I want to wake up every day and see this poster as a symbol of hope, as a sign that this dark time in America was only a difficult dip in a steady, but livable, stream of ups and downs in our nation.
And if the times get darker, I want Barack Obama to be a bastion of hope for our future. I imagine my grandfather looking up to FDR as a child, or my uncle admiring JFK as a boy, and I hope I can feel the same way.
“While we breathe, we hope,” Obama said in closing. “And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.”
Zach Dionne is style editor for The Maine Campus.
