Maybe it's not too late

As I heard the last words from John McCain’s concession speech, I literally felt a burden lifting. Senator O’Bama’s acceptance speech was wonderful, but not nearly as wonderful as going to bed for the first time in almost 8 years with a pride in my country. I had forgotten what it felt like. We had been looked at so badly for so many years—stereotyped behind a man who seemed to adhere to no party, no principles except himself. Capitalizing on his oil background, a reactionary to everything that happened, he embraced nothing but the cult of GW and it was the scariest time I can remember. We lost 8 full years of working on global warming, 8 full years of working on stem cell research that could have save the suffering of thousands, 8 full years of ignoring the fact that we are a part of this world and its people, 8 full years of allying ourselves with anyone who took the label democracy, 8 full years of working on health care reform. We can’t get those years back, but at least now we have committed ourselves to tackling the issues with the rest of the world. Maybe it took 8 years of that to finally grow up and decide to take our place as citizens of the world, not just citizens of a country. Maybe it’s not too late.