Change has come to America








Everyone knows that President Obama had a landslide victory at the elections, 364 electoral votes, 53% of popular votes, but what about the details?





I didn't understand the full magnitude and complete importance of the election results until I bought a commemorative issue of TIME before my 6:50am flight back from Kuantan. As I read the article by Nancy Gibbs on page 22, I could literally feel the hairs behind my neck rise going through the amazing account of the historic win.




Here are some excerpts:



"Remember this day", parents told their children as they took them out of school to go see an African-American candidate make history.



Early-voting lines in Atlanta were 10 hours long, and still people waited, as though their vote was their most precious and personal possession at a moment when everything else seemed to be losing its value. You heard the same phrases everywhere. "First time ever." "In my lifetime." "Whatever it takes."



When it was over, more than 120 million pulled a lever or mailed a ballot, and the system could barely accomodate the demands of Extreme Democracy. Obama won more votes than anyone else in U.S. history, the biggest Democratic victory since Lyndon Johnson crushed another Arizona Senator 44 years ago. Obama won men, which no Democrat had managed since Bill Clinton. He won 54% of Catholics, 66% of Latinos, 68% of new voters - a multicultural, multigenerational movement that shatters the old political ice pack.



When the race was called, there was a rush of noise, of horns honking and kids shouting and strangers hugging in the streets. People danced in Harlem and wept at Ebenezer Baptist Church and lit candles at Dr. King's grave. More than a thousand people shouted "Yes, we can!" outside the White House, where a century ago it was considered scandalous for a President to invite a black hero to lunch.



He won women without the help of women's group, blacks without the help of race pols, and that golden snitch of American politics, the youth vote, whose presence not only gave his campaign a feeling of hope and energy but made old people feel younger too.



Amazing, isn't it? Many people's dreams came true today. Hope, change, a better tomorrow.



Let's pray for Obama and work with him!

"This victory alone is not the change we seek," he challenged the nation on Tuesday night. "It's only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you." ~ President Obama