For the first time in eight years, I feel hopeful about the future of our country. I am thrilled with the historic presidential election results.
In his famous Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln urged every American to take on “the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced.” That work remained unfinished, though, for a century and a half. For despite decades of civil rights legislation, judicial interventions and social activism — despite Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther King’s I-have-a-dream crusade and the 1964 Civil Rights Act — the Civil War could never truly be said to be over until America’s white majority actually elected an African-American as president.
That is what happened Tuesday night, and that is why we wake up to a different country. Yes, the struggle for equality is never done. But we can start afresh now from a whole new baseline. Let every child and every citizen and every new immigrant know that from this day forward: Everything really is possible in America.
–Thomas Friedman, Finishing Our Work
It’s not looking so good for Prop 8 and Prop 4 here in California, though.
Embracing you as family on this night that uplifts and refreshes us for all the work yet to do. So glad that you share this magnificent motherhood and our daughters too.
I cannot imagine how exhausting a presidential campaign must be. I cannot but think being president will make that campaign seem, in memory, like a picnic.
I am so happy Mr. Obama won.
And because of what the people of your country have just done, I feel more hopeful for the future of our world. Thank you all. I awoke to a different world this morning, and all day, joy has been filling up my heart.
“Let every child and every citizen and every new immigrant know…”
Hear, hear!