Glory, glory HALLELUJAH!

Yesterday, on a bright, sunny, unseasonably warm (high temperatures in the 70's!) and dry late fall day, what seemed impossible just a few short years ago became a glorious reality! America elected its first black President, Barack Obama, by overwhelming numbers! A mere four years ago, we'd never heard of this young man. He was an obscure State Senator from Illinois, but when he gave a stirring oratory keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, something amazing happened. America began to learn about this remarkable man of a multi-cultural heritage who has captured the imagination of so many of us. Even four years ago, people were saying he ought to run for President someday, so impressed were they by his oratorical gifts. And sure enough, from obscure State Senator to United States Senator, he now finds himself making history by capturing the highest prize of them all, the Presidency and the White House! He's young, he's charismatic, he's handsome and his entire family are very attractive and photogenic, and for many of us, he kind of reminds us of a black Kennedy family, youthful, energetic and calling on all of the better angels of our nature to serve our country and to help him to seek out answers to the myriad problems that the Bush administration will leave behind when it skulks out of Washington in a few months. Public service is suddenly cool again. People are flocking to find out how to go to Washington to offer their service to this country again. People are once again seeing government not as the problem, but the solution to our problems, and they want to help.

So this morning, a brand new day dawned in our world. We have the first truly global President and the air is filled with excitement and hope for a better tomorrow. There is a blossoming spirit of unity in our nation that we must now bind up our nation's wounds, put aside partisan bickering, care for them who answered the call to service to fight our country's battles and have come home wounded and in need of care for themselves and their families, repair our aging infrastructure, invest in new green technologies and use that to grow new high paying jobs for the future, and find a solution to the vexing health care crisis that constantly threatens to drown so many of us in medical expenses that are unaffordable. President-elect Obama has told us, time and again, and even in his acceptance speech last night, that the job of fixing what the Bush years have broken won't be easy, that we can't expect results in one week, one month, one year or even quite possibly one Presidential term. We must be patient and expect things to take some time to get done. We've had eight long years of autocratic, oligarchic rule, a virtual shredding of the Constitution, hubris, mendaciousness, and downright criminality in office by any number of people. Yesterday was a solid repudiation of the entire disaster of the Bush years and I am sure that history won't treat this outgoing administration kindly. But now we can look ahead to a time of hope, a feeling that maybe, just maybe, we saved our country yesterday by electing a solid Democratic Congress and a Democratic President with a mandate from the people for the change that he has so often promised these past two years on the campaign trail. A brighter day is ahead. A new America is possible. Hope has returned from its long, dark eight year hiatus. The sun has been shining unseasonably warm and bright all week, highlighting the brilliant late autumn golds in the leaves that are still left on the trees. It's a harbinger of what is to come, a golden, brighter future for America and for the world. Glory, Glory HALLELUJAH! His TRUTH is marching on!