YES WE CAN
I am astoundingly proud and happy for my country right now, have been all week. Never in my life had I cried tears of joy over any political event.
Just think of what it means to have a president who says: "I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too."
And who invokes Lincoln:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
I hope that we can work together and keep our eyes on the greater good.
It means so much to realize that the work I do every day may soon be with the current, with the wind at my back, instead of against it. I barely know how to imagine a government that will take seriously its responsibility to the people to help make our home a more perfect Union - that will fund and support everything from universal healthcare to civil liberties to my humble piece: sustainable, human, locally-focused food systems. So much of the work that must be done will take place on a local level, and will demand commitment and effort from all of us for the changes to happen.
I hope that we can keep these promises.
The dark spot on all of this was Prop 8's passing in California. To discriminate against someone because you don't like how they live their lives flies in the face of American ideals. Whatever happened to liberty and equality? But I trust that tolerance and equality are on the winning side of history. And Obama may not be the gay rights champion we'd like, but I know he'll carry the ball a little further down the field.
I hope that we can carry this momentum forward.