Yes We Can!

Photo: www.time.com
On November 4, 2008 we cast our vote for change! And what a refreshing surprise; the majority of our nation also felt it was long overdue. I cried with relief, triumph, renewed hope in America, as President-elect Barack Obama delivered the following words:

"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can." (The transcript of his entire speech can be found on ABC News, or watched on Youtube.)

Barack Obama will be our 44th President, and even as McCain's loyal followers "booed" Obama's name, McCain encouraged them to support our new President in making the changes necessary to encourage our future as a United States. The first African-American President...we have come SO far, and I am once again proud to call myself an American.

The radio is still talking about the masses of people, weeping with joy, across the globe, at America's choice for change. My hope is that this decision will send a clear message to the other parts of the world that we are fed-up with greedy politicians, that most of us are displeased with Bush's Administration and that he is simply not an accurate representation of the American people.

For myself and many of my family and friends, this landslide was not only the harbinger of change in America, but a demonstration of the evolution of humanity. We are not the ignorant "American bullies" that we have been represented as, and maybe now, this will begin the new age of consciousness so that we can get on the road to recovery with our foreign neighbors and begin establishing peace and respectful communication across the globe!