I cried. I cried when John McCain spoke from Phoenix. He was gracious, eloquent and uncharacteristically warm as he conceded defeat.
I cried some more when Barack Obama spoke from Chicago a few minutes ago. It was an inspiring speech. When his wife came out and they embraced, I read her lips as she said, “I love you.”
What a wonderful night to be an American. What a transformational moment.
“Never,” was my father’s answer tonight when asked if he ever thought he’d live to see a black man in the White House. Never is a strong word. It’s a long way from never to where we are today.
I remember, probably when I was around ten, walking past the F.W. Woolworths in a little strip shopping center at Parsons and Jewel-a block from where I grew up. There were men walking in a circle, carrying signs. I didn’t understand at the time, but it was a picket line. The protest had to do with the Woolworths lunch counters in the south that would not serve ‘colored.” It was the beginning of the civil rights movement. It’s a long way from those pickets to where we are today.
We face immense challenges. Obama comes in off-the-bench with the team down a few touchdowns and time running out. I don’t know if he, or anyone, can get us out of our dilemma. We are in so deep.
Tonight, at least, there is hope.
The word is out. John McCain is 
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