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We did it. We seriously did it. The reality of that is still setting in. For a few weeks I’ve been cautiously optimistic. I believed it would happen but there was still a tension when it came to it actually happening. I am not sure I even fully understand the importance of what America just accomplished. Barriers shattered. Lives changed. Not just here but all over the world. Children woke up this morning believing they could honestly be whatever they want to be, even President; Children that had no real belief in that yesterday. A man raised by a single mother and his grandparents, who lived on food stamps at one point, who rejected the high-paying jobs at Wall Street to become a community organizer on the south side of Chicago has risen to the highest office in the land. A long struggle for the African-American community has produced what may be written to be it’s largest victory to date. As I’ve seen on signs recently; “Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children can fly.”

I know that a lot has been and will be said about the power of this election for the African-American community. I don’t think I’m even capable of truly understanding what it means for a man like Jesse Jackson who was there when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. But I do know that for the people of all races gathered in impromptu street parties all across the country, and revelers around the world, this is bigger than race. Much bigger. This is about a nation making a clear choice between the status quo and a more progressive path. It’s about fear and doubt being defeated soundly by hope. It’s about validating President-Elect Obama’s statement that “nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.”

I also see it as at least a small defeat for negative campaigning. America looked at all of the mud and slime and lies that were thrown at Barack Obama and rejected every bit of it. Not just by a slim margin. Resoundingly. We have spoken with a clear voice saying, “Enough is enough!”

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