Hope

Hi,

I've avoided political blogginess for the most part. I will share with you, and probably lose most of my readership, that I voted for Obama. It was not an easy vote. It was prayerful and thoughtful. I made a promise to myself to pray for whomever won the election. The following is an email I received from a dear friend. Mother of 6. Christian. Someone who is a contemporary of my mom's. Mother of a Marine. As I read her email, I found optimism and hope. Here it is in its entirety (and with her permission). BTW, after this, I promise not to mention the election again. Time to move forward. Soli Deo Gloria!

"I am sending this to everyone on my email list because even if you do not agree with my politics, I hope you can feel a little of my optimism for our country. Together we can do anything.

This night, November 4, 2008, is one incredible night for our country and I am so very proud of this country that I have been in tears ever since the announcement was made that Barrack Obama is the President-Elect of the United States.

First of all, I am overwhelmingly proud of my generation. We were the ones who supported the civil rights battles of the 1960s and cheered when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Our peers marched and rode buses and even died for those rights in the 1960s. Those of us who did not take such heroic parts in the movement still believed that race was not the determiner of a person's worth. And we now see the fruits of our beliefs: we are responsible for having taught our children that race is only skin pigmentation and nothing more. And our children and our nation has tonight become colorblind in choosing a leader. What an incredible accomplishment! Yes, I am proud of my generation.

I further realize now that my parents' generation realized the culmination of their teachings on the night of John F. Kennedy's election as that was the night that we, as a nation, said that religion would not be the deciding factor as to who would lead our country. My parents' generation had experienced the defeat of Al Smith for president based upon his religion (Catholicism) and with the election of JFK that obstacle was put aside. Still, we were left with the prediction: "never a Jew, a woman nor a black man (I think the word Negro was used then). And I was told by a rabbi whose children I babysat that he had voted for JFK in the hopes that someday Catholics would support a Jewish candidate. Tonight, we put aside one more of those obstacles and, perhaps, made the others less difficult to cast aside as totally unimportant when choosing a country leader. I look forward to repaying the rabbi's faith.

However, my feelings tonight are even more overwhelming. I have suddenly felt the return of the optimism I last felt when John F. Kennedy was elected president. I was a part of the younger generation then, too young even to have the vote as one could not vote until they were 21. Still, I felt like the world belonged to us and that this country and its people were so good and that they could solve whatever problems the world had. All right, that might have been a little naive and sophomoric, but, nevertheless, that is what I felt. Then, the tragic events of 1963 and 1968 stole that feeling from me. Despite my efforts, I could never quite retrieve it. I found myself listening to the cynical voices around me and resigning myself to the "adult realistic view" of the world. Even as this year's campaign for the presidency progressed, I surroun ded myself with that protective shield that said, "don't let yourself get too in volved because you might be disappointed." So, tonight, I started listening to the election results with a more "adult" view but as the results were announced and then, as I listened to Barrack's speech, suddenly there it was....the return of that great optimism. I felt this great overwhelming faith in the new generation; yes, the one the torch has now been passed to and I do believe that despite all odds, they will find a way to attack the many problems we now face and that our country will emerge once again as a great leader in the world and a champion of the needy wherever they might be. I think that Barrack Obama can and will lead this country towards that end and I believe that our children and grandchildren will make the world better for all of us. That is simply how I feel tonight and I quite frankly do not care who thinks that I am naive, simplistic, sophomoric or whatever other cynical label they can find to apply to me....becau se this is the best feeling in the world and one I hope will never again leave me. Thank you, God, for my tears.

Together we can!"