Goosebumps

There are certain events that each of us bears witness to in our lives that we always turn around and say “wow, I never thought I’d see that”. Tonight was one of those nights. For me I’ve had two of those events in just a few years. Neither was impossible, but yet, neither seemed “likely” if thought about long in advance.  The first was the 2004 World Series, where, I got to witness an event that my father and countless others like him never got to see in their lifetimes. When the RedSox won that last game a new reality came over me as I realized that thousands of people had been born, lived their entire lives, and died since the last time anyone had seen what I was seeing. New technologies had been invented, gone obsolete and faded into the past, political movements had come and gone, hell, entire countries had come into being, and been removed from the map in the years between 1918 and 2004. It was one of the most profound, amazing things I had ever experienced.

Now, again, tonight we see another new reality forming. Barack Obama is the nominee of the Democratic party in the next presidential election. Barack Obama is an african american (or black, a person of color, whatever term you find least offensive when discussing race and skin color). I’m white, I’ve never been oppressed, neither have (to the best of my knowledge) my ancestors, and yet the pride I feel knowing that this man is the nominee of one of our major political parties, with an “even money” chance to be the next president, is overwhelming.

First of all, I never would have expected it. I never said anything like “are we ready for…” or anything like that, but ever since I was a kid when I thought of a president all I could imagine was a middle-aged white guy. Even people like John Edwards wouldn’t have come to mind when someone said “what does a president look like?”. Well, let me tell you what a president looks like now – find a clip of Barack Obama “working the rope line” after his speech tonight, and there you have it, that is what a president looks like. You might question if his experience is presidential enough, but you can’t question that this “skinny kid with the funny name and the big ears” at least looks the part.

I don’t know why I care so much to have such a pride filled emotional reaction, but I do. And I am filled with the audacious hope that in January we’ll see this new kind of president actually get a chance to do the job, to put his hand in the air and swear to faithfully execute the office, and cement this sea change in thought forever in the minds of the American people.

The world changed tonight, for the second time this decade, and by the very nature of this particular change, it may do it again in November, and yet again in January, how incredible that would be.