Wide Awake in America

For the first time in quite a while, I've been rendered just about speechless.

I have no idea how to convey the enormity of what happened last night and how it changes the world we're all waking up to this morning. It is a seismic event that's wholly impossible to overstate and, as such, I have no doubt that I'm not the only one now poring through his thesaurus looking for a way to properly put into words what in reality can't be.

It's not simply that a black man has been elected President of the United States -- although that, even by itself, would be monumental. It's not simply the sound rejection by the American people of the unequivocal failure of the entire Bush era -- although that too, by itself, would be monumental. It's not simply the embracement of unabashed hope and unapologetic intellect and the elevation of their status -- nor the marginalization of the ignorant among us who have, for too long, seen their brand of divisive, fearful politics reach a level of ascendancy within our government and our culture. It's not the symbolism of this moment and its ability to, almost immediately, return America to its rightful place as the shining city on the hill -- the beacon of hope for the world -- nor the fact that in one fierce blow it has proven this country's enemies wrong, in staggering terms, about who we are and what we stand for.

It is, in fact, all of this -- and so much more.

What we witnessed last night and what we're still feeling the aftershocks of this morning is, in a word, history.

An epochal groundswell that wiped away the old and ushered in the new.

A singular moment that, years from now, will be looked upon as the line that divided the past from the future.

Yesterday, "change" was merely a word; today, it's something tangible -- something you can feel in the air.

Who would have thought that any of us would ever see a boisterous crowd gathered in front of the White House, demanding not the violent upheaval we've so often seen in other countries but instead celebrating the symbolic dragging of a corrupt and dying political era to the guillotine? Or the rising up of America's rural areas, cynically pegged as dependably intractable, to join with their metropolitan brethren to plead for revolution in one deafening voice? Or the next generation of Cuban-Americans in South Florida -- the children of parents and grandparents still aching from the loss of their homeland and still preaching a hardline ethos -- finally, respectfully, shrugging off the failed politics of the past? Or African-American men and women with tears in their eyes, holding their children tightly as they point and say, "See, that's what you can become."

Who would have thought that any of us would ever see a true citizen of the world become the leader of the free world?

The election of Barack Obama is a triumph of everything America stands for -- everything we are.

It is the perfect bookend to a dark period in our history, one that began with the destruction of our landmarks and the murder of our people and evolved to become dominated by a dystopian, funhouse-mirror government that was almost incomprehensible in its lack of principles.

And while the challenges ahead are still there, just as they were yesterday -- and though they remain daunting -- we go forward with a sense of purpose like none this nation has seen before.

Because after what we've witnessed, the history we've just been a part of, is there any struggle that's too great for us -- any obstacle we can't overcome?

No, there isn't.

Yes we can.

Yes we did.

Yes we will.

Now, let's get to work.