Last night I screamed myself silly and wept tears of joy until this morning I sound like a raspy old wino. No matter. Because every tear was for my mother and father—who didn’t make it to see this world event… the election of a man who was finally judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin. It said something so profoundly wonderful about this America… because not one group made this happen.
Seas of people, black, white, brown, young, old, straight, gay, rich, poor, educated, less educated, employed, unemployed—the gamut of the human Diaspora in a wonderful rainbow of hues and complex ideologies stood up together and said loud and clear and with authority—“Yes we can!”
I took that chant with me into the voting booth, a mantra in my mind… yes, we can be a better nation; yes, we can treat people better; yes, we can be better global citizens; yes, we can be our brother’s and sister’s keepers; yes, we can care about and feed the hungry; yes, we can do the unimaginable; yes, we can live up to our ideals; yes, we can fix this economy and put some justice back into the distribution of wealth; yes, we can believe that an African American man can truly love a woman honorably… and raise his children right, and call that classy, sexy woman, “First Lady,” without affairs and drama and madness and mess… yes, we can believe in a better future. So I wept.
I screamed and cried and did the happy dance in the middle of my floor. I blew up cell phones and landlines, talking on two phones at once. I wept and screamed and stomped like we’d won the World Series—because we as a nation have. I could feel the respect returning through the airwaves from other countries to soak into my skin—when I travel I no longer have to hang my head in shame as an “ugly American.” We have behaved badly abroad for way too long.
When I recently went to the Bahamas on book tour, the local folks repeatedly pulled me aside, anxious, and asking the question, “Do you think he will win? We are all so hopeful worldwide; we will come to Florida to help America celebrate.” This is what foreigners said about us here in the United States. They told me this in Customs. They told me this in cabs. They told me this in restaurants. They told me this in hotels. Everywhere we went, and my family can testify, since they too were there—people stopped us once they found out we were Americans and said how they wished they could vote with us to help the change come. I told them that I believed in this nation; that a chance was gonna come, as old folks say… could feel it in me bones, chile. So last night I cried while laughing and simply shaking my head. I felt so many emotions at once, it’s still hard to catalogue them, I’m still processing my own inner change and how I feel.
But most of all, I could feel the sudden sweep of joy-filled peace, that sort of supernatural peace that surpasses all understanding when I finally closed my eyes and laid my head on my pillow knowing in my soul… yes we can!
Much love, One Love, World Peace!
Stay in the Light… Hugs from Philadelphia, PA — A TRUE BLUE STATE!
***Leslie
