Voting History, Voting Hope

"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired...Nobody's free until everybody's free..All of this is on account we want to register [sic], to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?"Fannie Lou Hamer,1964

Traditionally in contemporary American politics primary campaigns have been more of a yawn and less of an awakening. Who cared? Who actually went to the polls? Who watched debates? Network television barely covered nominating conventions. This time, this year, this election, has been to say the least a whole new ballgame in American political history. For a political junkie this has been the World Series, the Superbowl and the NBA finals rolled into one. For a woman who has never questioned that a woman's place was in fact in the House and in the Senate, this was a time that was long overdue. For a student of history, 44 years after Fannie Lou Hamer's stood with her Freedom Democrats and challenged Mississippi's all white delegation to the Democratic convention, this was as if a very old window that had been nailed shut has fallen off its hinges and blown open by an insistent breeze.

Tonight after 16 months of a campaign that people actually cared about,actually showed up for, actually watched and participated in-after a campaign during which extraordinary numbers of people got involved and voted, many of whom had never been interested, involved or even voted before, Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, achieved enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Barack Obama's story is an American story...so is Hillary Clinton's, and that is why so many cared, so many came and listened and voted. The irony of course being that the challenge to Hillary's campaign has been a candidate that she and her husband had embraced and would have under any other circumstances stood proudly to support. Barack Obama became the surprise obstacle in her way. As wonderful as this campaign has been to watch it has been tough to see the two lights of hope and change, the two individuals who could make this country care again, and believe that we can reinvent how this nation works, go against one another.

On this historic night when the first African American candidate has earned enough delegates to be the nominee, and the first serious woman candidate has 18 million reasons to believe there is more she has to contribute, there is a decision to be made from both campaigns. A decision that can determine whether all these many months have truly meant the change they put forth. The numbers are still very close and it is obvious Hillary Clinton has not been defeated but rather has earned an opportunity to graciously secure her spot as a leader in her party and to play a vital role to ensure the issues she passionately cares about be realized.

For many the decision as we stood in voting booths across this country was a tough one to make. For me as a woman, not to mention a Wellesley alumn, my first opportunity to support a woman for President, an extraordinarily capable and gifted woman who has devoted her life to public service and the cause of children, was a long overdue moment. A moment that became a dilemma. I chose to support but not to vote for Hillary, that was hard. Barack Obama "had me at Hello" four years ago at John Kerry's nominating convention. I grabbed the phone and called a friend and said "you have to watch this guy...he is amazing and he is going to be President, he has to be President". In a time of enormous pain and disillusionment, this man, this skinny guy with the funny name, is building a new boat on which this country can sail.

There will be those who belong to a time, a time that we need to study and learn from, that will not vote for an African American. One can only hope that they will listen. Listen to the voices of America today and realize that we have never been in more pain as a nation, and hear that it will take a voice that sees the challenges and remains hopeful anyway to find a path to change. That path cannot be forged from old bricks.

I love and respect history. I even respect John McCain's history. At this place in time,however,we can learn from history but we cannot repeat history , nor can we do what we have always done..it simply does not work. Throwing old solutions at a new world, a world that looks with anger not awe, a world that challenges not follows, is a mistake we cannot make.

Yes this is an historic night, an historic time, but this nation needs to be led by new strength and new eyes that see where we have come but will not look back and will not carry the old trunks on the new journey. Barack Obama is an historic candidate without a doubt, but we are voting for a leader not an icon. He will carry the burden of being the "first" but just maybe he will be the "first" to get it right.

Barack Obama will be nominated 45 years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his best known speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...

This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. Martin Luther King Aug 28, 1963