4 years in review

4 years ago I called my mother on November 5th and cried on the phone to her. I was devastated that Bush made it to the Presidency. Again! I felt robbed, cheated, disillusioned. It was just another example of life smacking the crap out of my hopeful optimism. I asked her, "aren't you just devastated?" to which she replied, "no, the person I voted for won." Double whammy. The woman that I looked up to for her level headed thinking, life experience, and reason had voted for an idiot! I couldn't believe that she had listened to me campaign for Kerry the whole while planning to vote for Bush. In retrospect I gained another level of respect for my mother because she allowed me to spread my political wings without stifling my views. (But I was still irritated that she didn't let me know she didn't feel the same as me so that I could convince her that I was right!)

This year I did not harp to my mother about who she should vote for or why she shouldn't vote for the other. Mostly this was because I noticed a slow change in my mother's view. She began enjoying comedians like John Stewart, shows like The Colbert Report, and movies like Religulous. I did call once during early voting and when I found out that she had voted I asked who she had voted for. She coyly said, "who did you want me to vote for?" I said, "I want you to vote for who you think would be the best at leading our country" in a very sarcastic, humorous way. Again she said, "who do you think I voted for?" to which I said, "Obama".
She whispered into the phone that she had in fact voted for Obama, but that if anyone at the office found out she might be fired. She said this half jokingly and half seriously. I asked her what changed her mind from a lifetime of republican voting to vote for a young, black, democrat. I rattled off a list of issues that have been batted about during the campaign, but she said that there was only one reason that she voted for Obama. She believes that if elected president both Obama and McCain will not live through the first term and that Palin is too much of an idiot to be trusted with such a high-stakes position. Thank you Palin.

This morning as I was driving to work and while I listened to all of the coverage of the post-election news I cried again. My tears were first from a sense of profound and overwhelming happiness that what I think is greatest about our country was illustrated by Obama's election. My tears were secondly from the dark, seizing fear that tightened the pit of my stomach. It was a wave of fear so profound that I almost had to pull over from the nausea. I am deathly afraid that some crazed hick from the sticks is going to harm Obama because of residual racist ideologies that are still rampant in places like rural Texas. I am not usually so religious, but lack the vocabulary to honor the spirits of the world so, I will use popular vernacular; please God, look over Obama and let him succeed where others have failed. Please bring the United States out of the downward spiral of hubris. Wishing you the best 4 years ever....Mel