omg... omg.... omg!

Students at Spelman College celebrate moments after Obama's victory is declared.

everything's different.

we knew it would be, but. it really is. everything. everything! goosebumps.... head exploding...

I'm going down to the teacher store tomorrow and buy that set of portraits of the last 43 presidents. I never put them up in my classroom because it always irritated me to see so graphically portrayed the nature of power of this country. But tomorrow I'm gonna get them, just so I can put Obama's portrait at the end. Even if it all goes wrong and he's a terrible president... the world is a different place for my students now, a bigger place...

Congressman John Lewis, who was born to sharecroppers and led the way across that bridge in Selma on "Bloody Sunday" (read his full bio here -- he is on the right in the light-colored trench coat), said this on CNN:

It's unbelievable that we have come such a distance in such a short time... America is a different nation, a better nation. We're different people. We are a better people. We are prepared to lay down our dark past and look to a bright future. In spite of all our problems, we are prepared to come together and follow a man of hope, a man of vision, who can take us to a place where we recognize and respect the dignity and the worth of all our fellow citizens.

He also said,

"During the height of the Civil Rights Movement I never thought, I never dreamed, that I would live to see that an African-American would be president of the United States...We were just trying to bring down those signs that said 'white men,' 'colored men,' 'white women,' 'colored women'...."

"We have witnessed a transformation of American politics and it will have unbelievable influence on the politics of the world..."

We are all in shock... everyone I know seems to be texting and IMing each other "omg... omg... omg!" We all hoped and prayed... but we couldn't believe that it could really happen... We all expected disappointment.

But for once... we didn't get what we expected... we got more than we could dare to hope for. I have no doubt that there were all kinds of efforts to rig and fix this election, to suppress voter turnout and intimidate people away from the polls. Last week I made fun of Joel for praying about this election, since I know he's about as religious as I am. But this morning, thinking of all the nastiness that must be going on out there, all that they must be doing to try to steal this thing, my own prayers slipped out... "for once, for once, for once, let light be stronger than darkness."

And for once, they didn't succeed.

Somehow, we were bigger and better than that. For once! For once, we were bigger and better than all the fears and nastiness and suspicion and pettiness. For once we lived up to what we learned about in school... all those nice ideals that we learned to sneer at and secretly mourn.

There will be plenty of time for disillusionment and disappointment when we see what limitations there may be to what can be achieved in the real world. But still, everything, everything, everything is different. Everything!