I guess it is an integral part of the little girl in me that continues to believe that magic does happen. Of late it has been in short supply admittedly, and when I have pointed it out to my nearest and dearest I have been told on occasion that I am being overly sentimental and "slushy".
Well, they may be right, but I want to believe. And I do believe, because last night we all saw what many would have thought impossible a few years ago.
Given the climate I suppose many of us are clinging to any piece of driftwood that masquerades as hope that happens to float by, but somehow I think Barack Obama will make the change he speaks of.
He appears to have the capability to unite, inspire and uplift; experience can be brought in, but those former three qualities are not so easily come by.
There are many aspects of America that make me very uncomfortable; indeed when my good friend Jo relocated there four years ago with her family I found myself of the opinion that it would never do for me.
But I have to say that a nation that sees first time voters queuing for up to six hours to vote, and when they do vote, they make the groundbreaking decision to ensure that their 44th president is African-American, I am full of admiration and, if I'm honest, more than a little dejected because I can't imagine that it could happen in Britain.
I woke at around 5.15am this morning to Obama making his acceptance speech live on the radio. As his words started to make sense and I became fully alert, I felt the history of the moment that people have talked of. Later as I took my boy to school I listened to a girl in New York tell of how she helped an African-American lady of a hundred and one years of age to the polling station so that she could vote for Obama.
I don't mind admitting this event has moved me to tears several times today, and I'm not even American. But today I wish I was.
Posts
