I don't have the words

Let every child and every citizen and every new immigrant know that from this day forward everything really is possible in America. (Tom Friedman, today's NY Times)
"Hope" seems inadequate to describe what I feel. "Pride" equally so. I have never in my life felt the world to be so full of promise and potential as I do today. I have never felt so connected to the struggles of generations before me as I do right now.

Yesterday, I stood in line for 40 minutes to cast my ballot, for the first time in person. I took pictures with my cell phone and sent texts to twitter because I wanted to document it. In that line were men and women, young and old, all colors and ethnicities and we were all in that line in the hopes that we might help to make a more perfect union. And I thought about the fact that 100 years ago, I wouldn't have been allowed to be in that line. And that 50 years ago, I wasn't allowed to hold the job I have now. And that 40 years ago, men were shot for daring to hope that today might happen.

When it became clear that Senator Obama was about to become President-Elect Obama, I was so proud of America. As he says, in no other country in the world is his story even possible. And I was so afraid that I would be let down, that my hopes would be dashed, that there was enough lingering racism in this country that I would never get to write this blog post. But my fellow Americans rose above it and today I can stand in front of the world and I say I am an American and be proud of who we are.

I cried during his victory speech, during his story of Ann Nixon Cooper, the 106-year-old woman. To think how much the world has changed, what we've done, both as a nation and as a species. Do you think that our ancestors dreamed this world even in their most outlandish imaginings? I walked up the hill at work today, and I said "Do you know what happened, Mr. Douglass?"

I am so inspired, and so grateful, and so proud, and so full of hope.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Amen, Mr. President.