A Different World

Today I woke up early to fantastic news, briefly debated calling in sick to celebrate, decided to “do the right thing”, drank a few sips of champagne with Sis and Miss Leesha (who I trust continued to celebrate in my absence), and headed off to work.

When I arrived everyone was in a great mood.  Friends and strangers from all over the world were offering me their warm, heartfelt congratulations.  I headed over to the Starbucks (which serves as a sort of student union) to catch the acceptance speech on TV.   

Let me be honest with you…Can I be honest here?  I got a little choked up.  I mean, I think we can all agree there wasn’t anything particularly spectacular about speech President Elect Barack Hussein Obama gave to his worldwide audience.  For me, it was just something about the culmination of the campaign, all those happy people in Chicago and the experience of standing in a crowd of Arab, Asian, European and American students and faculty in the Starbucks cheering for a man on the far side of the world.   All of those students, who I expect might harbor some somewhat justifiable anger at the "arrogant imperialist West", were cheering for our new president.  I came to the stunning realization today, in the midst of sureal chants of "Yes We Can!" which were starting up from random groups of Arab students, that people all over the world look to America for hope.  Sometimes we make it difficult, but that never stops the world's citizens from wanting us to be that "city set upon a hill" that everyone talks about.  Today, for a change, I felt pretty good about that. 

I’m heading home now to celebrate.