This morning, I asked D if he had told N about Barack Obama winning the election. When he told N, she said, "But I wanted John McCain to win," and then got quiet. All of a sudden, she walked up to me and burst into tears, saying over and over again, "But I wanted John McCain to win." It took a good 10 minutes to console her and calm her down. D said, "Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it," but I reminded him that they would likely talk about the results at preschool and better for her to be so upset at home than at school. I asked her if she wanted to draw John McCain a picture to send to him since he was probably sad too that he hadn't won. She told me what she wanted to say in her note to him. And here it is:
N's picture of John McCain
Dear John McCain, I am sad because you didn't win. I wanted
you to win and that's why I cried.She even put a "Thinking of You" sticker and a "Feel Better Soon" sticker on his note. She mailed it this afternoon to his D.C. Senate office.
After I dropped her off at school, I proceeded to run some errands, all the while listening to BBC World News Hour on NPR. I'm not normally a weepy person, but listening to the reports and interviews with people as they watched the election coverage and after the election was called did get me a bit misty.
In less than 50 years, the US has moved from denying Blacks the right to vote to seeing a man of Black heritage become president. This fact combined with the powerful voter turnout and activism during this election do make me proud. It makes me feel that the US made a major developmental leap. We are a nation in its infancy, in a sense, but perhaps this takes us from crawling to toddling.
But I worry about so much enthusiasm and optimism on the part of the electorate. While I think Obama will do a good job....certainly no worse than his predecessor...I also know he isn't perfect, and he can't change the course of the entire US in 4 years. I worry that because he is the first Black president and one who invigorated his supporters with hope, he will be held to absolutely impossible standards and expectations. He is not going to make our society perfect. That is too much burden to place on one man's shoulders.
Although I didn't watch John McCain's concession speech, I have heard it was powerful and revealed the true maverick McCain, the one who apparently was hidden under a rock during the campaigning. I can't help but wonder how he feels, and if he thinks he was steered wrong. Of course, he probably had to accept being steered wrong to get the support of his party (all candidates do to some extent, I guess).
Suffice it to say, I am glad this election is over and the talk around our house can go back to the mundane and non-political.
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