I Voted

Four years ago, I voted in my very first Presidential election. Going to the polls, casting my vote, getting my sticker...it was all very exhilarating in a way. I believe deep down that my vote does in fact count. And I voted four years ago for the man I thought was best for the job. Sadly, it was also because to me, he seemed to be the lesser of two evils. I hate when politics, as they so often do, come down to that. I love politics. I don't follow them as seriously as some do, but I have very strong opinions and find the whole process incredibly fascinating.

Four years ago, I helped our country enter into four additional years of being led by George W. Bush. Do I regret it now? Sometimes, yes. But I can't say that, given only the knowledge we had in 2004, I would change my vote. Like I said, at the time, he seemed to me to be the best choice.

Time changes a lot of things - knowledge, opinions, beliefs. George W. Bush did not turn out to be an exceptional choice for President. But would Kerry have been exceptional? I can't in all good conscience say that I think so. But those were the choices we had then. And I can't honestly say that, even knowing what we know now, I would change my vote given the chance.

Yesterday, I voted in my second Presidential election. Again, it was exhilarating. Again, I believed that my vote does count. And again, I voted for the man I thought was best for the job. But something was different. This year, I did not have to choose the lesser of two evils. I truly believe that both candidates were good choices, that both have the understanding of the terrible situation they would be inheriting and both would do everything in their power to fix it. I felt oddly blessed that we had such fantastic choices, and I honestly would have been happy with either one of them.

Yesterday, I helped our country enter into four years of being led by Barack Obama. There are lots of reasons I voted for Barack Obama, and I'm not going to list them all here. But one of those reasons is not because I dislike John McCain. And to me, that means a lot. That this time, politics played out as I (and I'm sure many others) wish they would. This was a fantastic race, and at the center were two fantastic men - each competent and charismatic and intelligent in their own way. This is the kind of election we should have every year; to be burdened with having to choose between two wonderful candidates.

Many years from now, my children and grandchildren will live in a world in which a black man had served as president. And they will never be able to fully understand the world I grew up in where a black president was a foreign idea. Nor will they ever be able to understand the world in which my parents grew up, or my grandparents for that matter, where the idea of a black president was laughable, impossible. I am extraordinarily grateful and proud that they will never understand such things.

Yesterday, I believe that I literally helped to change the world. Or, at the very least, my children's world. Barack Obama speaks of change, and many people who did not vote for him do not believe that he can deliver the kind of change to give this country what it needs, to better it. But I think of my nephew who is weeks away from joining this world, and I think of my own sons and daughters who are years from joining this world. And I see, standing before a nation who came together to create the largest voter turnout in years, a strong and articulate black man who came from meager beginnings deliver a speech in which he accepted the presidency of the most powerful nation in the world. And I see a country growing stronger every day because of its ability to overcome a horrifically prejudiced past; a country becoming a place where its future citizens will never know what it's like to be terrified, amused or even surprised that the president can be black.

Will Barack Obama change the economy for the better? I don't know. Will Barack Obama change the situation in the middle east for the better? I don't know. Will Barack Obama change policies and laws and other facets of the country he will soon lead for the better? I don't know.

Will Barack Obama change the United States of America for the better? Will Barack Obama change the world for the better?

He already has.

I challenge any skeptic to dispute Barack Obama's promise of change.