Stepping up

Three days post-election and I'm absolutely thrilled. I watched the results roll in from my desk at work, and with tears in my eyes I recalled, of all things, the night we learned that Princess Diana was dead. I had just started the eighth grade and I remember vividly my mother's own tears as the networks reported the news. At the time I couldn't comprehend why she was crying for a woman she neither knew nor was represented by, but as I've grown older, and as I watched Barack Obama walk out into a sea of 100,000 people in Grant Park on Tuesday night, I think I've begun to understand that apart from the obvious tragic circumstances of that death, there was something else at play - something bigger. History. The realization that something has happened in the space of a minute or a day or several hours that will forever change life as you know it. I'm just projecting of course, but I think Mom cried that night because she encountered a moment in which the scope of the event trumped that of her own life. I hardly think I'm alone in saying that I shared one of those moments on Tuesday night.

More than that, though, today I'm proud to be young and imperfect and American. After being told repeatedly throughout the course of your life that your generation doesn't measure up (and did you hear about JFK and Beatlemania?!?), it's easy to simply accept the disappointment. Only this time, we didn't. I read this on the Huffington Post with a healthy measure of pride and humility:

Around 2.2 million more young people voted on Tuesday than did in 2004, accounting for 18 percent of the electorate -- a slight uptick from 17 percent in 2004. But they overwhelmingly voted for Obama: 66 percent to 32 percent - a 34-point spread. That's 25 percent more than the 9-point youth vote advantage Kerry had over Bush.

Patrick Ruffini at The Next Right drills it down further:

Had the Democratic 18-29 vote stayed the same as 2004's already impressive percentage, Obama would have won by about 2 points, and would not have won 73 electoral votes from Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, or Indiana. So, to clarify here: Obama's youth margin = 73 electoral votes."

I think that's pretty cool. But perhaps the most encouraging sign I took from Tuesday's events was the manner in which we celebrated. Not with our thumbs to our noses or with arrogance or a sense of entitlement, but for once with unbridled hope! Amidst the Facebook proclamations of "kill Obama" and the bitterness of a few, there was in fact a real celebration; dignified, joyous, and with gracious appreciation, the way in which we should celebrate every day. For at least a day, the youth of America could at once be proud while making others proud of us. And while we may not yet fulfill the hopes of our parents, who danced to Hendrix and put a man on the moon and helped usher in civil rights, I promise you we'll someday get there.

Yes we can, and yes we will.