winterbadger | thank you, America!

Thank you.

Thank you, all you people who came out and stood in long lines. And all you wonderful people who worked long hours in the polling places.

Thank you, people who weren't sure you would count, but who didn't want to pass up the opportunity to be heard.

Thank you, all you people who thought, and wrote, and argued, but still listened to each other.

Thank you, people in 'Red' states, who didn't accept that you couldn't make a difference.

Thank you, people of New England who stood up first of all for our new president and showed your traditional combination of idealism and granite-hard commonsense. You make me proud of my Yankee roots (or 'ruts', as they say it there).

Thank you, people of Virginia, who showed that being the oldest home of English-speaking democracy in the New World doesn't mean you have to stick with old ways.

Thank you, all those who worked hard for the Obama campaign, even when things didn't look so good.

Thank you, Clintons, for playing a straight bat, however grudingly, and working to get your party's nominee elected.

Thank you, John McCain, for giving a decent, honest concession speech that, at the last, reminded me why for years I thought you were a decent and worthy man I just disagreed with. Maybe now you can go back to being that man again. Your country needs you to.

And thank you, thank you, thank you, President-elect Barack Obama, for giving me hope that the United States might, just for a little while, raise high the banner of its dreams instead of trampling them in the race for wealth and power.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and listen to Barack, and cry. And for once, this year, it will be tears of joy.