Whether you’re voting for McCain or Obama, stories like this have got to make you proud of what this election represents for those Americans who fought and died for civil rights not that long ago. A story from an African-American early voter:
For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president.
We certainly haven’t solved all of our problems as a nation, but we have come a long way in a few decades. Even with all the negative campaigning and hostility on the fringes, I’m finding it harder and harder to be cynical these days. I think when we get past this horse-race on November 4, the magnitude of this change, and what it represents in American history, is really going to sink in.