The ham is floating

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
WE ELECTED A NEW PRESIDENT!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

This has to be one of the bestest birthday presents EVAH!

On the day I turn 25, I am very aware that this is a day to tell my grandchildren (should I ever have any) about. It is a day that has seen a true historic moment, but it is not without it's sadness.

Last night was amazing. I got home from work around 10:30, and pulled out the tequila. I was stressed and nervous as hell, dealing with the stress of watching the numbers trickle in while I was supposed to be working. entropyinjersey, amichandrn and I watched the election maps as the returns came in. As soon as Ohio was called, we knew, but I refused to believe it until there was a concession speech from McCain and an acceptance speech from Obama.

Then my mom called, screaming about McCain conceding, and how I had to come over and drink with her. So I went over, we drank and we watched President-elect Obama's acceptance speech, and there were many tears.

We could hear some noise from outside, and saw a local news cast about people taking to the streets in celebration...so we took to the streets in celebration as well.

We walked up to Broad street and there were people hanging out of car windows, running in the streets, dancing, singing, shouting, hugging...Most of them were my age or thereabouts, and it was so beautiful to see. As we got closer to City Hall, we came upon a crowd of dancing, laughing people in the middle of the street, they chanted "YES WE CAN" and waved an American flag above the Obama signs, proud, some for the first time, of the potential that their country had shown.

We decided to head back due to the rain and the fact that it was 2am. We walked down Market street to Independence Hall, and stopped at a display/archeological dig that is excavating and exploring the lives of slaves in the home of the first presidents. This site was a big issue when it was discovered, and led to a discussion of how honest did we want to be about our nation's history, and the stories of those who truly worked to build it. It took protests and activism, and demands that the truth not be silenced in order to preserve some heroic ideal of the founding white men who began the government that now will have a man of African decent as Commander-in-Chief.

Needless to say, it was a profound moment of looking at the immediacy of our history. An election where a woman who is the daughter of a slave can cast a vote for an African-American man, and see that man in the highest office in the land, an election that brings people who were long thought not to matter in and gives their voices wings.

However, all is not well, and there is still much to do, considering all but one proposition that enables discrimination against LGBTQ persons and divorces them from their human rights have passed, including Proposition 8 in California. We are still living in a world where some people are told that they are lesser simply because their very existence is seen as a threat to those who want to keep their unearned privileges. We will have to fight for recognition as full human beings, who simply want to live our lives in peace.

This election is not an end, but a beginning. I truly believe that we can make a difference and we can win based on integrity and compassion.

Yes...

We fucking can!

and we better.