U.S. Election Results

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
We started our day on the faculty apartment floor at the NEST with a
6:00 a.m. election results party in the Dorman’s apartment. That made it 8:00 p.m. in California with polls closing. The Dorman’s purchased Dunkin’ Donuts for the occasion. It was just the right time when the election was called and for the speeches from McCain and Obama. Of course, we didn’t have a television. The past couple days we have pondered how to get the results and ended up with the party in the apartment with the laptops hooked to the internet. We had Dave and my MacBook’s side by side and took turns reading the news on various websites.

Dave read McCain’s speech and said it was the most moving speech he had ever heard McCain deliver. Terra Winston was so excited and wishing she was back in Chicago for all the celebrations! I don’t think we made the celebration level of Grant Park, but we came close!

I called home from the party and was able to talk with my family. This is a great day for my children to see the possibilities. Jeremy was so excited saying, “MOM, Obama won!” His homework for his 5th grade class was to write observations about election night. He shared he watched McCain say Obama won and people were booing. Jeremy said he felt sad for McCain. Grace gave her theory that people with mixed race skin or dark skin maybe didn’t vote before because it was white skin candidates, but that having Obama in the campaign helped everyone feel like they could vote and she observed the World is full of a lot of skin colors. I miss my children and wish I was able to share this with them... but of course, I am... just not in person.

All day long the N.E.S.T. community has been greeting us with Mabrouk Obama, which is Arabic for Congratulations. John, M.Div. Student from Kenya, shared he has word from home that they are killing Bulls to have big feasts and celebrate the Obama results. He said Obama’s Grandmother has been assigned two police for security.

I think the most overwhelming for me has been the emails and greetings from friends around the World.

A friend from India sent an email and within it said, "I am sure you must have been enjoying this historic moment as I do here in India. US election this year is not just an American event but turned out to be a global event. This is widely covered in India. In fact some the major news channels aired live coverage of it and the news readers reported it with a big smile on their faces. I am so glad that America did not let the world down. In a context where there is trouble every where and the world seems be so unjust, Obama's victory in a way affirmed the power of hope. Thank you America!”

A friend who is Canadian who is serving in the Philippines wrote, “I cried when they announced Obama's victory. I cried like a baby to be honest. Not because he is the great hope, although I do hope he is a good President. And not because his victory effects me that much, we re-elected the right wing a month ago, there is not a whole lot that Obama can do to change that. But I cried because his winning proved that there is actually hope for North Americans, hope that we are not an entire continent of apathetic selfish people, but that North Americans can be mobilized for the cause. I had lost hope in us as a people, and today I felt hope for us for us again. Thank you for that. This was not my election and I put nothing into the campaign. I know you did. Thank you, and thank you to all of your other democratic friends who gave me hope again in the ability of a continent of people who can cause positive change to actually do it.”

I even got an email from Obama... :-) “We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of you.” Thanks President-elect Obama!

I'm feeling lots of love around the World right now, and holding those that are disappointed back in the U.S. I find I am a bit homesick today (being obsessive about working and writing to avoid homesickness!) and wishing I could share this with my circle back home. But this place feels like home also, and in many ways, celebrating here in Lebanon is very powerful! May we hold all the leaders in the World in our prayers, that they may be guided by the true leader for us all!