I'm so proud of my country

I have not blogged for almost a month now. I've been pretty crazy trying to get ready for my big move, but also working on the Obama campaign, pounding the pavement of urban Allentown PA to get out the vote. The once proud factory town is pretty poor now, with many houses foreclosed and empty. People looked at me and immediately knew that I didn't belong in the neighborhood. But once they saw that I was an Obama volunteer, they treated me like a long lost brother. Many of them told me how excited they were about electing Obama, not only because he is black, but because they are simply tired of a government that has completely ignored their frequently desperate and now worsening problems. One woman told me that her mother had been very sick, but she kept saying that she wanted to live long enough to vote for Obama. Unfortunately, she died last week but she was buried with her Barak Obama pin.

The election of Obama has really made me feel very proud of my country. Growing up, I would never have believed that in my lifetime a black man would be president. Even as recently as last year, I had great concern that most of this country is simply too biased to give Obama a fair hearing. I'm happy to find out that I was wrong. It is really an amazing moment in history.

Of course, now that Obama has been elected, he has his work cut out for him. My country is in such a deep hole that it isn't clear to me that even Obama, and the first rate team that I'm sure he will assemble, will be able to make a whole lot of progress climbing out of it. I do have confidence, however, that Obama will be wise enough to not keep digging.