One day, we will sit down with our children and they’ll ask, “Where were you when Barack Obama was elected?” The first black man in the white house. The first African son to rule on American soil. Born a century ago, he would’ve counted as 3/5 a man. Today, he is the man leading American forward to a nation of true brotherhood, a country united for peace and freedom.
We’ll tell our children we invited friends over, to play a board game to pass the time. We compulsively checked the New York Times online all night, watching headlines crest from “Obama wins Ohio Dampening McCain’s Campaign” to “OBAMA: Racial Barrier Falls as Voters Embrace Call for Change.” We drank red wine, ate vegan cranberry muffins, and were happy to be in the company of good friends.
The moment we realized Obama had won was when we heard John McCain’s concession speech on NPR.org, streamed from my MacBook via wireless internet.
We looked around at each other, nervous to celebrate too early. After we finally convinced ourselves, I made everyone take this picture, so our children can laugh about how much younger their parents looked and how outdated their fashion was.