It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

President-elect Barack Obama

There have been times that I thought
I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on

It’s been a long time, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

Sam Cooke - “A Change is Gonna Come.mp3

I can’t stop smiling. Hell, I can’t even sleep. It’s five in the morning and here I am, wide awake at my computer, with tears welling in my eyes, trying to take it all in. Not only do we now have the first african-american president in our nation’s history, but we have the first african-american president in our nation’s history and he won by a landslide.

I feel so good about us as a nation. So good. It feels the same way that Christmas morning always felt when we were kids. There’s unlimited possibility and I just want to tear all of the wrapping off of it.

Sam Cooke was right all those years ago. It was a long time coming, but a change is gonna come. Yes it is.

This isn’t just about racial change, either. It’s about generational change, about having a person in charge that looks at the world in a fundamentally different way than anyone else could. Barack Obama looks at the world in the same way that I do. In the same way that more and more people do. Our generation is one of the first to live in a full post-racial world and now we have our leader.

On the same token, I can’t even begin to imagine the emotions that people who lived through the fight for civil rights are feeling. One of the images that I can’t seem to get out of my head is that of Jesse Jackson crying in the crowd at Obama’s victory rally in Grant Park in Chicago last night. Whatever you think about Jackson as a person and a public figure, the sheer outpouring of emotion from him and many others really sent me over the top. I mean, can you even imagine the complete about-face emotionally for a man like Jackson who marched and worked with Martin Luther King Jr, was there when MLK was shot and now, all these hard years later, gets to see the fruit of King’s vision come to pass?

Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We’re one step closer to that promised land.