Pride and Disappointment.....A Strange Paradox

I did not vote for Barack Obama. I do not think he is qualified to be president of the United States. I do not agree with the very large majority of his policies. And, yes, I am supremely disappointed that he is now the President-elect.

Having said all of that, I awakened this morning with an overwhelming sense of pride in our country. First, I am proud of the incredible turnout at voting precincts around the country. This election was personal to people for a variety of reasons, and I appreciate the fact that more people than ever seemed to be genuinely interested in the outcome of the election. I waited more than two hours to cast my ballot, and there were a thousand others there with me. I think that says a lot.

The other reason I am proud today is that after all the tough talk, all the criticisms of both parties, all the debates, etc., we just elected an African American man to be President of the United States. That, in and of itself, is amazing. But, that's not what is so important to me. What fills me with pride is that Barack Obama's status as a black candidate wasn't really what people were talking about. It really wasn't a big campaign issue.

Obviously, there was some discussion about that very real chance that this election would make history. But, the very large majority of the political conversations I heard during the last few months (both in person and on television) had nothing to do with race. They had to do with Obama's policies and associations, McCain's policies and experience, and how individual people felt about those issues. I heard VERY few people discuss the fact that Obama is African American.

Now, I'm not so stupid as to think there weren't racist voters who picked McCain only because Obama is black. And I'm not so stupid as to think there weren't black voters who picked Obama for that reason alone. BUT, during a history-making campaign such as this one, I would say 95 percent of what I saw and heard concerned only the legitimate issues facing our country. When Barack Obama was born, there were restaurants, hotels and even government buildings that he would not have been allowed to enter. Now, he's about to move into the White House. Regardless of how you feel about his policies, I think the progress our nation has made in the last half-century is something we can all take pride in.