Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman

Hard to believe, I know, but I am a pretty emotional, weepy woman. Yes, I even cry when flipping through the channels and happen to catch a dramatic scene in a movie in which I have no idea what is happening. So it will be no surprise that I cried last night when Obama won. I cried while I bubbled in my ballot. (Finally a paper trail for my vote.) I cried when I drove by a group of college students standing in the rain at an intersection by my house at around five o’clock waving Obama signs. I cried when I honked my horn and heard other drivers’ honk theirs. Later, I cried when I saw people crying on tv. But who cries on election night, except the candidates and their families? Yes, this was different.

Different because his victory—OUR VICTORY—actually made me feel more American. Yes, I am a white woman, but I am a white woman with no blue blood in her veins. I am a Jewish woman whose family did not come over on the Mayflower, nor did my people colonize the west, nor did my ancestors line up medals from battles fought defending our freedom. My history is not the history that we are continually told represents the real America. And this is not just Sarah Palin being internally xenophobic, this is the America that is continually lionized in films and history books. Obama’s election enfranchises the breadth of people who truly create and recreate the United States of America.

Our voting for Obama shows that perhaps we are finally inclusive. Perhaps kids now will not feel less American because their grandparents came over to escape the horrors of the mother country in the last one hundred, or fifty, or twenty, or even five years and have not been here since the Founding Fathers. Perhaps kids now will feel truly American because their traditions have incorporated American traditions and are not just considered different, and thus wrong. Perhaps now we adults will be able to be fully American even if we aren’t old white guys. And I don’t know about you, but I could sure use a break from those old white guys.

Change. Yes. It’s about time.