What a wonderful morning!

Yesterday morning, my seven year old popped up before the alarm clock and announced from the top of the stairs, "It's election day!". Like it was maybe that much awaited holiday in December or something!

By the time we were all home and able to turn on NPR, it was already being projected that Obama would carry Ohio, which would pretty much seal the deal. I began making dinner with a ridiculous amount of tears of joy interfering with my work. Later on, my husband and I watched Obama's acceptance speech, and I was again awed by his articulate delivery and inclusive, hopeful, organized message. What a refreshing change from the insulting and damaging idiocy and inadequacy of the Bush administration.

So I'm starting off this morning with, frankly, renewed faith in my fellow Americans. 2000 was an offensive coup, but 2004 just made me feel like I was living in some sort of twisted parallel reality where common sense was out the window and the worst available option had actually been chosen by our citizenry. No landslide, at least, but Bush was actually elected '04, not just appointed. But now, we've pulled our heads out of wherever they were lodged, declared that we no longer want to be the ridiculous yet dangerous nation we'd become. Obama has proven he can engage and inspire on the international stage, and at home he's offering us all the dignity and tools for betterment we desperately need.

In addition to economic revitalization, I look forward to changes in education policy under President Obama. Let's stay tuned to see how our nation can fulfill our obligation to our young people with extensive and authentic educations, instead of inch deep, memorized, discrete facts that are inapplicable to students' lives. Let's have vitalized educations for our children that truly prepare them to think critically and to become involved citizens of our United States, a nation that is flawed but full of promise.