An Era of Change

An Era of Change

This week's NYT Sunday Magazine has an article by Ron Suskind entitled "Change: How Eras End and Begin." In it, he describes a seminal scene in David Axelrod's office as Barack and Michelle Obama confer with eight others about whether or not Barack should pursue the presidency. Michelle says, "You need to ask yourself, Why do you want to do this?"

Barack says, "This I know: When I raise my hand and take that oath of office, I think the world will look at us differently. And millions of kids across this country will look at themselves differently."

Here's the amazing thing about that statement: we don't have to wait for the raising of Obama's hand some weeks from now for the world and our children to see these United States in a new light; that transformation happened on election night after We the People raised our hands by voting for him. Everything I've learned about our President Elect since his campaign began tells me that he would agree and would say it differently today.

Yes We Did!

Yes We Did!

This is a time to look forward, to move to a new place for our nation in this world. We have an incredible amount of healing to do - healing our economy, our relationships with other nations and peoples, of the sould of this amazing country.

As tough of a race as it has been, the work is just ahead of us. I am humbled to think that today we did what could not be done - one person at a time.

I made calls for Obama yesterday in Santa Monica, taking a few hours off from my business trip here to play a bit part in this massive effort. I spoke with many first-time voters in Colorado and North Carolina - some who had questions about exactly what to do on election day and many in North Carolina who had taken advantage of early voting to make their voice heard. One woman, was voting for the first time at the age of 49. It was the first election where she felt that her vote really mattered. She was right; as of this writing (12:28am ET), the winner of the state's 15 electoral votes is still undeclared - less than 14,000 votes of the more than 4 million cast separate the two candidates.

Many I spoke with were ready to stand in line for as long as it took to proudly - proudly - cast their ballot for Barack Obama. Some were tired of hearing from strangers interrupting their day with another call; but more were encouraging - thanking me for putting time in to make a difference. This is why I think today's results will turn into significant action: People - we the people - are ready to go to work to support our new president and make change a reality.

I will never forget this night.

Now let's get to work...