My wife stood, slack-jawed, staring at the eruption of cheers, tears, amaze, and general vociferous elation as the call came down for Obama. She shook her head, disbelieving, tears in her eyes.
"The Civil War is over." she announced.
A day later several pundits, after due consideration at their keyboards, echoed her phrase. But hers came from the moment and from the heart.
Next to her, our dear friend Nancy wept quietly.
As the various pundits started chiming off with comments about the racial milestone, her husband Peter blew his top.
"It's not about RACE, you assholes!!", he yelled at the television.
"It's about BRILLIANCE!!!"
But we all had tears in our eyes, and for many, it was about race--not race itself, of course, but about the negation of race and the lowest demons of our natures that had been conquered that night.
Brilliant, indeed.
And it was one night I will never forget, as vividly etched in memory as the morning of November 22, 1963, when the nation reeled over news ten times as shocking, and far, far less hopeful. ANd in a sense, that morning in 1963 was healed last Tuesday evening.