change

my voting center was located two blocks down the street from my apartment, and i didn't want to wait in an enormously long line so planned to go at 6am, right when they opened. in the morning, i changed my mind because i was grumpy and i needed to go for a run. i ended up getting to the voting center at 7:30. i didn't see a line around the block. i got all the way to the door, and still didn't see a line. i walked in, went down the stairs, and entered the auditorium full of 7 people. seriously. 7.

i had some voter issues because murphy's law governs my life, so i ended up staying there for an hour. by then the lines had grown substantially, and there was a good amount of excitement in the air, but i still left feeling a little unsettled. why weren't there more people out? there was a line of voters at midnight in dixville notch, nh. my girls at the huff po complained of long lines at 6am in virginia. people are eager to vote today. today is our historic opportunity for change. and honestly, i expected east harlem to be one of the busiest sites in new york. why? well... it's the first time we can vote for not a white guy. yea, i went there. but seriously. for the first time in years we have a candidate who isn't from the cookie cutter of the uber-wealthy white male elite. we have a candidate who understands how it feels to grow up as a minority in this country, and who respects the different cultures of the world that also make up our population. he has the kind of respect and understanding that can only come from personifying these differences and experiencing first-hand alienation, culture shock, and identity crises. race relations is not a class he took in college, or something he observes through the media. issues of race are a fundamental part of his life. the mccain campaign has shamelessly used this against obama, the fact that he has been forced to search for his identity, that he is different from the face the right-wing likes to pretend we all see in the mirror. but obama inspires me because i've endured the same crises, the same tension between love for my country and pride in my cultural heritage. and ultimately i've succeeded in becoming who i am now, with solid beliefs and achievements. i laughed when joe the plumber accused obama of destroying the american dream. i laughed because he was just a self-entitled piece of crap trying to weasel out of paying taxes. obama has achieved the american dream. he proved to me and all the other jaded X-Americans out there that this dream is not a myth and that ceilings can be broken. how long have we been calling ourselves a melting pot? when have we ever really believed that? it's not 1950 anymore, the face of america has changed. it's time for our government and the faces who represent us to the world to follow.