Yes We Did

UPDATE WED: I wrote the following for the TV One gig last night but but it was not selected for their site:


I am writing this quickly, as John McCain's voice praises Barack Obama's candidacy, and concedes the presidential race to Obama, because I don't want to miss A SECOND of the speech we are all waiting to hear. The phone has been ringing off the hook, the dog is barking, a teenager is howling, every brownskinned being in our household tingling because Barack Obama has just been elected the president of these United States.


It is as if all of black america has taken this journey together along with Senator Obama from Springfield, Illinois to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Transformed from a skeptic last fall, I became a fervent believer in the abilities of Barack Obama and the team he had assembled before the primaries began. I have spent the last ten months writing about the man and the campaign almost every day.


My mother exhaled when she heard my voice on the phone, as if it had been she and I on the campaign trail instead of Obama and Biden. My brother howled as if his favorite football team was guaranteed to win the Super Bowl for the next ten years. My voicemail has several messages that I haven't retrieved yet. I will probably be silent once the phone stops ringing, silent and pensive, as the word "African American" begins to resonate louder and louder every time an announcer says it on TV. I will only be thinking one thing when I finally go to sleep tonight.



Yes We Did!