For Hope, History, and Hillary

I’ve repeated this story so many times before, that you’d think I could let it go, but I have waited a long time for this day and I am so excited about the history unfolding  before us on this day.  I was 16 years old in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated as a vice presidential candidate.  That year, my mother told me, “You’ll see a women in the White House by the time you are 40.”

I turned 49 just a few days ago.

This morning I stood in line with my ballot and then I voted for a woman presidential candidate.  I am excited to send her to the White House.  

I took my 16 year old son into the voting booth with me and we cast that ballot together.  I’ve waited a long time to make this vote and the moment was so powerful and so full.  It’s made better by the fact that we made history in 2008 when we selected Barack Obama as president.  I was proud of my nation in 2008; I am just as proud now.  To think that we will have a swath of American presidents who broke barriers, who created an inclusive kind of hope……well that is some heady business.

This is America when it has the potential to be both good and great.  We are showing our children what it looks like when a diverse and tolerant nation rises to the challenges of the modern world.  When I was 16, I imagined that this vote would feel especially rich if I had a daughter.  But today I am reminded that it is our daughters and our sons who benefit from this historic change.  My son was 8 years old when Barack Obama was elected president; at 16 he will see the first woman enter the White House as president.  His world has been shaped by the notion that we are better and stronger because of our diversity.    That is the kind of greatness in which I believe.

We are with her.  I won’t go to bed tonight until I know that the rest of the nation is with us.