"Yes We Can."

[seluciav]

I couldn't go to bed without making a comment on this historic, momentous day.  I know it seems silly to get emotional about politics, but for the first time in my adult life, I am really and truly proud of our President.  I have hope for a better, brighter tomorrow. I have faith that the person leading our country is actually interested in doing

Comments

[celtic_flicka]

This speech gives me a lump in my throat every time I read or hear it. The first time I heard it, here's the part that pushed me over the edge:

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

My great-grandma was a suffragist (which is why I get choked up every time I reach for that ballot)--and that last phrase? Pure poetry.

I have to pick my kid up at school at exactly the moment our great senator from Illinois takes the oath of office--I'm Tivo-ing it so we can watch it as soon as we get home!

[seluciav]

Me too! I rarely get this emotional over politics but it just feels so good to be proud of our country and our leader and to feel so HOPEFUL that great things are coming our way.

Oh wow -- your great grandma was a suffragist? That's incredible! I did a huge research paper several years back on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and was amazed at how much I didn't know about that movement. It gave me new-found appreciation for those incredible women because it really was an uphill battle. It took such tremendous courage and strength and I will forever be grateful that they were willing to forge ahead despite all of the obstacles in their path.

I wanted to be home so badly today to watch but as luck would have it, I had a huge Board of Directors meeting this morning so I didn't have the option. I'm hoping to stream it live from my computer -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the interwebs (and my office technology) won't let me down!

I hope you and the munchkin have a great time watching together!

[celtic_flicka]

Great-grandma didn't go to jail or anything like that, but she did participate in marches and that sort of thing, much to the dismay of Great-grandpa, who was deeply embroiled in Chicago politics (and all that entailed, ahem). After women were granted the right to vote, she never told her husband who she was voting for, saying that they'd fought too hard for her own vote, so she wasn't sharing it with him. According to my gram (their daughter), it drove him crazy. Hee hee.

Have you seen Iron-Jawed Angels? It's a great movie about the suffragist movement and the younger generation who came up right behind Stanton and Anthony.