America Won

So as not to confuse, let me start by saying yesterday's election did not go the way I would have liked.  However, America won yesterday.

12 years ago I had one of the best teachers in my school-years.  She taught World History and American History and I was fortunate enough to have her two years in a row.  She was passionate about her subjects and students and genuinely cared that her students learned.  She was crass and sarcastic, at times intimidating, but I loved her.  (never crossed her either!)  One of the lessons she loved to teach was that a president could win an election by electoral college while not carrying the popular vote.  To date, it hadn't happened but she was so eager to see the day.  And we did! - one year later.  I think she instilled in me a bipartisan interest in election day.  Based on her background one would think she would vote democratic; based on some of her comments one would think she would vote republican.  But come election day, she was passionate about the fact that democrats and republicans alike could exercise their right to vote.  The problem was, in the recent years, far too few had been choosing to do so.

Yesterday we saw that change.  Four years ago we saw an emergence of a new voting class and yesterday we saw that energized even more.  Obama and Romney both were able to reach voters who had not before been reached and were able to grab the interest of more Americans than other candidates.  We are in struggling times, and there were so many issues with wide variances on the table.  A lot is at stake right now.  But maybe it is at these times, when times aren't good, that we can truly grow.  In a plush economy, when presidents are riding the economic policies of presidents past and boasting success in their own favor, it is easy for people to sit back and care very little.  But when everything is on the line, we have seen people stand up and face the fight rather than retreat and run away.

This makes me proud.

I have my own concerns and worries for the next four years, but I can appreciate that had the election gone the other way there would still be nearly half of America sitting in my shoes.  Legitimate concerns.  Legitimate worries.  All coming from two very, very different sides of the playing field.  We can argue all day, and in my very opinionated brain I am confident I would win, but that's not the point.  The prevailing fact is that our country is very divided, yet we are still united.  So I pray that as people sit happily and comfortably with the results, they do so humbly.  There is no need to boast or brag.  I pray that they are able to truly understand that we are a country built on different beliefs and views and that the other side is valid.  I pray that they can pause and realize that they, too, would be licking their wounds today had the election not turned out in their favor and they would appreciate some grace and humility on the other side.

As for the people who happen to sit in the camp with me, I pray that we can lick our wounds lovingly and kindly.  I pray that we can accept that we live in a country where just over half of our neighbors wanted and chose the candidate who won.  Regardless of your views of him, he is not a villain who stole votes - he was chosen.  I pray that we can accept that for the next four years, as long as we freely choose to live here, Barack Obama is our Commander in Chief.  Love him or hate him, he is our president and we are fortunate enough to live in a country which operates in such a manner that the majority was heard.

There were a lot of disappointing aspects to the elections last night (can I say I'm glad - for the first time in 6 months - that I don't live in Colorado????) but personally, I looked inward at the most disappointing fact of all.  Yesterday I prayed without ceasing for the two men who were fighting for the right to run our country.  It occurred to me, as I started to see the writing on the wall, that I hadn't prayed for Barack Obama as much in four years as I did in one day.  That's on me. This is my country and my home, and I will pray endlessly that she will be blessed and prosperous.  As for Obama - while I do not agree with him on the majority of the issues, he is my leader and I will pray for the next four years in ways I failed to in the previous.