For The First Time In My Life

Last night, as I sat on the couch listening to Barack Obama make his acceptance speech for the Presidency of the United States, I felt what so many people talk and sing about – pride in my country.

In all honesty, I had never felt that before.

And then he said this:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

He mentioned me – without derision, scorn or sarcasm. 

I'm not ashamed to say that I wept last night. I'm also not ashamed to say, for the first time in my life – I'm proud to be an American.