Following President Obama into the Future: the healing has begun

While I was buying some tea at a health food store today, the young clerk did his darnedest to give me a discount. "Do you have a member card? Are you a senior citizen?"
I confessed to having stayed up all night watching the election celebration, and said though I might look like senior citizen, I wasn't. "But it was worth missing a night's sleep!" I said with a big smile.
"Oh yes," he smiled back. "I am glad to be an American again."
Yes! We don't have to apologize for our country anymore, having elected a man of character, a peacemaker, the Gandhi of this time in the history of the world. With Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House, we will joyfully begin to sacrifice and reduce our consumption of the world's resources, sharing with those in need. We will stop fighting wars for oil. We will treasure this precious green planet, no longer fouling our nest.
In India last winter, grocery shopping with my friend Sujata, I bought some coffee mugs with a message I adore. It says, "COSMOS. OK!"
With our new President Elect, Barack H. Obama, the Cosmos is, indeed, OK! Here my mother holds her Cosmos mug, offering a toast to the Man of the Century.
ADDENDUM, NOVEMBER 7, 2008:
Four years ago, a painful breach was healed in my own life.
In 1986, my dearest high school friend suddenly broke off all communication with me...after 16 years of very close ties. What happened? Why? She answered none of my questions, and after a while, I stopped trying.
Then, in 2004, she got back in touch, asking for my forgiveness. "I was a very moralistic young woman," she explained. "And because you were divorcing, I thought we couldn't be friends anymore."
From that moment of reconnection, our friendship was fully restored. We brought our families together, for plenty of tears and laughs. The power of this reconciliation in our lives cannot be overestimated....we felt lighter and happier.
So, what does this story have to do with President Obama's victory?
Our shame as a nation, having kidnapped Africans 200 years ago to become slaves, has been a raw, open sore on the body politic. We have lived with this terrible wrong for generations, seeing the slaves' descendents struggle to overcome this giant handicap. We knew things weren't right, but we didn't know what to do.
By electing Barrack Obama to the presidency, our wound has started to heal. Our reconciliation has begun. Opportunity for all is now a reality. And like my friend, Riikka, and I, since we restored our precious relationship in 2004, our lives are now so much richer and fuller and healthier. Hooray for Right Action!