Joe Blog

I can't go on at length right now. Still drained. But still jubilant. Something's got to give, eventually. For now, just a reflection...

I live at the southern edge of Harlem, here in New York City. I've been a resident of this neighborhood since 1993, saw the awful rise of Giuliani-ism over this city, the rise and set of Bill Clinton, and let's not even get into Bush.

I've been voting at a local senior center for at least the past five years. Tuesday morning, having not been able to sleep much the night before, I rolled out of bed and headed over to the center to vote at 5:45 am. Like most everyone else with a story to tell, the length of the line already formed inspired me. But what really got me was the poll workers -- predominantly elderly, African-Americans who've done this important job so dutifully over the years at this polling site. The look on their faces... just... absolute, tear-glossed joy over what they knew was coming... what had already come and what was out of reach from the opposition at this point and unable to be snatched away... was so moving, I almost lost it. When I closed the curtain and pulled the old red handle to the left to ready the voting mechanism, I think I did for a second.

The enormity of what this country has done... the promise that has been restored... the newness of all this... I don't think it's fully settled in yet. We, no doubt, face very difficult days and President Obama is going to be tested and he's going to make missteps. But my God, if you can't feel a swell of patriotism and pride after what happened this past Tuesday... if you can't get inspired by what this country just did... I don't even know what to say. You might be a lost cause.

**For some great pictures, check out Callie Shell's photoblog. She's gotten some great, candid shots of Obama over the past few years, including this favorite you might have seen along the way: