Obama! Yeah Baybeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now maybe Americans won't be hated so much by the rest of the world (personally, I have seen the trends).

Maybe the politics will be more about uniting the nation rather than polarizing it.

Maybe we can be INclusive rather than EXclusive.

Maybe we can work towards fostering tolerance.

Maybe things will really change for the better.

I can't watch anything about Obama without weeping. This morning, I saw Colin Powell's reaction on CNN. I LOVE Colin Powell. I wept. I saw Nightline about the students at Howard University and how they were celebrating. People were hugging each other in the street. I wept.

I WISH I had been in Washington yesterday. I bet Georgetown was an amazing place to be. I would have hugged everyone - white people, black people, foreign people - anyone! Georgetown is the place to be whenever anything great happens in Washington DC. People spontaneously go there to the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin avenue to celebrate (kind of like going out to the Gulf Road when something good happens around here). They celebrate Superbowl wins and New Years Eve and I'm sure they were celebrating last night.

I grew up in a white town with only one black man who was my neighbor. His daughter was my best friend. They had people who didn't like them, but they had a whole lot of people who did. I went to grade school in DC when they were in the middle of debates about school bussing. My mother always taught us never to see color and so we never have. I feel blessed. Other members of my family weren't so much like us and used the "N" word casually. I don't use that word and any time I hear it, it revolts me (several of my friends around this neighborhood use it freely and it has been an uphill battle to re-educate them). I have other friends who weren't taught the same way my sister and I were; they're not so tolerant of anyone different than they are.

I'm so glad that people voted this way; 7.9 million more people than voted for McCain.

To those who say that Obama will raise taxes: an interesting statistic showed yesterday that the majority of people who will be most heavily affected by those taxes voted FOR Obama. Obviously, they are willing to pay a price for change and true democracy.

I am so proud to be an American today. I am so proud of my country - that it has come so far - in the very brief period (29 years and stickin to it!) of my lifetime.

Thank you thank you thank you to all the well-wishers out there! Thank you to those Kuwaitis who gave me the "thumbs up" for my Obama '08 bumper sticker.