First Day Home

Our first day at home as a family is election day. There were no major lines here in Jackson Heights, so I was in and out of the polling station in about 10 minutes. The rest of the evening Veronica I spent with Finnegan, but with one eye on the TV.

Here we are (Finnegan, Tinker and Me) watching the election results:



It was such a thrilling night and I was so overwhelmed that I cried again when we knew Obama would win. This is not a political blog and I intend only to mention the election this one time, but let me say just a little. Obama has lots of flaws, and I am under no illusion that he is going to "save" anyone. But, the choice to me was simple: McCain, Palin, Clinton everyone else wanted me to be afraid, just like George Bush wanted me to be afraid. There was very little positive, hopeful, or enthusiastic in anything they had to say. They preached fear and intolerance. To me, that is not what America has ever been about. I wasn't born here, didn't grow up here, but I know enough to know that this country is built on hope and on tolerance, and the idea that the best is yet to come. That is why American's elected Obama and it's the political spirit and age I hope Finnegan will grow up in.

Remember this from our most famous symbol:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"