“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” I have a dream that one day I will live in a nation that will not judge anyone by how they look but by the content of their character. We are on the road.

Before we had Whoopi, now we have Barack and Whoopi…I KNOW WE CAN!

Whoopi, anyone with as much as a teaspoonful of Black lineage deserves to celebrate this triumph in a world of fear. There will always be naysayers and haters, those who haven’t (yet) evolved. Pity them and keep looking forward. Choose love, as you always do. You’re in good company.

Now I can believe in possibilities and not just probabilities. What a wonderful post. My granddaughter, who is nearly two, will have no limits imposed upon her - where she is told she can be anything she wants to be but then hears that whisper underneath - “not really” because of the limits imposed by race. My husband, son, daughter, mother, stepfather, family, and friends - who are Black, White, Latino, Cape Verdean, Chinese all worked for this moment. Barack Obama is a special man with a unique background that prepared him to be the first African-American President and also to be the statesman that the world needs. And the first family - how astonishing an image is that! My hope is renewed, my energy is restored, and I know that all of us will roll up our sleeves and do what we can to restore the U.S. and to be part of the healing of the world. If the world lives long enough it will be a wonderful place for all of us.

Dear Whoopi, Thank you for your beautiful thoughts about America and our new President Barak Obama. I saw you this morning on TV and cried when you talked about putting down your suitcase. G-d bless you! Barbara Salant

Dear Whoopi, There are no words that can adequately express, how thrilled I am for the American people and the world, with Barack Obama being elected President. I grew up in a home, with a mother that was unfortunately extremely racist. No matter how I tried to convince her that she was wrong in her views of others, I was always unsuccessful. It certainly didn’t help matters when I married a Jewish man, abeit an Unorthodox Jewish man. She would not attend our wedding. She did not speak to me for almost 6 years. It wasn’t until the birth of our last child that she started to come around, she turned out to be a wonderful grandmother, but still treated my husband with a level of disrespect that saddened me. My husband, asked me to be tolerant of her. He wanted his children to know their grandmother and have a relationship with her. I give her credit that she never tried to instill her hate for others in my children. She lived and died, with hatred in her heart. I will forever feel immense sadness of that fact. I have raised my children, to accept others for who they are, not the color of their skin, or the religion that they practice. I have such high hopes for your country with the election of Barack Obama as your next president. I have such high hopes for the world, with Barack Obama at the helm. My sincere and heartfelt congratulations to you Whoopi, and all your fellow Americans.

Whoopi, you really touched me this morning on “The View” when you said, you felt as if you could finally put down your suitcase. I just think you’re one of the smartest, deepest thinkers in the world. I wish Obama would ask you to be one of his cabinet members, but then, I wouldn’t get to see you on “The View”. Don’t tell Barbara I suggested this… she’ll get me! One of your biggest fans, Maggie

While I certainly agree with Whoopi’s sentiments, I am also encouraging all of us to realize the reality of this monumental and historic benchmark: we’ve just gotten started. We need to continue the spirit of change while the momentum is there, reeducating from the top down of a corporation, from the child in kindergarten to the school counselor in high school that the color of skin, the gender of a human, how short or tall one is does not define who I am or who you are. We have got to be proactive in changing the mindset of fear and hatred predicated on a chosen lack of knowledge. This election has demonstrated that we have come a long way; just imagine what can be accomplished if we continue the journey. We have a president who is African American. What an amazing affirmation that we are finally, finally going in the right direction.

I hope these thoughts just written today - for all of us - summarizes all we wish to say - and this is for Whoopi, too: Reconciliation does not come easily in a land with the volatile history of the United States of America. It is a country of enormous and impetuous energy born in revolution and settled by people of mixed races and tongues with clashing dreams and purposes. And when one has lived through nearly a third of America’s lifespan, he learns the hazard of being seduced by naiveté in the face of one more emotional epiphany in the country’s volatile politics. So I know—we know—that the brave and beautiful words intoned by Barack Obama in the culmination of one of the glorious hours in American history will seem airy and distant when the meatgrinder of practical politics meets the brave new word. But they should not be forgotten. Nor should the tears. A friend called me Wednesday morning. “I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “I found myself crying watching people cry. Why was that?” I said I thought it was for the same reason millions were doing the same, why I was. We’re human. What we were witnessing was not so much the triumph of Barack Obama or the Democratic Party returned to the White House as a cleansing of centuries of hurt and struggle. Hundreds of thousands of the people we watched in Grant Park last night we’re whispering to themselves. Their words were almost identical. “I wish they were here to see this and to feel it.” They meant family now gone, people who had suffered but had brought their children and grandchildren and descendents to this moment without believing it was possible. The had faced the humiliations and the gulags of second class citizenship. And now this: A man of color voted into the White House of America. The emotion of the moment was so overwhelming that men and women in the TV newsrooms, professionals, wept, and with them Colin Powell and Jesse Jackson in the crowd and athletes in their lockerooms, millions in front of their TV sets. This was not the emotion of pride but of simple thanksgiving. The words—“I wish they were here tonight”—became a litany that embraced them all and bound them together as surely as the sight of an African- American standing under the lights and in front of the flags as the next president of the United States, telling them: “America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves—if our children should live to see the next century—what progress will we have made?” It was a summons from a man who two years ago had looked at the mountain of odds facing him and decided he might know more about the strength of America than those who boasted about it. He must have said then, as he did last night to a new generation that must make the decisions of America: “This is our moment. This is our time.” When you think hard about it, this was an almost unimaginable hour moment for America, so notorious for its concussive politics. From ocean to ocean people at home and in the streets and the rally halls were enveloped by the magnetic power of it, the Americas of mixed colors and tongues, aging Americas, the new Americas, generations of Americas—brought together by an idea, in Obama’s words: “to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond …yes we can.” And they did. And billions of people around the world watched. This was an America they had not seen.. It was an America that gave the promise of joining them rather than instructing them, listening to them rather than manipulating them. There was as much joy in London, Paris, Rome, Lima, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro as there was in Chicago. A new America? Yes, but not necessarily an America yet united. A united America could not possibly exclude the millions of people who voted for John McCain. On election day there is never going to be a united America, or anything close to it. The possibilities of what comes after, at least in principle, were surely heightened by the magnanimous concession speech of John McCain. It was a tribute tothe highest values of an old warrior, and surely came closer to the genuine John McCain than the crusty and sometimes aimless candidate of the campaign. It felt good to hear his generosity and his healthy closure to a calamitous season. And now, back to another reality. Recession, unemployment, peace or war and budgets. Mr. President, welcome back to Washington, and lots of luck. I hope this heartfelt piece commemorating this day of days summarizes the feelings for us all — and for Whoopi - to you! Reconciliation does not come easily in a land with the volatile history of the United States of America. It is a country of enormous and impetuous energy born in revolution and settled by people of mixed races and tongues with clashing dreams and purposes. And when one has lived through nearly a third of America’s lifespan, he learns the hazard of being seduced by naiveté in the face of one more emotional epiphany in the country’s volatile politics. So I know—we know—that the brave and beautiful words intoned by Barack Obama in the culmination of one of the glorious hours in American history will seem airy and distant when the meatgrinder of practical politics meets the brave new word. But they should not be forgotten. Nor should the tears. A friend called me Wednesday morning. “I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “I found myself crying watching people cry. Why was that?” I said I thought it was for the same reason millions were doing the same, why I was. We’re human. What we were witnessing was not so much the triumph of Barack Obama or the Democratic Party returned to the White House as a cleansing of centuries of hurt and struggle. Hundreds of thousands of the people we watched in Grant Park last night we’re whispering to themselves. Their words were almost identical. “I wish they were here to see this and to feel it.” They meant family now gone, people who had suffered but had brought their children and grandchildren and descendents to this moment without believing it was possible. The had faced the humiliations and the gulags of second class citizenship. And now this: A man of color voted into the White House of America. The emotion of the moment was so overwhelming that men and women in the TV newsrooms, professionals, wept, and with them Colin Powell and Jesse Jackson in the crowd and athletes in their lockerooms, millions in front of their TV sets. This was not the emotion of pride but of simple thanksgiving. The words—“I wish they were here tonight”—became a litany that embraced them all and bound them together as surely as the sight of an African- American standing under the lights and in front of the flags as the next president of the United States, telling them: “America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves—if our children should live to see the next century—what progress will we have made?” It was a summons from a man who two years ago had looked at the mountain of odds facing him and decided he might know more about the strength of America than those who boasted about it. He must have said then, as he did last night to a new generation that must make the decisions of America: “This is our moment. This is our time.” When you think hard about it, this was an almost unimaginable hour moment for America, so notorious for its concussive politics. From ocean to ocean people at home and in the streets and the rally halls were enveloped by the magnetic power of it, the Americas of mixed colors and tongues, aging Americas, the new Americas, generations of Americas—brought together by an idea, in Obama’s words: “to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond …yes we can.” And they did. And billions of people around the world watched. This was an America they had not seen.. It was an America that gave the promise of joining them rather than instructing them, listening to them rather than manipulating them. There was as much joy in London, Paris, Rome, Lima, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro as there was in Chicago. A new America? Yes, but not necessarily an America yet united. A united America could not possibly exclude the millions of people who voted for John McCain. On election day there is never going to be a united America, or anything close to it. The possibilities of what comes after, at least in principle, were surely heightened by the magnanimous concession speech of John McCain. It was a tribute tothe highest values of an old warrior, and surely came closer to the genuine John McCain than the crusty and sometimes aimless candidate of the campaign. It felt good to hear his generosity and his healthy closure to a calamitous season. And now, back to another reality. Recession, unemployment, peace or war and budgets. Mr. President, welcome back to Washington, and lots of luck.

It is a great day today. I feel like yes like an Amer - ICAN!

**most moving quote of the night to me came from Donna Brazile who said that the steps of the Capitol were laid by her slave ancestors. Nearly 200 years later, a black man is going to climb those stairs, raise his hand and take the oath of office to be the president of all of us. By Willow K on 11/05/2008 2:33 pm That alone brought tears to my eyes, gave me goosebumps and my heart soar!

I knew Barack had won this election weeks ago after realizing, even in this RED state of Kentucky (the first BLOB on the electoral map last night!!!!) the obvious ABSENCE of bumper stickers on the cars throughout Metro Louisville. I had this gut feeling that the Democrats were “afraid” to admit they would vote for BHO and the Republicans, likewise, may have not been completely convinced… (The Tina Fey Factor)… so in a blog I confidently welcomed the President Elect on MONDAY fully prepared for the dream of a lifetime. I lived to see this historic moment. I lived to wake up in the middle of the night with the radio still playing (NPR) and realize I was NOT dreaming this. Tears of joy. The promise of TOMORROW. Let hope guide us. And, most importanly, goodbye to a Current Occupant flunked the global test (much less understood what a GLOBAL TEST is) and spoke to us in 3-word sentences as if we were 3rd graders. At last, I can say I am proud to be an American. And the president looks like a president…to US and the World.