What A Night

Forty years ago we were living through the summer of 1968. It was a terrible year for all Americans. Two fine men had been assassinated. Protests were raging. President Lyndon Baines Johnson was turning sixty years old. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Chicago. That convention served as the crucible for the concentrated pain of a nation being torn asunder by the Vietnam War and buffeted by the sea change of the Civil Rights Movement. As riots raged on the streets of Chicago, inside the convention hall Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie finally secured the Democratic nominations as president and vice president. But only after a divisive and politically bloody battle.

Tonight, as Chuck and I watched the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, I couldn’t help but think back to that awful summer of 1968. As we listened to wonderful, inspiring, thoughtful, creative and hard hitting speeches from former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former President Bill Clinton, Senator John Kerry and Senator Joe Biden I knew we were once again in the fight of our lives. But this time instead of the chaos and violence which marked a generation, we were working together.

Not everyone in the convention Hall in Denver holds the exact same set of beliefs nor agrees on the exact same strategy to right the wrongs of eight years of the Bush - Cheney administration. Not even Chuck, the registered Democrat and me, the registered “independent” agree on everything. But the Democrats in the hall and all like minded citizens at home, felt hope rise up in us tonight. As Senator Clinton called for the rules suspension to make the roll call vote one of acclamation for Senator Barack Obama, all the uneasiness over dissent fell away. As President Clinton, Senator Kerry and Senator Biden made the clear case why a vote for Senator John McCain is a vote for more of the same, we applauded. As Barack Obama’s strengths were called out, we cheered. And as Barack Obama stood shoulder to shoulder with Joe Biden, we committed ourselves to working together to make hope a reality. We committed ourselves to electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the next President and Vice President of the United States of America.