He was Edmond Dantes...

In case you don't know, some shit went down this week.

Living in Chicago for many years now, I am rapturous at the idea that a Senator I helped vote into office, has now been elected President of the United States. Moreover, this is the first politician I have ever truly believed in. Which is not to say that there haven't been good men and women that I have been happy to support before. However, I remember Obama announcing his candidacy from the steps of the State Capitol where Lincoln did the same thing over one hundred forty years ago. The tone of that speech set the tone for his campaign, and I remember listening to it, then calling my mother and telling her that for the first time in my short Presidential voting record, I would be voting for a candidate instead of against one. I bought my Obama T-shirt that day too. There would be many democratic contenders, and a brutal primary season that would follow, but I was never truly afraid of failure because I had seen the man in action. At a rally for a south Chicago hospital that Obama had fought for insurance and fair wages for the employees as a lawyer and organizer, I saw the man in person, and was moved by his compassion for his roots, even in the midst of his ascendancy.

Yes he is well spoken and intelligent, but it's his ability to connect with people on their own ground that makes you proud to tell people about him, and believe that he can be an agent of change. I once heard a man speak about his christian outreach attempt at the Chicago Pride Parade. A group of Christians was handing out free bottles of water, and doing very little preaching in the process. A large man in a speedo and nothing else with the body of a professional wrestler or body builder asked why they were handing out the water for free. He demanded to know what the catch was. When he told the speedo man that they were Christians, but that they were just there to give out cold water on a hot day, the man became hostile. He said that god didn't love him, and that he wasn't about to come to church and pray. He barely heard the much smaller man trying to tell him that he just wanted to give him some water if he wanted it. Not preach, not judge, not condemn. What was said next has stuck with me since. The water man said "God loves you, period. And he's willing to meet you wherever you are. Would you like this water?"

I'm not trying to say that Obama = God, cause that's not fair, or true, or even an intelligent thing to think. I'm saying that what appeals to me about the openness, and compassion that my God displays is the same openness and compassion that I saw in my candidate for President. A lot of things in this world are powerful, but what I think this election proves most of all is that hope is a trump card. Fear, anger, hate, sadness, oppression, depression, all of these are powerful tools and weapons, but they are made for battling each other. They are nothing against hope.

I had a transformative experience on the fifth of November. Guy Fawkes Night is one of my favorite holidays because of what it reminds me of. Specifically it calls on us to remember a bit of history, and what can happen when one people are pushed to far, or oppressed too much by a seemingly more powerful group. Change. Though the Gunpowder Plot failed, it set the stage for eventual reform. Eventually the oppressed people were not so oppressed any more. Eventually things get better. Once the shock of what happens wears off, people look around and ask why. I feel that a good comparison for this nontraditional holiday is actually very close to Americans without them realizing it. September 11, 2001.

Let's examine the similarities, because the only real difference is that almost 400 years later, the plot was successful. Both catholic extremists, and Muslim extremists felt oppressed by a larger controlling group. They'd both been killed for years in the name of other people's wars. They both sought change by shocking and hurting what they viewed as the source of their trouble. And similar to the reform that eventually took place in Protestant England, real reform is on it's way in the United States. We finally have a chance to prove to the world that we can be a source for responsible leadership in the world. We can stop going to war and inciting more terrorists over our search for oil. We can at long last remember our mistakes as a way of affecting change on the future.

This year I built a small bonfire in my backyard and made a few effigies to toss into it. I feel cleaner now. More ready. More willing. Mostly able. I see the future, and I'm happy, and I'm hopeful.