Si se Puede!

(Thanks Anna for the title of this post, I was just going to write it in English).

Last night was so overwhelming that I think I actually felt numb. I was disappointed in Obama's speech, but I can't imagine what was going through his head. What must it feel like to not only be President, but to be the first non-white president, and to do it all the day after your beloved grandmother, the woman who raised you, died? I still am so excited to see the future under his leadership. Seeing Jesse Jackson and Oprah and all those other African-Americans with tears in their eyes, Americans whose great-grandparents were "property", whose grandparents and parents suffered under segregation, just filled me with pride. Pride about my country again. I said it here, I know, I just did not believe that the United States was at the point where we would elect a black President. I thought racism still ran too deep. I have never been more happy to have been wrong. And I am so excited that my next child will be born into a country where truly anybody can be president.

I read the blog of a friend who is a very conservative Christian. She, of course, was very disappointed in the outcome of the election and linked to a couple of blogs expressing that unhappiness. It was very interesting to read the other side. One of the blogs was completely off her rocker and said how this was a sign of the End of Times, the other was a very measured and eloquent expression of how she did not agree with Barack Obama, but she could recognize how historic it was for black Americans to have someone who looked like them in the White House. How they could now say to their children, "you too can be President", like white Americans have told their (at least male) children for centuries. The latter woman is the type of Conservative Christian we can have a dialogue with. Hopefully we can reach out to these people and mend the country a bit. It's hard because they see everything through the eyes of their Christian religion, and I'm not even sure that I am religious, but I hope we can make small steps towards a common ground.

Of course both these women reached the conclusion that now unborn babies will be slaughtered at increasing rates. Is there some sort of uptick in abortions the day after elections or something? I don't get it. In any case, I can certainly agree that a decrease in the number of unwanted pregnancies is something to strive for. Hopefully having a President and an administration who believes in sex ed, birth control and women's rights will achieve that. If we decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies, we decrease the number of abortions, and, once again, I think we can all agree that would also be a wonderful thing.