Good morning, America

I just don't have the words. But I think I do have the song.

And that song is "The News" by Carbon Silicon (featuring Mick Jones of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite), sums up my feelings better than anything right now, certainly better than my own writing does.





However, the more I hear from the actual news, the pundits, the media outlets, the usual suspects, how much I gather that no one has the words right now. Or at least no one has the comprehension.

For you see, the United States did more than elect a new president; it did more than select a Democrat over a Republican. It even did more than select an African-American president, although that in and of itself is HUGE and a thing whose import I do not want to diminish. I mean, my home state of North Carolina, a former member of the Confederacy and the site of so many civil rights abuses and battles over the years, once home to both the KKK and the Black Panthers, voted 50 percent for Obama and 49 percent for McCain. That in and of itself represents a radical change.

No, what happened at about 11 pm on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, was seismic, cataclysmic. It transcends the everyday struggles of politics and race, generations and genders. It feels revolutionary, cosmic, as if we just witnessed the world change in the blink of an eye and nothing will ever be the same again.

People started calling those in power to account
And people started saying, "I want my voice to count"

An overstatement? I don't think so. It just hasn't sunk in yet, what just transpired, but the same ol' same ol' can't happen again. And if it does, if anyone tries it, I think it will be recognized for what it is--inauthentic, false, a lie.

Again, I just don't have the words. But, oh, I have the feelings.