They went through the formal procedure of the Electoral College in the 50 states and District of Columbia, the next step toward making Barack Obama the President of the United States. They will confirm it in Congress Jan. 6, and two weeks later, Mr. President-Elect raises his right hand, swears on the Bible, and becomes Mr. President with the whole world watching.
How wonderful, how refreshing it will be to see an American president respected and loved again. As we all saw in Iraq Sunday, they don't exactly feel that way about Obama's predecessor, and that's a big reason why Obama's presidency will be so transformative.
If we have learned anything in 2008, it's the fact that America can change, that our people can take charge of their nation's destiny if properly motivated by an inspiring leader. You have to give them hope - a phrase we've heard before.
Tonight, I went to see "Milk", the brilliant Gus Van Sant film about Harvey Milk, the man who became America's first openly gay elected official when selected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, only to be murdered a year later by a fellow supervisor who also shot and killed Mayor George Moscone.
Aside from the quality and the majesty of Sean Penn's performance in the title role, what kept striking me was the eerie timeliness of this film, coming in the year where California voters approved Prop 8, banning gay marriage - in other words, taking away the right for gay couples to be as happy and protected by the law as straight couples. A step back, to be sure.
Oh, and there was another reason it was all timely. Harvey Milk built his political power from a single neighborhood, San Francisco's Castro District. It was a genuine grass-roots movement of people fighting for their right to exist and be full human beings, challenging a status quo that frightened them, intimidated them and put them in the closet.
The overriding theme was that, to build a movement, as Milk said himself numerous times, "You gotta give them hope", that even if you take away all the material possessions of life, you can never snuff out the human desire to hope.
Sound familiar? Oh yes, for it was the very same foundation of our movement, the very words that Barack Obama lived by as he pursued what, at first, seemed like an impossible dream. He gave us hope, and we converted that hope into a powerful political force that overwhelmed all the attempts to take us down.
Just as Harvey Milk became a pioneer by giving millions a champion and a role model 30 years ago, Barack Obama has done the same for us. Now I pray that we carry the lessons we have learned in this movement into changing our communities, our country and the world for the better.
YES WE CAN!!
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