yes we did!

Sitting here with a huge grin on my face and chills all over my body, sporting my "friends don't let friends vote republican" t-shirt from my high school days wondering when I will actually realize the magnitude of this night, the night that Barack Obama was elected president!

The shirt is in response to Bob's comments, the man who stood in front of me at the polls this morning. Let me paint a picture for you: the first thing I noticed was his jacket, one of those big puffy down ones that was decorated with patches from Alaska where he worked in the oil industry. I could barely see Bob's face for the beard that was hiding it and the cowboy hat, and of course the matching boots. Don't forget the Reagan '84 button! I really must give it to the Republicans, though, for somehow being able to unite the two most opposite groups of people: the extremely wealthy who want to protect their money and the rednecks who want to hold on to their guns.

Bob made the first hour and fifteen minutes of the process entertaining by chatting and showing me magic tricks, all while insulting the intelligence of women and calling me a little girl. All of this while I'm standing in line reading about the difficulties of Arab women for my women's studies class. Little did he know...

I'm sure he was thrown off by my polo shirt and sweet southern charm, but he had a hard time detecting my political affiliation. Finally he said, jokingly, "you know them Obama voters are supposed to vote tomorrow," in which I replied, "really, well what am I doing here today then?!"

He proceeded with attempts to change my mind by calling myself and Obama a socialist, communist, Muslim, friend of terrorists, and baby killer. Really? He had the audacity to do that? First, he asked me what I liked about Obama? I replied by saying, "the better question would be what don't I like about Obama?" He started with the socialism talk, then the communism. Maybe he assumed that I didn't really know anything, but that tactic isn't going to work on me, the political-scientist who actually likes communism. Then he asked if I'd done much traveling, I so desperately wished I'd had my passport with me. I said yes, and so he asked if I'd been to any socialist countries, which I have and they were quite nice! In fact, they are the reason why I voted for Obama because during my travels to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia I was struck by the fact that the decisions of my nation's election impacted the rest of the world. If there was one message that the people I encountered gave me it was, "please, vote for Obama!" These people were more knowledgeable and excited about the US election than many Americans were. In fact, today I received so many emails from my friends around the globe asking me about the election. It really amazes me!

It gets better, though. After telling me how he lost his company because the democrats taxed him too much, he asked if I went to church. "yes," I replied, knowing where this conversation was headed. Then he says, "are you a christian?" Holding back and not replying, "no, I'm a buddhist..." I said "yes." Pause. Then I said, "I'm a christian and a democrat, can you believe that? I bet you didn't know those existed!" Then Bob says, "that's an oxymoron, you can't possibly be both." Really? You can't? I'm screwed. He made me so angry by calling my faith into question. Who is he to do that, because last time I checked God, not man, had the power to judge that. I simply said, "You can pray for my soul."

I hope he did just that, as I did for him the whole way back to Athens. I prayed that God's will would be done in this election (code for pretty pretty please let Obama win) and that Bob would really know Christ. But I hope he prays for me because I am no better than him. I am judging him now and have been all day, and also find it hard to believe that republicans can be christians sometimes...I know that they are and that they can be, just sometimes I wonder if we read different Bibles. In all seriousness, though, I know that republicans can be, and are, wonderful christians because I have lots of great friends that are.

But Obama won tonight, so clearly God likes me more than he likes Bob. Sike! Only kidding!!! God loves us all, equally!!!

Yes we can and Yes we did!!!