Well, the tears of joy have been wiped away and I just have to write. As I was sitting on my couch watching as the results of the most significant election of my lifetime were coming in, I couldn’t help but think that I never thought I would live to see this day.  And then my good friend, Pastor Ronnie Hill, a true man of distinction who I had the pleasure to work with in the public school system for many years, a man of African decendency, an honored veteran of the American military, and a man who grew up in Ohio in an age when “no we couldn’t” ruled the day, called me as Barack Obama went over the threshold and became the president elect of this nation.  I asked him that question “Did you ever think you would live to see this day;” and the emotion in his voice as he told me that, no – he never thought a day like today would happen in his lifetime, made it clear I could not even imagine what him and other people who have directly suffered the pain of discrimination were feeling tonight.

 As a former “sawmill worker” I always am embarrassed when I find tears in my eyes.  Usually, it happens at some movie with a happy ending.  Well, tonight as I lay on the couch the tears started to flow and I realized how much emotion I had invested in President elect Obama’s campaign – and then I watched the camera pan the crowd in Chicago where Obama was to give his acceptance speech.  There was Jessie Jackson – tears flowing down his face as he was just standing quietly in the crowd.  From person to person, there were the tears.  This is truly an historic night.  But as Obama said, this election did not bring about the change we who supported him so desire, it only brought about the opportunity for that change.  The battle has just begun.  And I don’t think a president could be facing any tougher challenges than the ones Obama will be tackling.  As he said, he is the president of the people who didn’t vote for him, the ones who disagree with him, and it will be up to all of us to bring about the change that will truly restore greatness to this nation.

John McCain gave a very gracious concession speach.  But make no mistake about it, the republicans fared about as well as they could have hoped in this election.  The senate will be nowhere near the 60 vote majority.  The republicans will be able to continue blocking progressive legislation unless “we the people” stand tall along side Obama in the four years to come.  Anybody who gets all caught up in the “fluff” of the moment is kidding him/her self.  The republican “attack machine” will be in full force before January 20th.  When McCain conceded to Obama many in the crowd booed – reminding me of the divisive campaign McCain/Palin waged – and McCain suggested just what I had written about in previous posts – that we can expect a full dose of Palin in the next four years.  She has become the darling of the republican party.  And she’s no more qualified now than she was a couple months ago, she’s still affiliated with a group with ties to the John Birch Society, and I expect her to continue to fling about ridiculous claims about Obama as we go through the next four years.

Also, the republicans will be planning their return to power, if not in four, then in eight years.  I personally am expecting another Bush – Jeb the former governor of Florida.  I totally feel he would have been the candidate this time if George hadn’t been such a disaster – even the republicans aren’t that stupid.  But, make no mistake about it, if Obama does not hold George Bush, Dick Chaney, Alberto Gonzales, et al accountable for their trampling of our rights and the rights of so-called “enemy combatants,” we will pay a price down the road.  While I agree that unification is important, it is not more important than justice.  It is not more important than the basic tenets of our constitution.  All the violations of our citizens rights, our adversaries rights, all the signing statements, all the executive orders that have trampled the environment at the bequest of big business, all the abuses of the power granted by our constitution to the executive branch, the politicization of the justice department, the demise of the CIA, the introduction of government sponsored militias, the idea that the vice president is part of the chain of command – we can not truly begin the healing process in this country until these wrongs have been “righted.”

If George Bush and Dick Cheney, along with others in their administration, end up in prison – so be it.  We have sent a message to the rest of the world that we are rejecting the past eight years of abuse to our system of government and to the accepted international norms that we helped to create after the last so-called war to end all wars, WW II.  Once the abuses of the Bush administration have been fully investigated and we know all that was done in our name, then the healing can truly begin.  If I could just spend five minutes talking to Senator Obama, I would encourage him not to stand in the way of this necessary justice as Clinton did with the first Bush administration after the abuses of Iran/Contra – like Carter did after the abuses of the Nixon administration.  The American people need to know, they deserve to know, everything that has been done in the last 8 years in almost total secrecy.  Future presidents need to understand that they will not refuse oversight investigations from congress, their aides will not refuse to answer supoenas to congress or anywhere else, that this is a nation of laws and not of men.  The future of our country is far more important than the future of George Bush, Dick Cheney and the others who perpetrated the fleecing of our nation.  If these men do not get the opportunity to defend their actions in a court of law, we have failed in this election.  If they are either held accountable for their actions or exonerated by a truly impartial jury of their peers, then all America – when referring to the future – can say, “Yes we can!”