The Moments You Remember

I don't usually post about politics on this blog, leaving the ranting and raving to my blog on sustainability issues. But regardless of your political party affiliation, or even the country that you live in, last night was a momentous occasion. It's not often that you stand in the course of time knowing that this moment will be written into the history books. I can remember twice in my childhood when my parents told me to remember a moment, that history was being made. One was the moon landing, and though I was only three I remember it clearly, perhaps because of my parents' solemn pronouncement and the fact that everyone was unaccustomedly glued to the television set. I can still see the room clearly in my head, where people were seated, the fuzzy black and white imagines on the old console TV. The second was when Nixon resigned, and my mom pulled the car over and turned the radio up, and again I can tell you exactly what road we were driving on.

So as Obama began his speech on the eve of his garnering the delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, I uttered the same words to my kids: Pay attention now, history is in the making this moment. Of all the white and "Western" nations in this world, America is nominating a black man to aspire to our highest office. Enough of us (though admittedly not all of us) have moved beyond the issue of a person's skin color, and choose to judge their candidate on his abilities alone. Of course, if Hillary had been the nominee, another kind of history would've also been made. A woman candidate as a major party nominee would've been a first for America, though not for the rest of the Western world. This moment is a living proof that whatever else may be wrong with our country in the moment, we are still striving towards a better world for all of our many diverse citizens.

And all of us, kids and adults alike, will remember where we were this moment, forever.