It's been a long twelve years.
The AP has called the Virginia Senate race for Jim Webb.
In November 1994 I was seventeen years old; I was a senior in high school. I woke up the morning after the election and ran to get the paper. My father was at the kitchen table drinking his coffee. I picked up the paper, took one look at the headline, and threw it across the room. I don't remember the exact words I used, but they were foul enough to draw a rebuke from my father. "It's not going to matter," he told me. "This isn't something that's going to make a difference in our everyday lives."
It's been a long twelve years.
During that time I've learned what it's like to be poor, to have to search through cushions for bus money to get to work - and on getting there to find that you didn't have a job anymore, so sorry, we did call you this morning to tell you, why are you here? I've been paid less than minimum wage and stuffed myself at events that offered free food so that I wouldn't need supper later. I've learned what it's like to have pneumonia and be turned away at the doctor's office because you don't have $90 cash to give them up front. I've seen bigotry against women, minorities, and gays enshrined in law and enforced through public policy.
It's been a long twelve years.
Politics is a ripe breeding ground for cheesy rhetorical imagery. I'm sure it's the emotion of the day and not the power of the words that burned Tom Daschle's concession speech of November 3rd, 2004 into my memory. He said that he'd seen the sun set over the mall in Washington, DC (I have too, and from a plane no less - a breathtaking sight) and that he'd seen the sun rise over Mount Rushmore - and that he liked sunrises better than sunsets. As I was telling a friend the other day, I like sunsets best: they're pretty, and you have to get up far, far too early to see the sun rise, unless it's winter, and in the winter it's too cold.
There is no sunset I've ever been gladder to see than the metaphorical one that marks the end of the rule of these Republicans who launched themselves to power by stomping on our best hope to bring healthcare to everyone, and whose latest electoral push has been based on the idea that people with accents and brown skin should be automatically denied the opportunity to participate fully in society. And yet I'm uncertain - it's hard to imagine what this new day will look like. It's been such a very long twelve years.
I'm daring to let myself hope that it's over now. But I know too that my work has not yet ended. This victory is a tool not an end; we will have to use it to further fight for justice and create the world we want. I'm ready to begin.
Oh, and thanks, D.C. United - I'd definitely rather have this than the MLS Cup.