What it's all about

Seriously guys sometimes we forget. Here's a note from a reader:

My father (85 year old African-American and, in fact, a "public
intellectual" who helped coin the phrase "African-American" 40 years
ago, a phrase we now take for granted on our census forms) and his wife
(77 old European-American, the term they both hope will replace "white"
someday, and life-long civil rights activist and academic) voted this
morning in Atlanta, GA.  My stepmother emailed me this morning to tell
me about their experience, early voting, getting "fragile elderly"
treatment from the poll-workers, wishing she could kick up her
septuagenarian heels after casting her vote.

I sat in my office, reading her email, and wept.  Then, I went down the
hall to my colleague's office, sat down, and wept.  After seven decades
of constant struggle, my father walked into that booth and knew that his
life's work was now done.  My stepmother can think of every person who
secretly and not-so-secretly thought of her as some kind of race
traitor, smile and think "I told you so!" 

Obama will win, I'm sure he will.  But today, my parents did.  I am so
deeply, deeply grateful.