Cole / Nicole LeFavour

Hoarse but Smiling

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Never in my life have I felt so compelled to wave an American flag, so compelled to hug people, grin from ear to ear and just stare up marveling at all those tens of thousands smiling, waving flags singing and stomping their feet on the Denver Bronco stadium stands.
Image after image is painted of the nation we can have offering us a simple choice. Tonight we feel what we as a nation could be. The path there is clear and is two months to its start. Not an easy path but one that is right before us and around us and here in our flying hands.

So I'm horse from shouting and doing the wave and laughing. After this night comes the hard work as the Republican Convention begins and Carl Rove (who is here in a back room somewhere) and his machine grinds up to frenzy and spends the next two months trying to rip Senator Obama and our nation's hope to tatters.

But we are durable people — those millions of us who can not wait for equality or help with medical bills or jobs that don't vanish over seas simply so some company can make more profit for stockholders or escape the accountability of American health, environmental or worker standards.

Tomorrow the work begins all over for every American who is unwilling to risk losing the hope we have for the better nation that is in our grasp. But tonight I'll dance and sing to Bruce Springsteen. I'll go more hoarse and laugh and sing (even though I can't sing) because tonight Barack Obama accepts my vote and our nomination of him as our candidate for president.

Senator Obama is coming out now and I have chanting and stomping to do.