Doug: A small request.

"Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!"

I am standing on the balcony of my dorm cluster. Below me is a crowd of hundreds, all of them cheering. Cheering. Chanting his name.

At just past 8 pm last night, CNN called it for Obama. The room I was in, a common room for all the floors of my dorm building, consequently erupted in cheers. Slaps on the back were exchanged, people cried. People Cried.

My roomates are with me on the balcony. They're all wearing grins, not mad grins, not insane or relieved grins, but genuine, honest smiles. Two of them are holding up signs, shouting back at the crowd.

"Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!"

I have never seen such a thing as this. My history books taught me about riots. About the dangers of massed groups of people. How people demonstrate against war, abortion, gay marraige. People cheering in the streets is something you hear in a fairy tale. Old legends about when the world was young, when men were men and gals were gals mention scenes like this. This doesn't happen in the real world.

The tune of the chant changes.

"YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!"

Your vote doesn't matter.

How many times have we heard this? For whatever reason, we as a people had come to believe that our vote, our voice, what our soldiers fight, bleed, kill and most of all die for, doesn't matter. We, Americans, had been beaten into this belief that we had no voice. Our shouts against the dark night mean nothing.

Well, all these people, this crowd before me, belives their voice matters. And they're the cynics, or they were. College students. Half these people can't make it to class on time, but they turned out to vote. They believe.

And they believe in one man. Or maybe it's not the man they belive in, maybe it's the words coming out of his mouth.

Senator Obama tells us that we matter. That we can change the world. That we can grow up to be whatever we want to be. That our voice is his pillar. His strength.

Without us, he says, He is nothing.

Does anyone comprehend how powerful that is? Without us, this man, this one man who promisies us the world, says he means nothing. The words coming out of his mouth make even the most skeptical person believe in himself, that he has the power, his voice can change the world.

E Pluribus Unum.

From many, one.

He told these people outside my dorm that our individual votes will raise him up. And that once he is there he will fight for them, and for this country they all used to belive in. He tells them they can be better than themselves, that the United States, as a country, can be better than itself. That somehow, they are greater than the sum of their parts. That they are powerful, they are mighty.

All these people outside are not rioting, they are not protesting, they are not angry. They're overjoyed. Who would have thought it? Bitter, hopeless American youth, overjoyed.

All because this one man, told them they were mighty, and then asked them to show it.

They belive in him, or at the very least what he stands for. For the first time they're hearing a message of Hope. That they matter, that their will is indomitable, and if they believe, just belive, they can be better than ourselves.

Well Mr. Obama, they belive in you. I'm watching this crowd of people, grin on my face as well, and they believe. They belive enough to cheer your name in the streets until well past midnight. Some of them have tests tomorrow. Some have to be up in mere hours to go work hard. All belive.

I have a small request for you sir. Don't let them down. They've done it, they've used their power to make you their hope. They belive in something bigger than themselves.

And I belive too, you've made me belive.

Ball's in your court sir. Do the impossible.

-Doug

"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
-Mal, Firefly.