This is via an email from my friend’s mom. Read it to the end if you will. It’s why I like Americans:

Yes­ter­day, I was a poll worker in M-. There was a record turnout in this little Repub­lican strong­hold. BUT, in my dis­trict alone, there was an increase of 200 voters, bring­ing the total to 700. And guess what…657 of them got to the polls yes­ter­day. Amaz­ing how con­nec­ted us “com­mon” folks were to the beau­ti­ful mes­sage of hope.

I don’t have the num­bers, and I don’t think Obama car­ried our little town, but we were dif­fer­ent yes­ter­day. A choice was being made. Not the old straight-line Repub­lican exer­cise of past dec­ades.

The turnout was huge here. By 6:00 AM, there were 15 people (two in wheel­chairs) lined up to vote. I would estim­ate that more that 90% of M– voted yes­ter­day. Everything was quiet and orderly. In a town where the Demo­crats and Inde­pend­ents some­times don’t even bother to show up, every­one came. There actu­ally were a few times that voters had to wait for up to 10 minutes. This is very rare in M-. But, no one com­plained. It was a very, very ser­i­ous ritual that was being per­formed yesterday.

At one point, the teacher of an after-school day care pro­gram came in with a group of little kids. They were observing the import­ant event that was tak­ing place, and they were impressed with the sense of pur­pose the grown-ups were trans­mit­ting. They went back to their school to hold their own elec­tion… “which breed makes the best pet, cats or dogs”?

I loved work­ing for the Board of Elec­tions yes­ter­day. To be at a place where I saw the Amer­ica I remem­ber. When chil­dren came to watch the vot­ing pro­cess, to help their par­ents “pull the lever” for Demo­cracy. To be coun­ted among the millions.

As soon as the polls closed, I went to M– to be with the Obama cam­paign people I worked with every­day for the last two months. It was an indes­crib­able release of ten­sion and vin­dic­a­tion of our tire­less­ness and ded­ic­a­tion to this extraordin­ary man. We were truly part of an army. And we won the war unconditionally.

At 9:01, when the West Coast came online and sim­ul­tan­eously declared Obama the president-elect, we all cried and hugged and screamed and cheered. And we felt as one with the 61 mil­lion people that were finally able to express the true spirit of this country.

The world is watch­ing, and is hope­ful about Amer­ica. And my grand­chil­dren live in a dif­fer­ent coun­try today. One of hope and prom­ise and optim­ism. Just like the post-WW2 Amer­ica I lived in as a child, but better…more inclus­ive. I helped make that hap­pen. I’m proud of myself today. And of my fellow-Americans.