A Historic Day

After lunch, I am on my way to the ward to find more information from a patient's chart for my case presentation when I decide to stop by the staff tea room for a cup of coffee. As I enter the room, I hear the TV on with sound at full volume. A couple of nurses are organizing charts while looking up occasionally at the TV. The local TV channel is carrying live coverage of the US election. I make my cup of coffee and see Barack Obama on the screen getting ready for a speech. At the bottom of the screen flashes the designation: "President-Elect." As he starts to speak, I sit down with apt attention and sip my coffee absentmindedly.

Earlier in the day, I looked up the election returns online whenever I could. As I watched one swing state after another going to Obama, first Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then Virginia and Florida were starting to look more and more blue, I became increasingly hopeful even though the results were only based on exit polls. It almost sounded too good to be true - what, no "too close to call", no outcries for recount? I wasn't going to get my hopes too high; I was almost anticipating that some of the swing states would turn yellow, and then we'd get bogged down in yet another round of law suits for recounts and countersuits to stop recounts. I was telling myself that I wouldn't be convinced until the official counts were confirmed. Now that McCain has made his congratulatory phone call to Obama, I am relieved that the drama that had followed the last two elections won't be repeated this time.

I watch as President-Elect Obama speaks in his trademark soaring oratorical style. I notice that my eyes grow moist as his infectiously hopeful speech goes on, his eloquence a stark contrast to what we have had to suffer through in the last eight years. Images of his elated supporters crying, singing, and celebrating flash on the screen. Obama's election has brought hope to me and to many people who feel the country is heading in the wrong direction. But this is only the beginning; we can't expect Obama to fix everything. The things that are going wrong in the US are beyond what any one person can do to fix. He is inheriting a country with its economy in the dumps, a health care system already running over the cliff, and the only thing constantly going up is the national debt. These problems won't be solved overnight, but I know the one thing Obama can do as soon as he takes office is to repair the United States' image internationally. To paraphrase a popular credit card commercial - one economic bailout package: $700 billion; fix the health care system: $50 gajillion, to have the United States regarded around the world as the beacon of freedom and democracy once again: priceless.

With Obama's speech over and the local station switching back to its regularly programming, I dab my eyes dry and start my way to the ward again. I walk out of the staff tea room with a slight spring to my steps; I, as an American, am standing taller today.