Party!
Originally uploaded by Tkalifa.

I can't help but feel like I'm just hours before experiencing a pivotal moment in my life.

I'm in Washington DC, staying with my brother, and getting ready to head to the inauguration of America's first African-American President. We will be joining the estimated 2 million other Americans in reveling in this historic occasion. I can't believe I get to be a part of it.

The drive out here had a sense of electricity throughout. Technically, it was just Stacy and I in the car together for nine hours plowing our way through the snowy and largely darkened midwest...but it felt like we were part of something much much bigger. As we passed and rode alongside the other drivers bound for DC, I felt like an electron chasing a wire towards the first electric bulb. I felt momentum, a sense of moving forward...something I haven't felt for a long time, and certainly something I wouldn't have felt driving towards our nation's capital.

To think I'm currently sitting a few miles from the spot where Barack Obama will be elected tomorrow...and to think that tomorrow I will be standing only couple hundred yards away while it happens...it's insane. I have never before seen two million people in one place. I have never heard the roar of two million voices, or the rattle of two million hands...I can't wait to hear it tomorrow as President Obama concludes his oath. I can't wait to celebrate with two million others...to scream and cheer with those around me...to embrace my loved ones around me and the strangers to either side of me in a communal celebration of a truly new day. To walk in the center of the electricity that is this remarkable moment in history.

We must be careful not to deify Mr. Obama...not to mistake this remarkable man as the sole reason for our energy and vibrance this week. I am more thrilled to have Barack Obama as our next Commander in Chief than I can articulate, and for reasons that I have largely already articulated in public and private forums...but this is not about Obama alone; far from it. It's about our next huge step, and the realization that we have finally broken the barrier to the nations most aspirational role. A country as rebellious, young, and radical as ours is bound to have massive flaws as we grow and create our own rules...and the flaw of cultural and institutional racism against Africans (and then African-Americans) has been perhaps our most visible sin. While the battle against this type of racism is far from over, tomorrow we get to celebrate our next biggest step.

To think that I get to be party to this culmination of the story of our nation to this date...it's unimaginable. I will keep ya'll updated as we go... but please join me in celebrating this unprecented victory step in the war against racism in this country, and in embracing and welcoming our nation's new leader.

I'm really, really charged.

Peace to you,
Justin