A New Lease on Life in the U.S.A.

Despite all the worries of an unstable economy that is causing job loss among friends and neighbors and their children, record bankruptcy proceedings, and failed businesses, the mood in my neck of the woods was absolutely jubilant last night and this morning as the country anticipates a new era of American integrity and tolerance with the election of Barak Obama. Saul went to Obama headquarters in nearby Lansdale on Monday evening to make phone calls to help get out the vote. His canvassing days on foot are over, I fear, because of the problems with his knees. He came across a few obnoxious Democrats, but most of the 150 he contacted were as enthusiastic as we for the possibility of victory.

He went to the polls at 7 a.m. yesterday, hoping to vote before his classes started at 8 a.m., but encountered 75-100 people in line ahead of him. Randi came over in the morning and we took Mom for an appointment to see her gynecologist, and that went well. Randi left to take her elderly father to his polling place and vote herself in her neighborhood. Beth had asked that we wait for her to vote. She came home from work early, and Saul, Mom, Beth and I were walking into our polling place by 3:45 p.m. Thankfully, there was no line. Saul helped Mom in the voting booth and we had exercised our civic duty by 4:10 p.m. Everyone was feeling so happy about the ease of it all that we decided to take Mom with us to a nearby Thai restaurant for an early dinner. Because we were so early, the restaurant was empty and so that part was easy also. This was Mom's first outing since August. We spent the rest of the evening viewing the election results intermittently with working on our computers. We went to sleep very elated! Philadelphia is really a happy place between Obama winning the election and the Phillies winning the World Series.

Ari, who needed to vote early in DC in order to get to work in time for meetings, encountered a very long line. He snapped this photo with his iPhone as he was finally nearing the entrance after waiting for about 75 minutes to vote. He said that when he arrived, the line in front of him was as long as the line behind him that he photographed. Adele was the first one to vote in her neighborhood as Larry works at the polls and she arrived with him at 6 a.m.

All of us hope that this clean sweep in our government will usher in a new, more prosperous, and more peaceful era. We can only hope!