Dear Victor and Oscar,

When you wake up tomorrow, it will be a brand new day.
For the entirety of your lives, we have lived in a nation submerged in doubt, fear, war, and deceit. Every day of your short lives I have worried about your futures, about the paths lying before you as citizens of this country and of this world. I have lain awake nights worrying about this war we’re in, and fearing that someday your names would be called to serve, to die, like so many before you. I have lain awake nights dreading the morning light; knowing that the coming dawn will bring higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher everything prices, and knowing that each cent spent on the basic needs of daily living leaves less to provide for your education, for your future. For the entirety of your lives we have lived under the direction of a President with no moral code, with no ethics, no conscience. We have lived in the shadow of his ego and self-serving ambitions. We haven’t seen the sun for 8 years.
But tomorrow, tomorrow when you wake up, you will wake up to the sun. Tonight as you sleep, the people of this nation have spoken. The people of this nation have decided that they are tired of the darkness. They are tired of the cold, impersonal, and abusive policies we’ve struggled and failed under for the last 8 years. They are through with hate and negativity and abuse.
Tonight, the people of this great nation elected Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States of America.
Barack Obama will not be able to end the war on his own. He will not be able to lower gas prices, food prices, anything prices on his own. He will not pay the mortgage or put food on our table. He will not send you to college. He will not be able to change anything on his own or immediately. He is not the messiah. He is not a god. He is but a man. But he is change. With his election, there is hope. With his election, there is potential for greatness that has not yet existed in your lives. He is the first black man to ever hold the office of President. And it’s a beautiful thing that the color of his skin will mean nothing to you when you are old enough to understand it. With his election, he has changed the very landscape laid out before you. The good he does will only add to the beauty of that landscape. I can’t wait for us to be a part of that good, to leave our mark on that landscape.
When you wake up tomorrow, we are going to celebrate. It’s a brave new world, my little men, and it’s full of hope.
Love,
Mama