Now I know that all I’ve hoped for so long, but that I couldn’t believe until the end, it’s true for real. I’ve waited some days before writing. I’ve followed the process until the last poll closed and I remember the long night spent on an air mattress, trying not to sleep, so that the awakening could be less traumatic. Yes, because I was scared to wake up to an old
This prouves, as i've always thought, that money can do a lot, but not the difference; money can sometimes buy people, but it not always changes mentalities. Lack of funds or significate corporate support for one time didn't count that much; for one time those who once sought influence promising big reward had to go home; power shared by the hands of few, isn't always a commonplace.
These days are just a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago. But this time the awakening was different and it was real. It was really time to start to dream, this is a moment to dream. So let me absorb this euphoria.
Voters began lining up before dawn, hours before polls opened. People decided not to surrender, people decided to give a chance to democracy, even if their expectations have been disregarded so many times in the last years, destroyed, broken, trampled, disenchanted. Even if they knew they could live another deception, another unhopeful day to be added to other broken promises. Even if there was the remote possibility to change nothing, they had the gut to jump out and go. And vote. And they made history.
It’s like election time in my small village. It's like seeing an old man getting out of the car, accompanied by someone, using a stick to support himself, hardly walking inside the village school to exercise one of the greatest right that we’ve ever gained. Yes, because the right to vote it’s not old stuff. So many people struggled and died to grant everyone on this earth the right to play their role in the society. There are many things i dislike about my country, but election time is a special moment for me. Even if these people are often pretty old, they don’t give up and they still fight for their ideas and most of all, for a better future for their grandchildren, even if they won’t be there with them for any longer. I admire those people and I admired those who finally understood and exercised this right in this crucial occasion.
Many citizens voted for their first time.
Let’s think about those who once marched, sang and those who now can say: “it’s happening,”. This is not a question of race, I’ve never seen this election as a question of race, but I can surely affirm it’s a redemption for many.
Many people didn’t get to the Promised Land, but somebody will get there. Those who fought and saw people falling in the streets, pushed away by the water jets, and repeated form of injustices, could not hold back the tears, the emotions of a lifetime suddenly came to mind, one by one. It's like a return game, but there's no revenge.
Tough days lie ahead. But it’s a moment to dream. Americans have earned that right, along with the renewed respect of the world.
This is the country I’ve been told and that I got to know. The country i’ve discovered through the tales of my father and later those i've read, written about and experienced on my own skin. This is the country that represents the people who crossed my path for a minute or a lifetime.
We don’t know if this dream will become reality, but now it’s still our time to dream.
This is what happened in a Tuesday night of one month ago…and all this happened for real…
We awake to a different world now.
