The peaceful revolution.

Once upon a time in high school history class, we were discussing regime change, revolutions and the violence that is associated with them. Examples: Bolsheviks in Russia, our own Revolutionary War, etc. etc. I remember the teacher comparing our own election every 4 years to a revolution. A peaceful revolution.

This idea has stuck with me and I've thought about this a lot over the last few days. I and roughly 100 million of my fellow Americans took time out of our busy lives to head to our local polling place and participate in an organized, legitimate revolution of government.

I can't even put into words how I felt as I waited in line to vote yesterday. I drove up from Provo to Salt Lake in the morning (because I never changed my voting registration). There was a terrible rain storm outside so it was wet and cold and just plain miserable. But as I looked around, I noticed the variety of people who braved the storm to be there in line to vote with me. The middle aged office worker who was clearly on his way to work late. The fragile grandma with her walker and the nice volunteer who picked her up to come vote. The very pregnant young mother with an impatient 2-year-old in tow. And me, twentysomething grad student. A cross-section of Americanity all there in a condo complex clubhouse to do their civic duty and individually contribute to a peaceful change in government.

While the candidate I voted for didn't ultimately win, I am not disappointed in the result. The system worked and the country has elected a new president. Majority rules and I respect that. I've seen many of my friends on Facebook and elsewhere making comments about how upset (sad, pissed,etc) they are with the result. Each person is entitled to their own opinion and it is fine to be disappointed that the election didn't go your way. However, the election is over and it's time now to support our new leader. While I don't agree with all of President-elect Obama's politics, I think he'll do a good job and he will get all of my respect reserved for the leader of our country.

Congratulations and good luck President Obama. You're going to need it.