Defying Convention

After the Democratic Convention had ended, after the speeches were made and the confetti settled on the ground at Invesco Field, I had a quiet dinner with a few members of my staff. A young African-American family sat at the table next to us. The parents wore t-shirts sporting Barak Obama's image. They had two daughters – I'm guessing about ten and fourteen years old.

I can't imagine what that night truly felt like for people only two generations removed from being banned from tables at certain restaurants; who were told they couldn't drink from certain fountains, learn at certain schools, or live in certain neighborhoods. I can't imagine how it must have felt to watch a black man stare solemnly into a camera and say to 80,000 people packed into a stadium and an additional 40 million American television viewers: "I accept your nomination for President of the United States." However, I can imagine them tucking their children into bed that night, and reminding them that this is a great country. That we should we be especially proud of a country that went from Jim Crow laws to discourage blacks from voting for sheriff, to a place where an African-American just secured the nomination to run for President.

Sure, it's self evident. But special moments need to be savored.

Some say this election will divide us. Don't tell that to the family that sat next to my table that night; or to the waitress or the customers who I overheard. Or even to the guy at the kosher deli in Commack that I visited when I returned home Friday night. For all of us, America had done something very special on a warm Thursday night in Denver, Colorado. For all of us, a barrier was broken and a dream fulfilled. You may agree or disagree with Barak Obama on a specific policy. But there can be no disagreement with the quiet pride in country and democracy that I saw at the table next to me in the restaurant that night.

There's plenty in America that needs fundamental and profound improvement. Our energy policies, our infrastructure, our health care, our schools, even the quiet discrimination that still percolates deep in many of us.

But even hardened cynics had to stop, at least on Thursday night, and say that on Thursday, the best qualities about America had proven themselves. That at the Democratic Convention, American democracy defied convention.