Washington is the sort of place that quickly turns even the most wide-eyed ingénue into a hard bitten, been-there-done-that cynic. After six years of wading through Washington politics, I certainly believed myself immune to fairy tales and Pollyanna-like calls for hope and change and making a difference. I was wrong. Watching the Democratic Party's 2008 national convention cannot help but make optimists of all of us, I think. One hundred and forty-five years after freeing its slaves--with little but the 
clothes on their backs--the country stands poised to officially nominate a Black man to hold the highest office in the land. There is something . . . magical about watching the United States come to grips with both its failings and successes. And so, I am spending the next week glued to my television (and computer!) watching this miracle unfold.I stand in hope because now everything seems possible. I stand in awe.
(See too post below.)
