NOTE: I tried to post this earlier today but the video did not work correctly. Now it's been uploaded to YouTube, so I'm re-posting. Also cross-posted at Huffington Post
One of my fellow Arizonans made a beautiful video (which I've embedded after the jump) entitled, I Cried Today. The first part is a poem and then supporters say why it important to them to elect Barack Obama.
From the video maker:
On April 7th my mother sent me an email Forward and the subject line was, "Today I Cried." I remember thinking, "What in the world made my mother cry?" So I opened the email to find a poem (see below). The poem so moved me that I immediately adopted it into a script and began the process of putting together a shoot.
These people are not actors; they are ordinary Obama supporters. Oh, how I wish you could have been there to feel the energy and love in the room the day we taped.
If it does not make you cry, or at least tear up, then you don't have a soul, or a heart, or ok, ok, maybe you're just not the crying type, but I promise you, I cried.
Take the jump, it is worth your while.
Be sure that you watch the part after the poem. Each of the people in the video talks about why it is personally important to them that Barack Obama wins. That was the part that made me cry.
TODAY, I Cried
Today, I cried.....I voted for a black man and, I cried.
I cried for my father and my grandfather and all grandfathers before him.
I cried for my uncles, my four brothers, my seventeen nephews, my two sons, my six grandsons and one great-grand son.
I cried for the black men I have loved and those that have loved me.
I cried for the millions of little black boys (not forgetting the girls) over the centuries that did not, in their wildest dreams, imagine...that they could run for Office.
I cried for their despair...I cried for all the men and boys incarcerated that lost hope in themselves and took the low road. I cried, I cried and I cried..
I know that this was 'just the primary.' But whatever the end result may be, today I voted in the United States of America for a black man, and...
I cried.
If I should die before the presidential election it will be OK,
Because today I voted. I voted for a black man and I cried.
Author Unknown
The author to this beautiful poem is unknown. I have searched the web for a source but to no avail. If anyone knows the source, please post it to the comments so that I can give credit where credit is due.