He won, we won, the world won

I say without any hesitation that this has been one of the greatest nights of my life. And I am sure that countless others feel the same way.

In the wake of slavery, lynch mobs, the vast power of the KKK, assassinations of activists and endless modalities of segregation and discrimination, tonight a black man was elected president of the United States of America. Even a capital state of the Confederacy, Virginia, voted for him. (As I write this, the electoral votes stand at 338 for Barack Obama and 160 for John McCain.)

By 8:15 p.m., I was in the midst of a wonderfully noisy crowd in front of the barrio headquarters of Raúl Grijalva, one of the first in Congress to support Obama. Raúl gave a simple, beautiful talk, thanking his legion of volunteers who have gone door to door for months and echoing Barack's message of challenge and hope for the future.

A computer was projecting MSNBC on a high outdoor scrreen. I think it was two minutes after nine when a graphic suddenly showed Obama's electoral numbers had gone over the top. The local scene had already been electric, and the response to this news would have blown away the roof if we'd had one.

Goodbye to Bushworld with its outrageous impunity. Goodbye to the monarchical "unitary presidency." Goodbye to preemptive war, to illegal prisons and torture. Goodbye to unbridled deregulation. Goodbye to thumbing the nose at the rest of the world.

It is a brand new day for our country, and yes, for the world.