I went early on election day  to vote at the polling station in the church on the cobblestone street in my neighborhood. The lines snaked down the block as neighbors read their morning papers, chatted, visited each other with their dogs on leashes and waited to get inside. After I voted, I went to the airport, and before the polls closed, I flew out to Africa.
 
When I arrived in Amsterdam, the big television screen outside the airport announced that Albert Gore was the next President of the United States.  I went to sleep for a few hours in an airport hotel before my connecting flight. When I awoke, the television announced George Bush was the next President of the United States. I boarded the plane, arrived hours later in Malawi and learned that the United States did not yet have a president. 
 
For the next ten days in Malawi and Ethiopia I attended meetings, visited schools in villages and at every opportunity tried to find a BBC broadcast to let me know who was the next President of the United States.  The local press began to write stories to inform Americans how to conduct an election. The banana republic of the United States of America made people smile as everyone watched all the machinery of government at work as the country tried to sort out its leadership. When I arrived home, there still was no new President.
 
Indications are that the election of 2008 will not be as close, but it too will be a historic election.  Whoever wins, barriers will fall, and the profile of leadership at the top will change in the United States.  History will only really be made, however, as the sentiments are shed which once barred women, African Americans and others of color from opportunities.
 
As we’ve watched what has seemed like an endless electoral process over more than 20 months, we have also been watching the country coming to terms with itself and its ideals and its history. The ugliness and slurs that have accompanied part of this election for the most part have been dismissed by the electorate who wants more and insists that we grow up and into our national ideal of all men and women as created equal.
 
The other day I was discussing with several young voters why this election is so unique. In addition to the specific ground-breaking profiles of an African American and a woman candidate, this election in the U.S. is the first in over 50 years when no candidate is a sitting President or Vice President. The field and the possibilities are wide open.  
 
I plan to stay around this year and watch the returns. In 2004, I was also in Washington, watching the returns with  friends. The lead in that election changed several times. At one point I looked around the room of experienced Washingtonians, many couples in long marriages who worked at senior levels in and outside of government.  I realized that almost every couple in the room had canceled each other’s votes.  When I tell that to friends from other countries, they are always surprised, yet it is more common than one might expect in Washington. For all its partisanship, the city is peopled with professionals who may vote on one side, but in their professional lives work to find ways to cooperate. They understand that for the country to run well, everyone has to work together. 
 
I’m hoping this year, whoever is the victor, he/she will have the benefit of all the citizens in the difficult tasks ahead.  If not, then I’ll look forward to reading the press in other countries to advise us how to do that.