As we await the outcome of this extraordinary election, a few thoughts for what the country has been through for 8 long divisive years, and what the circus of a campaign is directing us toward. I have the strong sense we will begin another era of American politics, one in which the US re-enters the community of nations and stops the rogue state cowboy militarism and non-diplomacy that has haunted the failed Bush presidency. This nation has often had the chance, in JFK's words, 'to truly light the globe.' Now the opportunity is coming round again, and one is glad to think a bright thoughtful man about the same age as Kennedy when his presidency ended, will know enough, will be wise enough, to bring the land (that gave us so many rallying ideas since its inception in the 18th Century, into a new epoch of good will, strong diplomacy, and ideas for the betterment of mankind. It has always been within the compass of good leadership to make positive decisions about poverty, health care, nuclear power, and the possibility through institutions like the United Nations of trying to help nations and people find rational and satisfying approaches to the multitudinous problems that face the world. It is with a soulful optimism that I greet you this morning, the sunlit day announcing a sense of boundless possibilities