Tears streaming down my face.

I’m a 50-year-old white guy. I don’t cry often. Yet as I sat here listening to Barack Obama’s speech today, tears streamed down my face. I sat here like a typical man trying to figure out why.

I think it was a combination of both pain and joy. As I heard his words he brought out the realization that has always been inside me of the pain and frustration of not only blacks in America, but whites as well. The things we have seen, been taught, realized and often tried to ignore. The beliefs that have evolved through my experiences as a white man in America. My attitudes towards blacks that have been in my life.

The pain and the frustration I have felt in politics, with the games, the cynicism, the division, the lack of leadership. The false patriotism, the misuse and distortion of religious beliefs. The pain of the frustration with untruths, misstatements and lies by our supposed leaders and by the media. The frustration of win at all costs attitude, while actually believing in something, believing in someone has been so hard to do.

I also cried from the absolute joy of there being a man that truly understands not just the black man but me as well. That there is a man who will stand up and say what he believes. That there is a man who will fight with us, not against us, with all of us, black, white, Latino, rich, poor, middle class.

I cried from the joy I have felt throughout this campaign looking at the youth of America at his rallies, who do not hold the divisions that those of my generation do. That they are excited, they are ready to believe, they are ready to work and unite behind such a man.

This country has needed a true leader for much too long. I cried in joy because as I heard his words I know from deep in my heart, that leader has arrived in Barack Obama.