Because of Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, and his lyricist John Barlow, the Thomas Jefferson of Cyberspace, I've been almost everywhere in the United States of America. The most inspiring place I've meditated is the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. Another of the most moving experiences I've had was spending an afternoon in a civil rights memorial church across the street from the State Capitol Building in Montgomery, Alabama. In my lifetime, we've gone from Rosa Parks, to Dr. King, to Barack. I grasped the truth that we are all fundamentally the same when I was 3 years old. I was forbidden to play with the new kids across the street, and I went anyway. My parents lied. These children were just like me.

The first thing I realized about the text only internet 20 years ago, is that race was nonexistent. We exchanged ideas and networked. With a toe in the door, Cyberia was a level field for all of humankind regardless of race, creed, class, or sexual orientation. We became intellectual mutants of the Electronic Renaissance in a pure democracy.

A couple of weekends ago, after a Natrona County High School football game on Cheney Alumni Field, (Darth donated the artificial turf), my brother an I were engaged in a robust discussion of the plot flaws of Othello as the music stopped at last call. Iago enrages the, "genetically inferior," Othello to jealous murder of Desdemona effortlessly. Our argument was directed at an old friend of ours who refused to vote for Barack on the basis of race alone. Later, in the parking lot, I bellowed, "You're not a Republican! You're a fucking bigot!"

We put our collective shoulder to the task at hand, changing the political and diplomatic direction of our beloved country. We networked. We invested sweat equity in a common cause for justice. We revisited the most powerful tactic in politics, individual contact. We were all winners in a landslide mandate of the American people. Oprah said, "I think hope won."

The Empire's Deathstar collapsed. Vader won't transfer his life force to the Palin vessel. But we have only begun to remove the bricks of bigotry that block us from the Constitutional ideals of our founding fathers. Yet the force is strong with this one it is. He called for the unity of all Americans, including gays last night in Grant Park.

One of the most miserable days of my life was spent in the freezing sleet and gloom outside fellow NCHS alumni Matthew Shepard's funeral. In a literal thunderstorm of snow, I became part of a unified community. Republican back woods conservatives stood shoulder to shoulder with gay activists to form a unified wall of humanity protecting the Peck and Shepard families from the, "God Hates Fags," vitriol spewed by, "Rev." Fred Phelps and his misguided, "Christian," flock protesting vociferously. Our human barrier was a collective conscience of the right thing to do.

Hope is intrinsic to the human heart. Those of us who love one another know that to be a self evident truth. In response to the empirical atrocities of the last eight years, the fundamental principles of democracy have prevailed, and cast a beacon of hope to a waiting world. In the darkest hours of his personal life, John Barlow taught me, "Groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having."

Goddamn I love you fucking earthlings.