Outside, on the boulevard, pedestrians shouted and drivers honked their horns in paroxysms of unrestrained joy. Those who had wanted a different outcome to the day were silent.

Inside my daughter's apartment, her friends and friends of her friends became quiet, too, as they gathered around the television to watch a momentous event unfold. It was an event they had helped create with their votes, as they watched and listened to and applauded the words of Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America.