I will say without mincing words that being part of the Election 2008 Visiting Journalists Program was a privilege which I will cherish for a long time to come.

“Think about it,” Alethia Lambert and Fern Whyte insisted after I told them I would choose one of my reporters to send on the U.S. State Department’s Election 2008 Visiting Journalists Program.

I was sent on attachment to The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina to observe the U.S. election for 10 days. I felt very grateful that the program sent me there because I think I have witnessed the evolution of American society, at least from the perspective of this southern town.

Several thoughts went through my mind when I was told that I was chosen to cover the last days of the U.S. elections in a program organized by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).