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Kay Hagan, you've got a big day today.

You'll place your hand on your own Bible, and with 20 members of your family and closest friends around you in the storied halls of Capitol Hill, you'll become the first U.S. Senator to ever come from Greensboro.

It's a big deal. But you know that. You did what was generally considered unthinkable a year ago.

You beat out four rival Democrats, and you toppled one of the biggest names on The Hill - Elizabeth Dole, a native North Carolinian, a known power broker and wife of a popular former senator.

Let's be honest. You trounced her. You won 53 percent of the vote to Dole's 44 percent - the largest margin of victory for a Senate race in North Carolina in 30 years.

That ad Dole ran didn't help. You know the one. It's where she called into question your Christianity a week before the election. Even my 10-year-old son thought it was trash.

But you hit it head-on. And it worked. Now, you occupy the seat held for 30 years by the guy who pioneered the kind of hard-hitting, negative ads that essentially deep-sixed your opponent.

That, of course, was Jesse Helms.

And to think, back in the '70s, after graduating from Florida State, you worked on Capitol Hill for your Uncle Bud. He was U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles, and you spent six months as one of his interns.

You stood at the elbow of senators as you operated an elevator that ferried them to and from the chambers. Now, you're riding the elevator.

But be honest. You've got some headaches. For starters, our economy is dismal. Just listen to someone like Michael Lewis.

He's 31, a divorced father who just wants a job. He got laid off from a photography studio in Four Seasons Town Centre, where he sold picture packages.

Now, he's waiting on a $400 check from working part time at a mall kiosk selling wind spinners. But the check hasn't come. His sister has kicked him out of her apartment. And he's homeless. He lives at the Greensboro shelter.

Walk into the food bank at Greensboro Urban Ministry, and it's the same story. The food pantry is rounding up more food for more people asking for help.

Yet, you're ever the optimist. You drove into Washington on Friday with your husband, Chip, saw the white-marble monuments of our past and thought about the Latin motto of our land: E Pluribus Unum, or out of many, one.

We can pull it together, you tell worried people who ask about our future.

You see that American moxie in downtown Greensboro. Rob Lamothe left the jet-setting corporate world, his wife, Tracy, left the world of accounting, and together, they are pursuing their dream: owning and operating a restaurant.

They opened their restaurant in May on North Greene, and they call it Riva's, after their daughter and Tracy's great-great-grandfather, Giovanni Riva.

Business is good. But like any small business, they need that economic stimulus package Barack Obama is talking about.

But can you really have an impact? You're a freshman senator. Freshmen senators have hardly any clout, and no senator from North Carolina - except Helms - has served more than one term.

Yet, you're one of us. That's more than what we can say about your former opponent.

Born in Shelby. Worked on a tobacco farm. Graduated from Wake Forest School of Law. Served as a bank vice president. Turned into a soccer mom, raising your three kids on Greensboro's Myers Lane, before following the political path of your uncle and your dad, the former mayor of Lakeland, Fla., and served a decade in the N.C. Senate.

Still, Washington is different. Some call it the "Potomac Fever,'' an ailment brought on by power and personality. So, please: don't forget us as you ride that elevator.

Think of your Uncle Bud. But think of Michael Lewis. And Tracy and Rob Lamothe.

They need you.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com