Half the battle
Last night, I was glued to the television screen watching the election results come in, as I'm sure many of you were. And when CBS announced that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States of America, I can hardly describe the joy I felt.
Yes, I am a fervent Obama supporter. I feel like his message is one of change and hope in a political world filled with cynicism and corruption. I feel like he's going to be different. And I feel like given my other option, Obama, in my opinion, was clearly the better candidate at this point in our nation's history.
But I know he's not perfect. He's only human, he will make mistakes, and he will do some things in office that I don't agree with. He is not a Messiah. But he is not the Antichrist either.
And at this moment, this day in history, I am in awe of how far our nation has come in just 140 years, in just 40 years. Just 140 years ago, blacks were slaves, seen as property, not even counted as an entire person when figuring up state populations. An inexperienced senator from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln changed all of that.
Our parents grew up in the civil rights movement, in an era when whites and blacks could not drink from the same water fountain, use the same restroom, ride in the same seats in the bus, or attend the same schools. They were separate and that made their social status unequal. But a great man, a great orator, named Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., gave that generation hope in a dream, "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' "
And no, that dream is not here yet. The number of people who voted for McCain based almost solely on Obama's race proves that this battle is only half over. The number of people so afraid of anything different from the "norm" that they'll believe anything people say about Obama- they'll even believe that he's a Muslim terrorist set on turning the US into a socialist regime in which all their freedoms are taken away. Those people show us that this battle is only half over. The fact that my grandfather still, whenever he sees a black person, comments under his breath that they need to be sent back over the river to Kentucky where they "belong," shows me this battle is not over.
An acquantince of mine today commented that today wasn't really that historic. "Why is it historic?" he asked.
"Um, first black president, duh," I said.
His response basically can be summed up as "So?"
And he didn't realize that he had just proved my point.
The fact that race was not that huge of a factor in this race, the fact that in spite of the fact that Obama is black, he still won the popular vote by six to seven million votes, shows me that even though the battle is not over, we have come a long way. Forty years ago, thirty years ago, even twenty years ago, this would have been impossible. Race would have been too big of an issue. Now that sentiment is dying, and good riddance. I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, a city whose main claim to fame is a "sit-in" that occurred there in the 1960s. Four black students went into a diner and sat at the counter and were asked to leave, based solely on the color of their skin. They refused, and sat there anyway. The next day they brought more people, and the next day more, until within four days there were 100s of people packed into that diner, protesting segregation. Thirty years later, the Greensboro, North Carolina that I grew up in was not segregated. I went to an elementary school that boasted students from dozens of countries, that every year had an international fair in which those students would bring in foods and items from their culture, to teach the rest of us about their heritage. I grew up knowing that other cultures were not something to be feared, but embraced. One of my best friends in junior high was Korean-American. I knew nothing of segregation except what I learned in social studies class.
I now have hope that that unity combined with diversity is something that can one day spread across the US, even into places that aren't that diverse. The state I now live in, the state I voted in, Indiana, voted for Obama. Indiana hasn't voted for a Democratic candidate since 1964. Voter turnout was higher in this election than in any previous election in our nation's history. People are starting to feel like they have a voice in what goes on in our government. Like we have a voice in changing the path of this country's future. Like the divisiveness of the last eight years can fade into unity and hope and change. Can we show the world that we as Americans are not bound by racism and intolerance, that we do not judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character? Yes, we can.
And now an "inexperienced" senator from Illinois, a great orator, will be the first black president of the United States of America, and I have never been prouder to call myself an American.