What We Have Regained…

Tonight I sit in stunned silence trying to grasp and to fully absorb the meaning of the events of the day. I am still a bit reluctant to trust my eyes and ears that have heard the media projections and the gracious concession speech of Sen. John McCain, proclaiming the election of Sen. Barack Obama as the next President of the United States of America. The thoughts are a bit jumbled as might be expected from the experience of an event that was heretofore inconceivable.

Yes, my intellectual side argued that this election was a true test of the character of the United States. There would be a challenge to whether the clearly more qualified and better suited candidate would assume the role of leader of the free world, or whether the deeply imbedded racial bigotry of the US populace would thwart this opportunity to recover from devastating incompetence and monumental corruption of the George W. Bush administration. But racism never really has been about rational long term self-interest. And trust in the integrity of the election process has been so tarnished by the experience of the past two national elections. So the risk of rejected opportunity was to be truly feared.

Tonight, however, the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. ring out clearly, calling forth the day when a man might be judged “not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.” And that dream now is become real. To be certain, nothing less than a man of supreme character is what is needed by the US to manage the crises created by his grossly incompetent predecessor. To right the ship of state and bring it back to a true course would be a miraculous feat. Keeping it from sinking will be a large enough task for any leader. But in a time in which the people of the United States of America can once again dream and have hope in the future for our children, anything may yet be possible.

I saw tears in the eyes of Rev. Jesse Jackson tonight and I understood them. After growing up Black in the United States in a family from which I was the first to ever graduate from college, I heard the clichéd phrase that anyone could grow up to be President. Many thought it a major accomplishment that I could achieve a postgraduate degree and success as a professional attorney. Yet until tonight I admit that I never actually believed that it was possible that a Black man could be elected President of the country. To tell Black children to shoot for the highest office would perhaps inspire them to work very hard and achieve status above any that they might otherwise imagine was all that we dared hope. Not truly honest, but rather a useful deception that has yielded remarkable results. Rev Jackson, Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan all suggested that the content of character was there and ready for the nation to put to effective use if the racial blinders could only be put aside.

Perhaps the dire economic straits of the country and the vacuum of leadership shown by the Bush Administration have been shocking enough to compel the electorate to put aside petty bigotry. Yet one cannot help but notice the electoral map in which the states carried by McCain are remarkably concurrent with the old confederacy. And while McCain has attempted to dispel the bigotry that his campaign deliberately incited to garner support, there will doubtless be some important healing required before the nation can truly move forward.

I have no doubt that Barack Obama will be a fine President. Whether he can achieve greatness will depend upon factors somewhat beyond his control, with regard to the economic crises we face and the willingness of the loyal opposition to work rationally toward compromise in the interest of all. But I also have confidence in the President-Elect regarding his tireless commitment to finding ways to achieve productive and morally justifiable solutions. And in this I place my trust and hope. The world has changed today. That is what we have regained……hope for a future brighter than we have ever known before. That which was heretofore inconceivable has now come to pass; let us all embrace it and celebrate together the possibilities.