Although I have not always been the most outspoken advocate of President-Elect Barack Obama, today I would like to congratulate him and add my voice to the millions of fellow citizens who are celebrating his historic and frightening election victory. I don't care whether you are a conservative or a liberal -- when you saw this inspiring young African-American rise to our nation's highest office I hope you felt the same sense of patriotic pride that I experienced, no matter how hard you were hyperventilating with deep existential dread.Simply brilliant.
Yes, I know there are probably other African-Americans much better qualified and prepared for the presidency. Much, much better qualified. Hundreds, easily, if not thousands, and without any troubling ties to radical lunatics and Chicago mobsters. Gary Coleman comes to mind. But let's not let that distract us from the fact that Mr. Obama's election represents a profound, positive milestone in our country's struggle to overcome its long legacy of racial divisions and bigotry. It reminds us of how far we've come, and it's something everyone in our nation should celebrate in whatever little time we now have left.
Less than fifty years ago, African-Americans were barred from public universities, restaurants, and even drinking fountains in many parts of the country. On Tuesday we came together and transcended that shameful legacy, electing an African-American to the country's top job -- which, in fact, appears to be his first actual job. Certainly, it doesn't mean that racism has disappeared in America, but it is an undeniable mark of progress that a majority of voters no longer consider skin color nor a dangerously gullible naivete as a barrier to the presidency.
It's also heartening to realize that as president Mr. Obama will soon be working hand-in-hand with a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard like Senator Robert Byrd to craft the incoherent and destructive programs that will plunge the American economy into a nightmare of full-blown sustained depression. As Vice President-Elect Joe Biden has repeatedly warned, there will be difficult times ahead and the programs will not always be popular, or even sane. But as we look out over the wreckage of bankrupt coal companies, nationalized banks, and hyperinflation, we can always look back with sustained pride on the great National Reconciliation of 2008. Call me an optimist, but I like to think when America's breadlines erupt into riots it will be because of our shared starvation, not the differences in our color.
It's obvious that this newfound pride is not confined to Americans alone. All across the world, Mr. Obama's election has helped mend America's tattered image as a racist, violent cowboy, willing to retaliate with bombs at the slightest provocation. The huge outpouring of international support following the election shows that America can still win new friendships while rebuilding its old ones, and provides Mr. Obama with unprecedented diplomatic leverage over our remaining enemies. When Russian tanks start pouring into eastern Europe and Iranian missiles begin raining down on Jerusalem, their leaders will know they will be facing a man who not only conquered America's racial divide but the hearts of the entire Cannes film community. And those Al Qaeda terrorists plotting a dirty nuke or chemical attack on San Francisco face a stark new reality: while they may no longer need to worry about US Marines, they are looking down the barrel of a strongly worded diplomatic condemnation by a Europe fully united in their deep sympathy for surviving Americans.
So for now, let's put politics aside and celebrate this historic milestone. In his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial 45 years ago, Dr. King said "I have a dream that one day my children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Let us now take pride that Tuesday we Americans proved that neither thing matters anymore.
Friday, November 06, 2009
One Year Later
Iowahawk reposts a piece he wrote one year ago today, and boy has he turned out to be a prophet:
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5 comments:
I have some time been trying to find a place and a way to say something that has been on my mind that while.
First some background to save the trolls some time.
I am "white", I am old, I am male.
My mother was born in central Mississippi, about a bigoted place as I know of.
My father on occasion said things that I thought were offensive, but it was not an all-the-time every-day thing like it was with some of my mother's sisters--whom I would not visit with my kids.
I claim to be ad advocate of equality before the law, equal treatment of the sexes, conservation of resources and small government (bordering on anarchy) since before the topics had political-correctness labels.
My position on sexual behaviour is mostly that I am fed with hearing about in ever context, every moment of the day.
OK. Now the hard part.
I am terribly sorry that Barack Obama was the first "black" elected President.
I think that history is going to be very unkind to Mr. Obama for his incompetence as much as for his cockamamie politics.
I worry that it will be very difficult for another "black" person to be elected for some time, and that we will suffer for not being offered the best available because she or he is "black".
This choice if this person to be the "first black" will turn out to be a terrible blow to the quest for equal treatment.
He will be condemned because he is "black" when he should be condemned because he is incompetent.
Larry, you had some great comments. Your last one is so true. It is a shame that our first 'black' president is so incompetent. He could have made such a difference in our racial world today. Instead, we have gone backwards.
I am tired of reading the same B.S. regarding Obama. The claim that he is a African American is a joke. He is either an African or he is an American, plain and simple. In reading the history of him it appears as though he is half black and half white so why does he keep considering himself to be a black man and represent the black community? Yes, I have to agree with Larry Sheldon, Obama sure shows a lot of incompetence for a major political leader.
GoofyDick makes an excellent point. As far as the facts of his heritage go, Mr. Obama is exactly as white as he is black. He looks "black," but his mother was white, and it's really very much a genetic toss-up how someone looks when the parents come from different races. But he is his mother's child as much as his father's.
I did formerly think like Larry regarding Big O's incompetence having an impact on future black candidates, but I've changed my mind. The country has come too far. Obama is a snake oil salesman pure and simple. White society has lived with many such types throughout European and American history. Obama is the same sort of creature. His complexion is irrelevant.
What the outcome will be, I think, once the citizenry wakes up -- many of them are still sleeping, you realize -- all Obamas "supporters" are taking a long deep snooze -- but once everyone awakes, I think we'll see people demanding a merciless vetting of candidates, substantial evidence of experience, and they'll be ready to tar and feather the journalists on the slightest provocation.
That's my prediction.
"That's my prediction."
That's my hope. But I am pessimistic.
And not to quibble--his color will not be important to anybody who thinks things through. (But they did not vote for him in the first place.)
The mindless drones who do not think will remember the "one drop rule" and all of the old "truths" that follow from it.
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