Obama Election

I’m sure there were many black voters who voted for Obama simply because of the color of his skin. I’m equally certain there were just as many, if not more, white voters who voted against him for the same reason. But I am confident that, in the United States of America, you do not win or lose an election by a landslide on that premise. You win it by uniting people in your favor, and you do that by the merit of your character and the integrity of your beliefs. Barack Obama is not our President-Elect because he is black, he is our 44th President because he was the most capable American for the job.

Yet we cannot ignore the profundity and implications in having the first black President. While his platform is about change we need in our social, political, financial and foreign policies, was it not also about a personal internal change for each of us? While it is obvious these external changes and the subsequent impact will need time to become evident, did you not feel a sudden transformation within? Or am I the only one?

It may seem like hindsight bias, but I had not doubt Obama would be President, if only because of the disaster of the Bush administration. Yet, there is no possible way I could have foreseen or predicted the effect his election would have on me as an American. Because up until the television screen flashed his confident and charismatic picture proclaiming him President-elect, I saw him as a black candidate. And I am not exaggerating when I say that immediately after the announcement, that modifier dissolved and he was simply, our President.

There will be those who will claim him as their personal President, because he is black. He will be disowned by some Americans because he is black. But just as in the days past of professional sports, those attitudes and that intolerance will become a thing of the past.

His effectiveness as Commander-In Chief has yet to be proven. He has inherited a mess and because of the color of his skin, he may be scrutinized a bit more sharply and criticized a bit more heavily. But I think it is because of the color of his skin and the unjust but real prejudices it carries, he will strive that much harder and work that much more diligently. Not to prove anyone wrong, but to win over those who hesitated for just a brief second at the polls, and battled between what is best for our country and present-but-eroding prejudices. That’s just the kind of American Obama impresses me as.

I would not be so naïve to say that Obama’s presidency will create a racial utopia in this country, but I do believe this election illustrates a move toward that harmony. And did we not get a glimpse of that harmony as Obama supporters rallied and celebrated on the evening of November 4, 2008? The diversity of age, skin tone and gender was beautiful and provided amazing contrast to the relatively bland uniformity of the defeated party.

This accomplishment does not belong solely to Barack Obama, it belongs to we, the people, white and black, male and female, young and old. It is the highest restitution that can be paid to those who endured years of injustice, inequality and oppression. It is also redemption and release to those who bore the burden of a shameful and ugly past. It is the final abdication hypocrisy in our constitution. And, forgive me if I was idealistic, but this new-founded unity gives me hope for the world. For it a country as vast, populated and diverse as ours, the world’s leading superpower can overcome the barriers and conflicts of its past, does it not also lend credibility to leading the rest of the world in that same peace?

Let those who stood together and celebrated on Election Day not forget that this is more a victory for the human race than it is for the presidential race. Mr. Obama has asked for our help and he wasn’t just blowing smoke. We who supported him have anted up, but now it’s time to play our hands…for even as you read this, forces are conspiring against the unity achieved that historic evening. It may come in the cowardly form of a would-be assassin, but I doubt it. President-elect Obama’s number one enemy is amongst his proponents – indifference, apathy and a feeling we’ve arrive when we’ve only just taken the first step.

No matter what kind of president Barack Obama will reveal himself to be bears no relevance to what we revealed ourselves to be as Americans. In reflection, Barack Obama’s election is not so much about who we voted into the oval office, but what we’ve ousted from ourselves – adolescent thinking, primitive ignorance and old-world prejudice.