Obama Makes History

The United States of America was born as a revolutionary nation dedicated to revolutionary ideals. In many ways the story of the country and its people can be understood as a long struggle to complete the vision first espoused on July 4, 1776, to live up to these lofty ideals and bring them, by fits and starts, to fruition. Foremost among these brazen concepts was the startling assertion, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Those words were written 232 years ago. I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would be thinking today.

Barack Obama has now made history as the first American of African descent to secure the nomination of a major political party for President of the United States. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this achievement. For 157 years as colonies and the first 89 years of independence, people like Barack Obama existed to toil as slaves in a land of liberty. Some 620,000 Americans died in the terrible struggle to determine whether that incongruity would continue or whether a step would be made along the path "to form a more perfect union," and to settle the proposition that, "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." Those words were spoken 150 years ago. I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would be thinking today.

Even after Emancipation the persistence of the old attitudes meant that another century would pass while people who looked like Barack Obama were relegated to the second class citizenship of Jim Crow. Thousands more lynchings, burnings, bombings and imprisonments attended the debate over the dream, "that one day my children will be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin." These words were uttered 45 years ago. I wonder what Martin Luther King would be thinking today.

Today America took one more step on the long and difficult road to overcome the obstacles that have impeded the realization of its revolutionary founding ethic. Obama is sometimes criticized for speaking too much about hope. For someone who looks like him, what else could he possibly stand for? For nearly four centuries that was all that sustained an entire people. Forty years ago, in another campaign, one candidate said, "Some people see things as they are and ask why. I see things that never were and ask why not." I wonder what Bobby Kennedy would be thinking today.