Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The 44th President of the United States

The largest percentage of voters since 1908 elected the 44th President of The United States on November 4, 2008. There have been fifty three general elections that have chosen these forty four leaders since 1788. Thirty five of those elections have been held since the December 6, 1865 adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment of The Constitution which officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery. We have been waiting one hundred and forty three years for the material realization of racial equality in this country represented by the election of a person of color to the highest office in the land. It has been coming. It has been a long time coming. The change that we had been waiting and working for came. It was evidenced by the pride and enthusiasm in my younger daughter’s voice over the phone after she left Grant Park in Chicago last night. It was heralded by an email sent to me from an African American woman and friend in the South Carolina Low Country which said “I am so ELATED AND OVERWHELMED WITH JOY AND PEACE this morning”. It was celebrated by a white business woman who sent me a simple “YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” with a smiley face icon. So this is it. We have all arrived together at this place in history.

It is not a time to sit back and turn the work over to President-elect Barack Obama. We are called to reconciliation with our rivals. We are called to the difficult task of building and actualizing the dream. It means active participation not unlike that collective effort of the “Greatest Generation” during the Great Depression and World War II. We are charged with making hope real.

Can we do it? You know the answer. Yes We Can!