Change Has Come

No matter what your political views are, we have all just witnessed an historic event. An American of partial African descent has been elected the next president of the United States. In a mere half a century since the great civil rights movement began, a man who would have once been denied an education, denied the right to eat or drink in the same places a white American and denied the right to vote has come to hold the most powerful office on earth. America has struggled to live up to it's creed for over two centuries. In our sacred documents it is declared that "All" men are created with equal rights under the law. At first that meant only white, land-owning men. Slowly, over the decades, it came to include all citizens.

What this has meant to most Americans is that we are struggling to live up to our creed. We, as a nation, voted for a man because we didn't care what color his skin is. Most of us didn't care that is... That isn't true of black Americans. Most black Americans voted for this man only because of the color of his skin.

Now, I am inspired by the words of the great civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King that one day a man would be judged, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his heart. Most white Americans did just that. Black Americans, however, didn't live up to the creed that they, as a community, claim to believe in.

It is my hope that black Americans will begin to lay aside their anger and their own racism and live up to the creed that Dr. King so beautifully enunciated. It's time we begin to heal from our past national sins.

I didn't vote for Barak Obama. But he will be our president the day he is sworn into office on January 20, 2009. As an American I will accept him as my president because I've chosen to take part in our democracy and I accept the will of the majority of the people. I hope that those who voted for another candidate will do likewise. I will watch my president closely and I will voice my opinions when I agree, and when I disagree, with his leadership. That too is a part of being an American. We can all use this opportunity to live up to another of our mottoes: E Pluribus Unum... Out of many...one.