On Tuesday we elected the first black president of the United States. For me the beauty of the celebration on Tuesday, and for Obama's entire campaign, was that it was not primarily about race. The celebration crossed all lines of race, class and gender. I did not vote for Obama because he was black but because he was the best person for the job. He is intelligent, even-tempered, and eloquent in laying out his vision for the country.
And he is also a powerful symbol of what is possible in this country, even for those that for hundreds of years have been persecuted and discriminated against.
Magnolia will grow up with African Americans as friends, teachers, principals, and as president. I hope these role models will help her to see others as people first, just like her, and the color of their skin second.
However, the Hope represented in the presidential election was tempered by the stark evidence of remaining bigotry in the country in the results of several ballot initiatives prohibiting gay and lesbian couples the right to marry and adopt children. Several similar measures passed in the 2004 election cycle as well. As the mayor of San Francisco pointed out, this is the first time in California's history that the state constitution has been amended to take away rights of its citizens.
I believe this is the civil rights issue of our generation. I sincerely hope that Magnolia's generation will look back at these political results, and similar positions taken by churches, in the same way that we now look back on Jim Crow, segregation, and separate-but-equal, as incomprehensible and embarrassing signs of our recent discriminatory past.
There is always hope.
"In the end, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand--that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us." Barack Obama
1 comment:
Well said!
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