Fifty-one years ago, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to protect nine black students who wanted to attend Central High School. The majority didn't want them there, but ours is a system of laws, not a lawless rabble, and US Army soldiers marched into the city to enforce a court order. Such turbulent times. I wrote extensively about it here, in a post that links to this Army slideshow.
Barack Obama hadn't been born yet then, and now he's one election away from being President of the United States. I hope he doesn't win, but the significance of his nomination is not lost on me. It's a sign of how far we've come as a nation.
If I find any disappointment today, it's that so many people still cling to racial identity and politics that we still have to celebrate the first "black" person do something. Many view Obama's nomination as a victory for black people; I view it as progress for America.
To me, we are still that shining city on a hill, our best days are ahead, and we are still a beacon of goodness and of liberty in the world. We are not perfect--no person or country is--be we've come closer than any other nation in history, and we're getting better.
I love my country.
7 comments:
Excellent post, Darren.
Great post. The decline of racism and hate is continuing onward. My teachers judged their students by looking into their eyes and they saw all they needed. So look into Obama´s eyes when he speaks, then you can be sure, that he is not ready for office yet. He is a part of a great nation, heading for a bright future and pulling the entire world along with it.
God bless America.
Barack Obama is black!? Who knew!?
How could anyone NOT know, with the way he and his cronies are always playing the race card.
--chicopanther
What I find so vastly gratifying about Obama's nomination is that while every pundit is busy opining, even obsessing, about the racial overtones Obama himself can't touch the issue with a ten foot pole. If Obama isn't careful to keep himself from becoming "the black candidate" he'll lose.
The irony is vast and delightful.
Obama's a student of the anti-Martin Luther King Jr. school of racial politics. He was raised with the idea, and clearly accepted, that the content of ones character is less important then the color of their skin and now he's being forced to run not on the color of his skin but on the content of his character.
The suspense was killing me.
I wasn't sure until right at the end just WHO would be the DNC nominee for president!
What a shocker surprise! Never saw that one coming!
Excellent thoughts! I agree that Obama's nomination shows the amazing progress of our nation racially. Unfortunately, it also seems to show the rapid decline of our nation morally.
Amen.
Mrs. Chanman
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