Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Barack Obama Elected First African-American President - But Wait! There's More!

Last night, when I clicked on Google News (TM) and found myself staring at headlines that screamed out the forecasted election results--that Barack Hussein Obama II had been elected the 44th President of the United states--something odd happened.

I got swept up.

I'm not a black-and-white person--about politics, ethnicity, coffee, or anything else. To me, the world is filled with grays, tints, and shades that defy a simple analysis. I have trouble seeing the black and white that folks like to talk about, when the only black and white I see are outlines.

Already, everybody's talking about how historic this is--to have a man of African American descent entering the White House in January. And I see this. Oh, yes, it is historic. It's unprecedented. Clearly.

But to me the real impact of this election is that the U.S. elected a President born to a native of Kenya and a native of Kansas, a graduate of Harvard and a law professor who's admitted to moral mistakes, a man who could be described as an orphan or privileged, as savvy or idealistic. In other words, our President-to-be has not only demographics, but also a personal background unlike that of anybody else who's sat in the Oval Office. Which means we don't know what will happen.

I'm swept away because, for the first time that I can remember, I don't know what I'm seeing. We have no precedent. And it's a strange feeling.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Seem that, as usual, you have the ability to express your interesting take and feel for events/things in words which leave me a-thinkin' more clearly. "Swept away" accurately describes my overall feelings late Tuesday night, and I do enjoy thinking clearly about, and using clear/novel words/expressions to describe, my own feelings, so thank you. (Continuing to enjoy your posts; keep 'em up.)