|
Martin Luther King Dreamed Of This
CHANGE IS SPELLED AS O-B-A-M-A
WSN Bureau
WASHINGTON: Rosa
parks sat in the bus. She refused to get up. That enabled Martin
Luther King Jr to march. He led the march so that some day a Barack
Obama can run. Barack Obama ran, so that next generation can fly
high. He ensured that the generations of Blacks will no more be told
that they can grow up and become a rapper. Now, a grandmother
raising a black African-American in a distant village can tell him,
"Grow up, get yourself an education, and you can be the President of
the United States." Because someone just proved it. Someone just
became.
What was in
Obama's favour? He was not White. He was not Anglo-Saxon. No one who
is not part of this elite had come anywhere near a house called
White in 234 years. He was a rookie Senator. A first time Senator
with two years of experience. Last time there was a Democratic
convention, he did not even have a pass to enter. And he was 46.
On top of that
he was Black African American, and his middle name was Hussein. In
the entire history of the
United States,
only half a dozen Black people have ever become even a Senator. Then
there was talk of his unsavoury connections, his questionable
patriotism. Lethal stuff for an opponent like even Hillary Clinton,
forget a true genuine pan-American hero like John McCain.
Add some
experiments with marijuana and cocaine during the wasteful years,
and where is the recipe for becoming the President of the United
States in times as challenging as these and with a Depression
looming large when you need skills to handle economy but there is a
man accused of being a Socialist who wants to take your money and
distribute it?
They just
overlooked a minor detail, a detail just about the size of the
cosmos. Barack Hussein Obama was not made of the stuff that he was
fighting against. That was a key difference. If it starts with Self
and Society, then Barack had got his priorities right. He had
started with Self. Once you do that, Society has little choice. Have
faith in mankind's ability to save itself.
African-American
Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the
United States
on Tuesday, crossing the huge racial hurdle in American politics
with an ease that was a tribute to the way the American democracy
has evolved. The US of A now has a black chief executive, and
Obama's success will lie in making his colour meaningless,
irrespective of the huge meaning his colour will have for
aspirational, grassroot movements everywhere in the world.
America went
through a national catharsis, casting aside the highly unpopular
Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and
embraced the message of hope, change and a call to change the tone,
content and direction of American policies and its engagement with
the world.
At one stage,
race seemed to be fraught with potential losing point. Even Hillary
Clinto campaign was accused of inducting it as a pawn.
Mr. Obama, 47, a
first-term Democratic senator from
Illinois,
defeated Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a former
prisoner of war who was making his second bid for the presidency.
In his gracious
concession speech at the Biltmore Hotel in
Phoenix shortly
after 11:15 p.m. Eastern time, quieting his booing supporters more
than once when he mentioned Mr. Obama’s name. “Senator Obama has
achieved a great thing for himself, and for his country,” he said,
adding that he was sorry that Mr. Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn
Dunham, who helped raise him during his teenage years, had not lived
to see the day; she died on Sunday.
“These are
difficult times for our country, and I pledged to him tonight to do
all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we
face,”
| |
|
Barack Hussein Obama promised change. The United States of
America realized he IS the change that was needed
immediately. As a nation, as a democracy, as the hope of the
free people, America went through a national catharsis and
paid tribute to the hope that the world has always reposed
in its people. bama crossed the huge racial barrier with an
ease that testifies to the way the American democracy has
evolved.
Aspirational people's movements all around the world seek
inspiration in Obama's win. May the world now see abetter,
compassionate USA in its engagement with the challenges
facing us all. |
|
“I urge all
Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating
him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort
to find ways to come together.”
Obama was hardly
a candidate against McCain. The Republican campaign and candidate
were up against a phenomenon, a man who just will not stay
politically correct. So people believed when he took on Race as an
issue in Phildelphia. That was the turning point in most people's
minds. And if God was to send a signal, the economic recession was
the size of the
Indian Ocean as
a signal. McCain had read it, he knew it was slipping away, but it
is also a tribute to an evolved democracy that gave him the space to
fight on.
Obama’s victory
speech in Grant Park in
Chicago was
heard by millions.
"We are not the
Change, we have been given a chance to bring about Change," he said.
The world heard. The man meant it. The world knew it.
As results
trickled in, Obama was jumping through, over and above the
milestones:
Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa and New Mexico. Some states that
had not been blue for 40 years! Exhilaration was understandable in a
country where just 143 years ago, Obama, as a black man, could have
been owned as a slave, the NYT noted.
For Republicans,
especially the conservatives who have dominated the party for nearly
three decades, the night represented a bitter setback and left them
contemplating where they now stand in American politics.
5 November
2008
|
Read Also