Obama - the new word for hope
November 6th 2008 01:49
Remember this day. It is the first day of the New World.
There has been a lot of grandeur and celebration surrounding the election of Democrats Senator Barack Obama to the US presidency. Rightly so. His victory is bigger than politics, and there is no more singular way to express what his victory means than with the four-letter word without which no human being can stand - hope.
Even when this writer and Obama supporters exhaled yesterday afternoon (AEST), his victory remains phenomenal. The most charismatic US political leader since John F. Kennedy also happens to be a black man; a black man in a country and a world where being black, and indeed not white, has meant racial persecution and social and political exile for hundreds of years.
Far from playing the race card himself in his campaign, the fact that he is of mixed African and Anglo heritage, grew up in Indonesia and a more poignant one - the first black president has come after an almost-even 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr's assassination - cannot be ignored. King's work may finally come to full fruition in the 21st century.
For anyone who has experienced the bewilderment of racial discrimination or discrimination of any kind, to have Obama as a voice, and one of the most powerful voices in the world, is a historic achievement. It is necessary change that has been too long coming and a milestone to be admired, exalted, and most importantly, emulated in the decades to come.
Americans, and the world, now have a leader that we hope can inspire economic and political stability, environmental change and a greater equality for all humankind. Hopes and dreams for a new and better world order now have every chance of coming true, if not in Obama’s time, but through his contemporaries in the future. It is an overwhelming victory over the bigots and cynics in this brutal world.
It is a romantic tale so far, but a true one. If we want it, the dream is here. We have arrived. There is work to be done. Obama is the new word for hope.
There has been a lot of grandeur and celebration surrounding the election of Democrats Senator Barack Obama to the US presidency. Rightly so. His victory is bigger than politics, and there is no more singular way to express what his victory means than with the four-letter word without which no human being can stand - hope.
Even when this writer and Obama supporters exhaled yesterday afternoon (AEST), his victory remains phenomenal. The most charismatic US political leader since John F. Kennedy also happens to be a black man; a black man in a country and a world where being black, and indeed not white, has meant racial persecution and social and political exile for hundreds of years.
Far from playing the race card himself in his campaign, the fact that he is of mixed African and Anglo heritage, grew up in Indonesia and a more poignant one - the first black president has come after an almost-even 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr's assassination - cannot be ignored. King's work may finally come to full fruition in the 21st century.
For anyone who has experienced the bewilderment of racial discrimination or discrimination of any kind, to have Obama as a voice, and one of the most powerful voices in the world, is a historic achievement. It is necessary change that has been too long coming and a milestone to be admired, exalted, and most importantly, emulated in the decades to come.
Americans, and the world, now have a leader that we hope can inspire economic and political stability, environmental change and a greater equality for all humankind. Hopes and dreams for a new and better world order now have every chance of coming true, if not in Obama’s time, but through his contemporaries in the future. It is an overwhelming victory over the bigots and cynics in this brutal world.
Yes, We Can
It is a romantic tale so far, but a true one. If we want it, the dream is here. We have arrived. There is work to be done. Obama is the new word for hope.
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