Well here I sit and I’m still a little startled. Barack Hussein Obama, son of an African black man and white American mother is the 44th President-elect of the USA. I became enamored of Obama early in the primaries when I got to hear him and see him and his family. I might actually be even more impressed with Michelle Obama: a brainy and dynamic woman, wife and mother. In any case quite a remarkable couple and family. A family I can be proud of to represent my home country. It is nice to see some really bright people with new ideas have a shot at influencing (notice I said influencing not leading) the US.
I am not naive enough to think that President-elect Obama didn’t get to be a US Senator and come up the ranks of Chicago politics without understanding how to survive in the political and at times Machiavellian machine with it’s requisite going around to get around,etc.
What impresses me is how a young man with racial, geographic, and economic challenges was able to bear down and get himself into two of the nation’s finest schools and do well and in the course of living his life develop an acute mind and a compassionate and inviting world view. Quite simply Mr. Obama embodies the American Dream. He also helped to fulfill the dream of another man-Dr. Martin Luther King; that came before him, that hoped and fought to have black Americans live in an America that would respect them and offer them equal status as partners in a democratic society. It is precisely on this point that I’m still shaking my head and tingling. My country got that much greater today because it proved that the while the process is far from perfect is good enough to facilitate something right and noble; something that is inspirational not just to Americans but people of all colors and races all over the world. This is the America that I and many of my fellow Americans, with immigrant ancestors from the four corners of the globe all dreamed about and glimpsed today. I am truly thankful to have lived to see this day-yes I believe that a ray of hope has entered our recent dark night.
