HISTORY BEFORE OUR EYES

I have several friends and family members who have expressed to me their disgust with the Obama inauguration.  They say things like, why is everything about him being black and do we really need Oprah and Halle Berry telling us what an amazing guy he is and the rest of Hollywood and all the media anointing him as the savior before he has done anything as President yet.  I understand, and quite frankly I already have a little Obama fatigue as well.

Let’s get one thing straight, I did not vote for Obama.  I am conservative and disagree with just about every stance he has taken over the years and with almost everything he said in his campaign.  I didn’t vote for McCain either, like I said I am conservative, I believe in small government, something the Republican Party abandoned many years ago, but I am getting off topic. 

What people have to realize is what this means to black people everywhere.  There are many people still alive from the time black people were not allowed to use the same drinking fountain as whites, or use the same bathroom, eat at the same restaurant, go to the same school, or play on the same sports teams.  People my age, I was born in 1970, have not seen much of this.  I will admit to hearing a girl in my grade school called a zebra because she had a black father and a white mother but she was pretty popular and was even voted on to the cheerleading squad in high school, so the large majority of people treated her with respect.  But the point is, many black people were mistreated.  They were treated as second class citizens and found it tougher to do just about everything from getting an education to getting a job or once they had a job, getting promoted. 

What Obama represents is a feeling of WOW, look how far we have come.  If a black man can be elected President of the United States, the leader of the free World, then there is truly nothing that they can’t do.  It is amazing, historic, even to people like me who disagree with his politics.  I remember seeing one of my favorite columnists Walt Williams, who is a black conservative, cry when Obama was officially announced as the winner of the election.  At first that confused me but I think I understand now.  The late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his famous I have a dream speech that he could see the day when a man was judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin, this is proof that that day has come.  We as a country should celebrate, it should be a bigger celebration than a normal inauguration, it is history and I hope my kids remember it.  So while the media and Hollywood is grating on your nerves, relax, take a deep breath and enjoy the fact that you are witnessing history.