Bigger Than We Think

It was only forty years ago that Blacks were granted the right to vote and last night a African- American became president of the United States in a landslide victory.

Barack Obama ran a good campaign and in the end he succeeded and come January 20th 2009, he will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America, one of the most powerful countries in the world.

But does America really know how big this is, or what this means to not only black Americans but to Americans as a whole. I am sure Lyndon B. Johnson is looking down smiling and basking in the glory of an African-American holding the highest office in this land. LBJ had so much to do with blacks being granted the right to vote and decades later, the people that he fought to have equal rights, now elected a black man to office. It is no coincidence that good old Abe Lincoln said it would take decades for the stigma of slavery to be out and America to embrace the black community, it is no coincidence that MLK made the “I have a dream speech” hoping one day for us to all sit at the table together.

Obama has the JFK movement, along with the Roosevelt movement, the “this is your time; the time for change is upon us”. Obama like JFK, Roosevelt and Clinton all brought in the young votes; all created hope for the next generation to lead this country. The movement of Change is nothing new, all three presidents listed above campaigned on that, and all in some way brought about change and tried to better this country, and so can Obama, if given the chance. Some of us may not agree with his ideology, but it is what it is and the American people wanted him in office. At 10 pm Eastern Time the west coast closed the polls and didn’t even bother to count the votes, because they knew, they knew Obama had won.

We all have our time, and this is Obama’s time. We cannot be angry or upset or whatever emotion we maybe feeling, this is his time. It was what was supposed to have happened. Clinton had his, JFK had his, Bush had his and Regan had his and now Obama has his. Everyone is given a chance and it is a risk we take voting every four years, but we hope that the person we voted for will try their hardest to better this country.

This is bigger than we think and although some may not see it that way, the United States have come a long way, from granting women the right to vote, to having a woman run for the presidency, granting blacks the right to vote, and now having a black president. We have come along way and whether were are republicans, democrats, independents, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, natural born citizen or naturalized, we are part of something great and we should be so honored to be alive and able to experience it. Only in this country can a story like Obama’s be possible, only in this country can a woman campaign for the presidency and be loved, only in this country can the impossible dream come to reality.