The Oklahoma Eagle

In the largest voter turnout for a presidential election in US history and the most watched and celebrated around the world, Sen.Barack Obama’s triumph over Republican rival Sen. John McCain on Tuesday is a milestone that will help the United States bury its long and often brutal history of racism.
Obama won at least 349 Electoral College votes, far more than the 270 he needed. With results in from more than three-quarters of US precincts, he led McCain by 54 per cent to 46 percent in the popular vote. Newspaper headlines captured the momentous nature of the result. A New York Times banner headline simply read “OBAMA”, while the Washington Post declared “Obama Makes History.” The Tulsa World’s headline simply read “Yes He Did.”

“This is a great night. This is an unbelievable night,” said black US Republican John Lewis of Georgia, who was brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, during a civil rights march in the 1960s. Lewis was at a celebration in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the home church of Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement and was murdered in 1968. It reminded me of South Africa, when people voted for the first time for Nelson Mandela,” Lewis said of the long lines seen nationwide at polling places. Maya Angelou told CBS of her pride. “I can hardly talk without weeping,” And all over the world, leaders welcomed Obama’s victory, with South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela leading the continent in congratulating him.” Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” said Mandela. In Nairobi, President Kibaki gave a televised address to issue his congratulatory message and to announce a public holiday.

Witnessing the victory celebration speech, tears of joy streamed down the faces of Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey and hundreds of thousands of others. Powell, a Republican who made history as the first black Secretary of State under President George W. Bush and the first African-American to be chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said  “President-elect Obama is going to be a president for all America,” In Hong Kong, Colin praised Obama for running an inclusive campaign. He said he had cut across ethnic, income and age lines, and described his victory as an historic occasion. Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush’s current Secretary of State, called Mr. Obama’s election “extraordinary” and said she was “especially proud” as an African-American. Millions of Americans of all races, colors and ethnic groups are celebrating Barack Obama’s presidential victory. But for many African Americans who grew up experiencing discrimination and prejudice, the election of the first African American president is an overwhelming event they never thought they would see in their lifetimes.

Barack Obama rode a wave of voter discontent to a historic White House victory, promising change as the first black US president but facing enormous challenges from a deep economic crisis and two lingering wars. He has vowed to restore US leadership in the world by working closely with foreign allies, to withdraw American troops from Iraq in the first 16 months of his term and to bolster US troop levels in Afghanistan and fix the economy. But his immediate task will be tackling the US financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression. Obama has proposed another stimulus package that could cost about $175 billion and include funding for infrastructure and another round of rebate checks electorate.
Powell describes Obama as a “transformational figure” who could be an “exceptional president, bridging the gap between generations. … The fact that Obama is also black just has turned America on; it is very emotional,” Powell said.

But that is not the reason that Obama was elected. Haitian American Lucy Coma has aptly explained her vote was not about race. “We don’t vote for Obama because he is black, we vote because we want change,” she said. “That’s everybody, white, Hispanic, Asian. All the things he promised, that is why we vote for him. We are so happy.”
Obama himself echoed her sentiments in his election night speech: ” If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.” He said “Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states…. We have been and always will be the United States of America.”

By his very nature, Obama is a reconciler.  The son of a Kenyan man from Kogelo, Siaya, and a white mother from Wichita, Kansas, Obama was born at a time when African Americans were still battling segregationist policies in the South. His parents married in 1961.  Six years after his birth, ” Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”, a love story between a white woman and a black man, living in Hawaii, first hit the American screen in 1967. Coincidently, Obama was born in Hawaii. His mother’s parents were Christian.  His father’s parents were Muslim.  He lived in Hawaii and in Indonesia.  He attended Catholic grade schools.  He was educated at Columbia University and Harvard University.  Out of love, not hate, he discovered the good on both sides of his family, notwithstanding their cultural or religious beliefs. It is in keeping with his life’s experience that he seeks the good among people of different beliefs and cultures, both at home and abroad.

The election of Obama brings a sea change to the political landscape of America.  The election President-elect Barack Obama will initiate a new day in the complexion of the Republican Party.  The vestiges of latent racism embedded in the Southern strategy deployed by the Republican Party in converting the previous Democratic South to a Republican South over the last 40 years must be uprooted if the Republican Party ever wishes to regain power.