Did the country heed a new calling on November 4?
Excuse me while I mix my metaphors, on several levels. I mean not only on the metaphysical levels, but on the spiritual and mythological levels as well.
On November 4, my country decided that it was time to move beyond all of the stereotypes under which I was born. Blacks, or if you prefer, Afro-Americans are no longer second-class citizens, as we have selected one as the president-elect of the United States.
Not in my lifetime did I ever really think, at least not more than a few years ago, that this would be a reality in our time. Never did I think that we, as a nation, nor as a people, could consider, let alone select a man born of a Kenyan father and a woman from Kansas, as the next leader of the most powerful nation on earth. And yet, in so choosing, we only confirmed that we are, indeed, the most powerful nation on earth.
Barack Obama”s story is not the most compelling we have ever heard, nor the most poignant. This is despite the death of his grandmother on the day before the election that would propel him to the White House, and despite the disparaging campaign that his opposition, and in part, he participated. It is because, to quote him in part, at a time of disunity in our country, we as a nation called upon our better angels and saw not only what was possible for the country, but what was right for the country.
We have a new calling, a new possibility for our people. We observed, as a nation, that we could put aside the national mark of Cain that we had bared for nearly three hundred years, and put a man into the highest office of the land, not because of, but in spite of, his difference in color and background from the majority of our people.
We have a great opportunity at this juncture in time. We have an opportunity to unite men and women, of all colors, of all backgrounds, of all stripes to be not just Republicans or Democrats or black or white or brown or yellow or red but of all creeds, and religions and ethnicities. It is a time when only the limitations of our imaginations can preclude greatness for our nation and ourselves.
Our future is limited only by what we think we cannot do, what we cannot achieve, what we cannot endure. It is a future we had just months ago only thought possible in our dreams.
Now that dream has become a reality. Our future is clear, and our path to greatness lies before every man, woman and child in America. It is a path that requires we follow our ambitions, our consciousness and our hearts. It lies before us as few aspirations have ever done before.
Tonight, step outside. Look to the sky, and realize that the future of our country lies imbedded above. We must follow that path to the benefit of all. It lies along a path, as J.M. Barry once said, to the second star to the right and straight on ?til morning.
Doug Rhoades
Kelseyville
