I am not sure I have adequate words for the weight of this truth – an African-American man was elected to be President of the United States of America. In states where Jim Crow is not always just a memory and in states whose sons took up arms to secure humanity – they will have a President who 60 years ago could not share a water fountain with myself.
Last night – as my Wacoan family and I gathered in my living room to watch the results and eat a lot of homemade Hope Cake – I kept wishing that Dr. King was alive to see this moment. The moment where the color of a man’s skin did not outweigh the strength of his character. The moment where America’s promise was not shouted down by its greater demons.
This morning, Tom Brokaw made an excellent point while he was punditing on NBC. That the true test now is not for President-Elect Obama. The true test is in all of us who voted – to embrace his mandate that we are all in this together. That this was not his victory but ours. In a nation where it is not simply our right, but is our responsibility to question our leaders, those of us who voted for him (and those of us whose support he has not yet earned) we are to hold him accountable to his promises and take ownership over our government once again.
In 1863, the idea of America was being tested more than it ever had before. Were we to be a loose collection of states? Or a true nation with a central government and the understanding that living in a democracy means that sometimes the other guy gets to be right. President Lincoln understood this – that democracy is a complex and intangible idea and needs to be worked out. And that it can’t be done without grace and hope.
On November 19, he looked out over the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and urged us to remember that this idea called America was forged out of the idea that all men are created equal. That those of us who endeavor to be a part of the vision now owe a great debt to the people who have given their lives. That ” It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
In the progress of being “unfinished” and constantly striving to best define hope and democracy in the world – many persons have sacrificed for this. Some have sacrificed the use of pantyhose during wartime and others laid down their lives so that their people could vote. From the suffrage movement to civil rights, from the Revolutionary War to the mess we’re in now – millions of Americans have striven and sought to make this place great. Many have paid with their lives and for their sacrifice I will be eternally grateful.
To truly be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” we have to constantly strive for the broadest definition and most egalitarian definition of “people”. It is a task that we have not always done well and still continue to fail on in many departments. The rampant fear that Obama was a muslim should speak to our unfishedness in this area.
Our situation now as a nation is not all together different than it was when President Lincoln looked out over that bloodstained vista. We are in the midst of wartime and we are a people of divided principles. However, I believe that last night marked a shift in the divisions. A moment where “red states” and “blue states” begin to fade from national conversation. A moment when the color of your skin does not define the content of your character. A moment where we can breathe deep and rest in the knowledge that the definition of “we the people” is broader now and hope belongs to everyone.
However – all of that to say – today is a new day. History changed last night. But it must keep changing. We must keep working. We must keep striving. We are all in this together and America is our nation. The time for apathy and laziness is over. This is our time. Yes, we can. Yes, we must. Yes. We can.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. – Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln, 1863
