Democracy Changing Us All

Democracy is Changing Us All

There has been a lot of writing that I have done over the last many months as this last presidential campaign has matriculated. It is only reasonable and expected that I should comment on the result.
Tuesday November 4,2008 has changed America, the world, and most of all, each one of us. The examples that have come out of this campaign extend far beyond the obvious. From a former POW’s whose race has run over 50 years, to women who were now empowered to imagine and achieve the political pinnacle of success, to a Lincolnesque story written by an African-American, the dream is now in stone. The minority member who feels that they have no say in America has now fallen by the wayside. All of the excuses and justifications for behavior have now been nullified. The idea that sports was the only venue for success has been buried. Obviously our country has created opportunity for millions of successful minorities, whether African-American or Hispanic or Asian or Native-American but the top job seemed an unattainable fantasy that served to justify why so much couldn’t be accomplished so that many simply chose not to try. That logic is no longer valid. NOT FOR ME will not work for anyone. The excuses will not work for me (and I am white), and not for anyone. America is now home to the entire dream, the sky is the limit and ’circumstantial logic’ is no longer the safe haven for those who merely choose not to strive for that level of achievement.
The choice not to extend the parameters of ones existence has become just that, a personal choice. One cannot use the idea that because someone did something to me or to my people that I was limited to what I have become. I am the captain of my own ship and Barack Obama’s example is irrefutable. John McCain’s example of being held captive as a POW and his slow but methodical rise through the political ranks to being the oldest candidate for the Presidency and viable one is just as compelling. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s work in the trenches of politics has robbed the tower of its glass ceiling. This has been an historic race that truly has centered as much around the American dream as it has been rooted in political realities and economic necessity.
No matter what your religious affiliation, if any, some power has determined that the American Dream must become the American reality.
Today, that is so.
Human nature always casts a shadow over circumstance as justifying grace for whatever decisions we make or do not make. This event will write a new chapter, not just in American history, but in world history. The world will not be able to point at the American dream with skepticism and say “but look there, what about the……”, that argument is dashed forever in the sea of voters that proved that democracy can always have a finest hour.

America has proven once again that democracy is still a blank page waiting to be written in America’s history book.