I saw this picture today and it brought tears to my eyes. For me this might be the picture of the election. Obama holds the future of our country in his arms.
The issue of black equality has plagued us from our very beginnings. We owe our first successes as a nation to the exploitation of African slaves.
The only civil war America, which was the bloodiest conflict in American History, claiming more lives than The American Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, The War against Switzerland, The War of 1812, and the Vietnam War combined revolved around the issue of Slavery.
We have come very far since then, but what of the last remnants of racism in the US?
We all know that over the long term, racial inequality is fought in our schools and in our homes, in the way our society portrays race to our children. The way our children are taught to view the world when they are young is largely influential to the way they see the world as an adult.
It is clear that Barack Obama is the man that gives each and every African American child the hope for a better future completely free from prejudice.
What we may forget sometimes is that Barack Obama is also the man that gives every non-black child in America a clear refutation of whatever prejudices might be taught to them by the adults around them.
To me, this is just as important.
I know a woman who has taught her son that Obama is a muslim; the child chose to inform me about Obama's faith when he saw my bumper sticker a few months ago. Not only did the kid tell me "Obama's a muslim" but he said it in a way that made it clear his mother has taught him this is a Bad thing.
Now, I could never take away this woman's right to teach her child this. I think she's a very irresponsible parent, but she has a right to raise her kids the way she wants. That is something that we will never be able to change, and should not want to change. It might be too late to affect a change in the mother, but I'm willing to bet it's not too late for her child, despite the garbage his mother is feeding him.
The fact is, simply by being President, Obama would/will fight this very last vestige of inherited racism.
The United States of America will never be the same after this election.