I just realized this (maybe I'm dreaming, or drunk), but something special happened at the Bill Richardson endorsement of Obama rally that made me think some things in this country really are changing.
During Bill Richardson's speech the crowd started chanting "yes we can, yes we can", and Richardson reacted, "si se puede, si se puede", to which the crowd responded "si se puede, si se puede". Now, this is unprecedented as far as I'm concerned. I know this is not the first time that this has happened at one of Obama's rallies, but I just happen to realize it now. I've been in the states since 1991, and in countless of occasions I've been given really bad looks for speaking Spanish, my main language, in public with a friend or a family member. Not too long ago my mom and my wife were told to speak English because "this is America", by the way, this didn't happen in the south. Maybe you can't understand what I'm talking about because maybe you haven't had these experiences, but I'm telling you, this is something! For thousands of white people to be chanting in unison a campaign slogan IN SPANISH that means, at least to me, that more and more people in the majority are starting to accept other peoples and cultures. The fact that millions of whites want an African-American to be President, the fact that this guy is a STRONG advocate of illegal immigrants, etc, etc, and still they want him, I can't emphasize enough how much that means to me as a minority. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the majority of this country should adapt to the Spanish-speaking guests and learn their language, on the contrary, I've always been a strong advocate for learning English in the Hispanic community. As a volunteer I've even taught English classes full of illegal immigrants in the past, even though my English is somewhat or very limited. I really think everyone should learn the dominant language of the country. Every time I meet a Latino who doesn't speak English I always encourage him/her to stop watching Univision and Telemundo and to get the English courses of Rossetta Stone and start learning the language that will make them get ahead in this society.
So yeah, I really think Obama is a uniter, his not even President yet and he's already uniting people. WOW!!!!!
(I know, I know, there are still millions who are not like that, but hey, something is something).