This morning I am asking you to indulge me in a point of personal privilege. The events of yesterday were, at least so far as I am concerned, every bit as momentous and as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall or VE Day. What occurred was the culmination of an historical wave and the consummation of multi-generational imperative which changed everything forever for the better. It was the occasion for jubilation, thanksgiving and sincere, heartfelt reflection with grateful, uplifted hearts for the privilege of bearing witness to such a moment.
And it was dampened, almost cheapened, by the recalcitrance of a few attention-junkies hell-bent on maintaining their precarious stake on temporal power.
So this morning I am angry, and I doubt that I'm alone.
Bill and Hillary have pulled these stunts before. We overlooked the ungracious way they stage-managed a thunderous send-off for themselves at the very moment George W. Bush was celebrating his inaugural galas. At the time, of course, we were more than happy to see Bush upstaged, even if it was done in a most unsporting and undignified manner. But, truth be told, most of us Democrats cringed at the tawdry self-promotion of the Clintons and their obvious lack of decorum. It should have served as a warning.
But last night was not just Barack Obama's night. It belonged to history. And it belonged as well to the four million Africans who endured involuntary servitude in the three hundred years from Jamestown to Appomattox, the 625,000 brave men of both sides who gave their last full measure of devotion to their country in a bloody civil war, the scores of men lynched under the apartheid of Jim Crow, the thousands of brave souls who ended Jim Crow with their marches and civil disobedience, and the generations of white and black citizens of this country who consciously and deliberately made the choice to create a truly integrated community through tolerance and fair play. But, even more importantly, last night very justly belonged to the great mass of young Americans under thirty for whom race is not a matter of consequence in their personal and professional lives -- the generation who, at long last, overcame!
And to have the moment derailed so that Hillary Clinton, through the looking glass and from the blacked-out basement somewhere in the insularity of NYC, could demand "respect" while presuming to speak for those who "feel invisible" (read Nixon's "silent majority") was a breach of decency so profoundly ignoble and so blatantly sophomoric as to rise to the level of political masque.
There were ways she could have preserved her franchise while still managing to acknowledge the historical sanctity of the moment, yet she chose to insinuate herself directly into the moment, meretriciously and brazenly, while uttering the patented Clintonian projection, "This isn't about me," as indemnification against criticism.
But, alas, it was about her. It's always either about her or about Bill. Funny, but somehow the perils and tribulations of those "invisible people" so disrespected by the Establishment will find redress in Hillary's being asked to join the ticket, or her campaign debt being settled in full, or her campaign staff being assimilated into the Obama campaign, or her lieutenants being seated on the DNC.
Well, as my old Tennessee grandma used to say, that dog won't hunt!
I'm angry this morning, and I'm not in the least inclined to be magnanimous. Some things are more important than a single person, even Bill or Hillary Clinton.
Barack Obama knows this. And that is why today he is our nominee for President.