So today I have a few minutes to myself and I can’t help but reflect on the history that was made last night. I don’t know if it is my English/Episcopal guilt that seems to have traveled through my ancestry, and has provided me with a love for all people, no matter what their diversity, or if it is just honest-to-God pride that is running through my veins today. May be it is both. The joy that I feel for African Americans in this country is immeasurable. I couldn’t help but replay clips today of Martin Luther King Jr’s "I Have a Dream" speech over and over this morning and pray that his soul is rejoicing in heaven at what his people have achieved. Along with millions of voters of all ethnicities, blacks were joined yesterday in realizing something so potent, it brings tears to the eyes of even the people who did not vote for Obama.
When I mentioned my guilt above, it is only because of the sadness I feel for the pain that has been suffered in this country because of people’s prejudices towards other Americans and citizens around the world. Somehow a few citizens in this great country have not fully understood the words written with such anticipation by or forefathers. "We hold these truths to be self-evident" they said, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Whatever happened to the belief in this declaration that we have fought so hard to maintain for so many years?
Some Americans struggle now, after 9/11 to recognize that Muslims, even American Muslims, as a whole, are not to be feared, and we should not cast them with malevolence. They love their God, just as Christians do and as a whole, they do not hate Americans. As we all realize, there are those that take it to an extreme, but no Christian can deny that there are those in our faith that do the same. Each group has its radicals and each group must fight against its radicalism.
I feel the pain of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community that feels that they are second class citizens, just as blacks did, because of the person they love and because of the unfounded fears of those who claim God hates homosexuals. As if humans on this earth are given the right to decide, that which is only decided by one higher power. We are not as important as the Almighty, yet so many believe that we as humans are. Or even worse, that we as Americans are. We share this earth; we do not own this earth. I feel sadness every day for my family member who cannot enjoy the marriage between him and his lifelong partner, simply because others are afraid of their union. He is no different than I, and he should not suffer because others can’t get over their intolerance of someone different than themselves.
I feel the pain and the guilt, as a white American, that people of my race could actually treat another human being in a way that is not one in which I would choose for myself, but rather in a way that is so inherently against what Jesus ever would have taught. I am so proud for the achievements of the African American community and I hope that November 4th, 2008 is a turning point for this country. That race is no longer something that divides us, and that we always remember the pain that was felt in the marches from Selma, or in Rosa Parks’s heart on that bus that fateful day. I hope we never forget the dogs, and the hoses and the words of hate that bombarded our nation in a time of pure abhorrence. I hope that we also never forget how we overcame.
I have always wondered how powerful a nation America would actually be if we were not divided. Just imagine how the world would look at us if we didn’t have people trying to kill one another because of the color of their skin, or the person they love. How would they look at us if everyone was allowed to adopt a child in need, not just heterosexuals? How would they look at us if we did not use God’s name as a way of spewing hatred towards God’s children? Maybe we will find out in the days to come. Hope has arrived. Not in the flesh of Barack Obama, but in the way that he has brought us together. In the way that he has, with his words and his actions, provided America with something to work for. To paraphrase President-elect Barack Obama, we need to work for not just a blue America, or a red America, but the United States of America.
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