I was talking yesterday after Barack H. Obama became the 44th president of the United States with an elderly friend of mine. My friend, who will turn 86 in a few months, had spent the day with his wife watching every historical moment unfold. When these two people say that they would never have believed this day would come, they say it with some authority. Both children of the depression, they made their way from farms in New Hampshire to the world of education and advertising for her and a Ph.D. in chemistry for him. They have lived all around this country from Texas to New Jersey.
When I first met them some 24 years ago, they were dyed-in-the-wool lifelong Republicans. Yet in 1992, they voted for Bill Clinton and then again in 1996. And even after the scandals, to this day they think of Clinton as being one of our best presidents. A remarkable political transformation to say the least.
Way back in 2006, when Obama's presidential trial balloon was first floated, I told them that I thought he would not only win the Democratic nomination but also the presidency. They were a little stunned by that possibility. Not that Obama didn't have the ability and brains to be president (which they saw as blessed relief from George Bush whom they loathed) but that a "colored" man could win the presidency. That's right..."colored". That's the word they used and still use even after I have gently chided and corrected them on its non-pc status. But they do not use the word with any semblance of racial prejudice or malice. It's just the only word they know to describe a person of color from their own white upbringing.
As Obama moved from maybe a candidate, to candidate, to Democratic nominee, to President-elect, their respect and admiration grew and grew. And yes they voted for him. But yesterday, as my friend watched the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington to witness this defining moment, he couldn't fully grasp the reasons why so many would be willing to stand for hours in the cold to hear Obama's voice ring out as President for the very first time and even perhaps see him up close.
So I put it into an historical context that I knew he would readily comprehend. I asked him if he remembered as a child the pictures of thousands of men and women standing in endless lines waiting for a cup of soup and a piece of bread. He of course did. "Well", I said, "these people you see today are hungry and starving too. Not for physical sustenance but for spiritual nourishment. They hunger for hope."
Then he understood.