I cried a little last night about the election. Last time my tears were not quite so happy… to say the least. My spirit is refreshed, my confidence surges and my optimism transcends. Hope. It’s infectious I guess… it’s all around. Even W seems pretty happy about it. How can one not pause and appreciate the sheer magnitude of what America did last night? This is why I love America and her democracy… it has the ability to reinvent itself. A dramatic force for justice is the US election this year… and if Obama has anything to say about it, ad infinitum.
My real kick in the ass came when I thought back to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the passionate hope filled fight he waged against intolerance and justice… and I cry again. Sob, in fact…. so proud of my country right now that I hope it will take a long time to wear off. I’m sure it has something to do with how angry I was for the last 8 years. The release is incredible… and the best part is that I know millions of Americans feel the same joy. This is an amazingly historic time to be alive and tonight I want to thank God for today.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. dared to dream of this day back on August 28, 1963. Many of my fellow Americans saw this speech 45 years ago. I can only imagine what they must be feeling when they think back to this moment of history from the prism of November 4, 2008:
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
justin
PS: To my gay friends: Your dream will come true, too. This is proof.
As Dr. King said: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Justin, I appreciate your passion and emotion on this momentous occasion. It is hard to deny the infectious nature of this election. Though I voted for McCain and align myself with the right, I do think this is an incredible time in our history. Our first black president…simply amazing! What a day for all minorities.