by Nkechiye O.

Created on: November 11, 2008

Oh Election Day 2008.
America has come a long way. To see history unfold like this is amazing yet extremely terrifying at the same time. A change is among us. As a child I sat in school and read in my history books about a dream that Martin Luther King had. I learned about Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and last night I learned about 106 years old woman named Ann Nixon Cooper. According to Associated Press, Obama introduced the world to a woman who "was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin." The whole world watched the Rodney King beating on television and soon after the acquittals of the accused officers, watched much of L.A. riot for days. To hear about all the hate crimes and negativity against blacks over the years, and then to be able to watch in our own living rooms, a man, an African American man, Barack Obama, become our President-Elect, hit me with a cultural punch. It was almost overwhelming to see so many diverse cultures come together, and heartening to see a world, a much more liberal world not so eager to conform to the American ideal. A world that has come to recognize, accept, and tolerate change and individuality, kind of. (Prop 8) According to Barack Obama, this is just the beginning and "there is so much more to do." As I watched Obama's speech, I laughed as I watched Jesse Jackson cry his eyes out for two straight hours, I cried looking into the hopeful, yet weary eyes of his supporters lucky enough to be in Chicago that night, then I cried with laughter watching Jesse Jackson, now swimming in a river of his own tears, hold up Oprah's pudgy arm (a buoy maybe?) to deflect the attention of the camera, when he saw himself on the Jumbo tron. As I watched him make that speech and for the first time in my life felt a sense of trust respect and hope for the next President of the United States. This is just one hump that we as human beings have overcome. Like our future President said "This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can."

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