by Michael T. Heath

Created on: June 02, 2010

We are within a vastly different era than the one some Obama haters would like to return to. Heartily disappointed by his election victory in 2008 and implacably opposed to anything he's either accomplished or proposed, this minority will never see him with fair eyes.

But the rest of us - including some who voted for McCain but can think rationally - are willing to give this man a chance. He has demonstrated courage in the confrontation over health care, and shown class in the face of ugly diatribes about him. Are these slanders racist? You be the judge.

I've seen the sort of monkey-like cartoons and leering, threatening caricatures reminiscent of the bad old days of Jim Crow. But of course, that's what this sort of sign-waver dearly misses.

Message to John Doe: we aren't going back there. Not tomorrow, not next week: never. For one thing, laws have been changed to eliminate the sort of institutional racism which plagued this land for centuries.

Secondly, our country is filled with plenty of educated, capable, not-going-back kinds of 'minorities' we aren't going to dominate any more. President Obama is a good example of just such change.

Our first known African American leader, elected fair and square (after two not-so-honest elections) by a majority of the people. Those who were courageous and crossed party lines to vote him in, such as my 80-year old father, are to be commended for their private courage.

Dad voted Republican all his life - like his father before him. Although I talk politics around him (we're a political debate kind of family), I never tried to sway his vote over Obama. It would have been a waste of time, number one.

And that's not our way, we all share in the fun but try to leave the line of overt advocacy intact. My father chose to pick Obama because he simply felt that McCain was inadequate for the job.

Instead of voting the straight party line, as usual, he chose Obama because he was "the best man for the job - for these troubled times". 

Our nation took a giant leap forward upon the election of this president. For a change, we picked a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. We saw beyond our previously narrow perspectives and jumped into the future with our eyes wide open.

Certainly, events which occur during this term of Obama's will transpire to focus blame on him when things go badly. That goes with the territory, ladies and gentlemen.

I don't care who's in charge, if you step into office with two wars in progress, an economy in ruins and a ticking time bomb of an offshore oil rig waiting to blow - you're going to have your hands full. We are getting what we paid for with this one. America is so much the better for it.

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