Today was a great day in the US. After all the fighting, bickering, finger pointing, lying, exaggeration, etc. we have come together to make history. I am completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of what happened today. Five things stand out for me:
1. Never before in history (what I know of history) has the son of an enslaved people risen to the top position in the country without bloodshed, civil war, anarchy, etc. Amazing.
2. I can't think of another country who's had the opportunity to reach back to the darkest period of its history and redeem itself. Sure, voting in Barack Obama in no way erases the ugliness of slavery, segregation and prejudice but it is a huge step forward towards redemption.
3. The crowd cheering Obama was not a black crowd, or a minority crowd, it was a crowd of elated, overjoyed, hopeful Americans. I saw tears flowing from the eyes of white people, black people, young people, old people, minorities, majorities...basically Americans.
4. Three years ago Sofia and I were living in Sweden and travelling in Europe and everywhere we went the US was spit on, mocked, reviled, cursed. What a difference one man has made. Just go to any newspaper in any country in Europe and see the admiration, excitement, joy. One Swedish paper said it the best "today, the good America has reappeared."
5. There in no doubt in my mind that Obama is a man of destiny. Remember that Bill Clinton almost lost the election over having smoked pot and yet we have just elected a man who admitted smoking crack. We have just seen a man with no real political background, no blue blood running in his veins, no family connections to the White House, no ethnic entitlement become the next president of the US.
Not since Ronald Reagan has someone stirred in me the fires of patriotism like Obama did tonight. I am so proud that my little children will grow up with an African American in the Whitehouse because it will completely change the race conversation for them.
Now, I hope that Obama approaches the office of the presidency with the same class, zeal and determination as he did his election. I hope for the sake of this moment in our history that he turns out to be not only a great orator but also one of the greatest presidents in our history.
Finally, I pray that he is kept safe. If someone harms him or his family, we as a country will never be able to lift our head again in pride at the progress that we have made. In that way I hope he is completely unlike JFK.
