Obama wins big!

I awoke this morning to hear an excited Jim Naughtie talking about Obama's win. My hopes have turn out right. Just as they have for millions of Americans and millions more around the world. Whatever else the last couple of years have taught us, the most important lesson is that we are one world. A few irresponsible loan sharks can bring down the entire economic system! Wow, what a challenging life it all is.

Barack Obama is the catalayst for change. He's the match that will light a new torch. However, we must not expect him to do it alone. The rest of us have to help in that change.

I was wondering this morning what the Founding Fathers would have thought of it all. In fact, those that settled in America 400 years ago would not have envisioned anything like it. Not even FORTY years ago, to think about it. I can remember George Wallace remonstrating with hecklers - "You punks get out of the auditorium!", he rather delicately declared. And another famous line - "Anyone who lays down in front of ma car gets run right over!" (His grammar by the way!). Those days have really gone.

The truth is that Obama represents not just black people, whatever that means. He is mixed race. His mother was white, his father a Kenyan on a student exchange. Obama is truly African-American. He has family in Kenya. But he is more than being a stereotype. He is the representative of immigrants, of the middle classes, of the socially mobile, of the aspirant, of the educated, of the poor, of whoever. Because of that the vast coalition who voted for him and the vast coalition around the world who support him and wish him well, anyone can claim his representation as being for them.

I would hope we can stop referring to the "black president" (however important his election is) and just support President-elect Barack Obama as a human being with a vision for change.