While gently sipping my coffee & brandy and truly enjoying the ice cream, I witnessed history in the making;
Barack Hussein Obama, the first, very first Afro-American president of the United States;
His hair has turned grey during this campaign and his figure a bit gaunt but he fully embodies the American Dream in its truest form. And has achieved a victory over bigotry and double standards of which America has formerly been so known!
He did it!! He bloody well did it! And the numbers are so very clear; Over the double electoral votes than McCain, it leaves no room for doubt, what so ever! Even took Virginia ! A Republican state sine L.B. Johnson in 1964....!!
What a remarkable achievement!! Though I'm no huge-crowd lover, I would have liked to be in Chicago tonight.... Or anywheres in the US really....!
The images of the European reporters sounding a bit condescending or holier than thou, while standing in front of The White House, they'd speak about the racial under and over tones in these electoral races, and naming Selma, Alabama and southern segregation not even 50 years ago... Still lingers on. But the fact is; Europe is no further, than USA was
yesterday! When you see the "class photos" of the heads of states, in this part of the world, you see nothing but elderly, white men and a single middle aged white woman! And the mere idea of someone from an minority group, holding the top office, is an impossibility even in this day and age. Again America came first in a feat as unthinkable as Mans first steps on the moon.
Now I'm hearing the " I won " speech in front of the 70.000 ticket-holders in Grant Park, Chicago - The windy city, with a couple of hundred of thousands more, outside the heavily guarded park site. We wore told that he'll speak behind a double panel of bullet-proof glass, now starts the paranoia of an early demise, "Strange American Fruit" style. -I didn't see no panel of glass ?!
It was a somber speech, no crowd shouting/ rally chanting about it. It was a "Steady now" speech; There's huge obstacles and challenges up ahead! - A man ready to be the 44. president of America, contrary to what so many has said all these last months.
John McCain was most gracious in his "I lost" speech, but Little Miss Pipe Dream, looked like a sore looser, hardly containing the tears... Must be the exhaustion and battle fatigue!
This must be a bittersweet night for President Obama (Gee, Just being able to write that!!) who lost his grandmother Toot, where he grew up, only two days ago. - She didn't get to see him, in his proudest moment....
But at least the uncles, aunts and cousins get to feast on a cow back in the village in Kenya.
And we? Well, we will now go to bed, knowing that the world is not set in its ways and is forever changing. Change can sometimes be frightening and hope can sometimes be elusive to hold. But I do think, that Barack Obama will be able to change some of the mistakes done by the former administration. And I'm sure that the convicts in Guantanamo and the troops in Iraq will now have hope, that their plight and suffering will soon be over!
