Sorry. I am going to piss you off when you read this. Sorry.
I don't mean to detract from Barack Obama's accomplishment of rising from relative obscurity to become President; hell, I even voted for him, and I really like McCain.
I was going to keep this to myself because I'd had two days without reading or hearing about the Historic Presidential election we just had in the U. S. A., but then I saw one more story that used the term historic, so I have to say this, regardless of how you might feel. So here it goes:
Why is this historic? Is it that he's black? Why should the color of his skin matter? It doesn't seem to matter to Obama, who referred to himself as a "mutt."
And then I realized that if it doesn't matter to him, then it must matter to us. When we say this election made history, we mean we made history.
WE made history by being the first generation enlightened enough to elect a black person President. Sure, the Greatest Generation fought Nazis and defeated Hitler, but we voted for a black man. And the "founding fathers" fought for independence from a foreign power, but we voted for a black man. The North fought The South and Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, but we clicked on a website to donate some money to a political campaign and brought real change.
So now I understand everything. When I voted for Obama, I didn't give him my vote because I thought he was the marginally better candidate, I did it to prove that I'm a better person than every American who has ever lived before me.
So when I read about this Historic Presidency, I know now that it was I, who made history.
I don't mean to detract from Barack Obama's accomplishment of rising from relative obscurity to become President; hell, I even voted for him, and I really like McCain.
I was going to keep this to myself because I'd had two days without reading or hearing about the Historic Presidential election we just had in the U. S. A., but then I saw one more story that used the term historic, so I have to say this, regardless of how you might feel. So here it goes:
Why is this historic? Is it that he's black? Why should the color of his skin matter? It doesn't seem to matter to Obama, who referred to himself as a "mutt."
And then I realized that if it doesn't matter to him, then it must matter to us. When we say this election made history, we mean we made history.
WE made history by being the first generation enlightened enough to elect a black person President. Sure, the Greatest Generation fought Nazis and defeated Hitler, but we voted for a black man. And the "founding fathers" fought for independence from a foreign power, but we voted for a black man. The North fought The South and Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, but we clicked on a website to donate some money to a political campaign and brought real change.
So now I understand everything. When I voted for Obama, I didn't give him my vote because I thought he was the marginally better candidate, I did it to prove that I'm a better person than every American who has ever lived before me.
So when I read about this Historic Presidency, I know now that it was I, who made history.
But if you want to focus on race, don't forget that Shirley Chisolm ran back in 1972. If she'd had the Internet, who knows what might have happened. (But she did have her own trading card.)
