Black & White?

Ok...so I guess it was bound to happen eventually. For the first time in our Nations brief but potent history we are knee-deep in an election that spotlights a woman and an African American man as our two pillars of hope for some semblance of change. I dont think I'm alone in my belief that our ONLY pillar of hope for real change in the country is Barack Obama. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a woman in the White House just as much as the next chick, but I firmly believe that Hillary is not our best bet. She is a politician through and through, drenched and dripping with twenty-some-odd years of "experience" that in my mind translates to the jaded corruption that has unfortunately become synonymous with politics. If there were ever a time in America's history to pull ourselves out of the muck and mire of the Fraternity of previous leaders (ie the Bush-Clinton lineage) this is most definitely that moment.

So here we are, teetering on the brink of progress, with a candidate who continues to inspire and spark a small flame of hope that this year's election wont leave us in the tears of defeat that streamed down my face as I watched the final election results of 2004. Literally. Tears.

While the road down every election inevitably yeilds competitive bumps along the way, I have been pleasantly surprised at the humbleness, charisma and confidence with with Barack Obama has addressed the bumps that have come up. And I suppose it was inevitable that the issue of race would rear its ugly, but very real, head during this campaign.

Obama's former minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, spoke bluntly and passionately of racial division in America, honing in on the struggles and hinderances that a black man like Obama would face in his candidacy due to active American racism, and striking out against Clinton as a priveledged "rich, white," and precious politician. He made a pungent statement when he said "Hillary Clinton has never been called a 'Nigger.'" Yikes. Furthermore, he claimed that Clinton has a better chance at winning the candidacy than Obama solely because she is white.

Despite his role in Obama's campaign, not to mention his "family-like" ties with the Obama family, Barack Obama cut him from the campaign and humbly addressed the Reverand's comments today in Philadelphia. Rather than turning the "firestorm" (as he called it) into a heated outrage of racial defense, Obama casually but sternly recognized that race is, indeed, an issue...BUT, he quickly pushed through what could have been a major political roadblock and pointed out that the REAL issue to be recognized in Rev. Wright's comments is the potential for such a perspective to further divide our nation, and to magnify an issue that, while relevent in its own right, draws the attention away from other issues that America faces as a WHOLE, such as healthcare, the environmental crisis, the War in Iraq, etc.

I remember back in 7th grade when I was running for Student Council president. I remember talking to my mom about my "platform," and having her feed me advice that, to me, was only relevent to how I could improve school lunches and student body assemblies. She told me "the difference between a good leader and a bad leader is that a good leader will make decisions that are better for the whole, even if it may put them in a disadvantage. A bad leader makes choices that benefit himself alone, ignoring the well-being of the whole."

This, I believe, is one of the supreme qualifications of Barack Obama to turn this country around. We have become so conditioned to a leader who acts only out of his own self-interest (whether it be his relationship to oil in the Middle East, or chasing after the man who hurt his daddy's pride in the Gulf War), and we have pathetically accepted the fact that any decision made by Bush is likely to benefit Bush and hurt America. But Barack Obama has proven thus far to follow a different path, with different motivations that, frighteningly, have become foreign to us as a nation of "we the people:" to actually act out of the best interest for the whole, rather than the individual. Rather than dwell on the issue of race, which he could potentially use as a pity card or a platform from which to spring bouts of civil rights preachings, he has respectfully addressed that racism (of any kind) is nothing but a dividing force that will widen the already increasing gap among the American people, and points us toward the horizon of actively addressing pressing issues that will influence us as a nation of individuals, united.

To check out the video footage of his speech, click here:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/18/obama.speech/index.html#cnnSTCVideo