The morning after

November 5,

I had something written for last night.  A few weeks ago I sat down to write up my thoughts on the election, and what it would mean for our country and all of us.  When California and Hawaii were called last night, and CNN ran the “Obama Elected President” banner, all that thinking and writing were left behind, along with so much else.

One of my first posts on this blog was on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death in April.  I posted a video of his last speech, under the title ‘why.’ I know at least some took it to mean “why am I joining the Peace Corps?”  The real question, while maybe a bit related, was also most pessimistic: “why did it have to end like that?”  I grew up thinking of the Civil Rights era as one of the noblest in our countries history, and a time when my family was very involved.  The Kennedys and Dr. King were (and are) to me the great heroes of American history, a history that all too often feels like a Shakespearean tragedy.  The Kennedys and King shot, the architect of the civil rights act disgraced by Vietnam, Grant Park the home of police clashes which hobbled the movement’s ability to recover.  If American lives (and political movements) have no second acts, than surely this was a bitter curtain.  Forty years later we told ourselves that things were better, that we had come a long way, but not due to any closure of what took place before.  If we were to see Dr. King’s mountaintop, it would be a stumbling, grueling journey without a compass.

And then last night a new scene from Grant Park- not of violence, but of hundreds of thousands coming together to celebrate what is possible if we put our minds to it.  As I sat watching last night, all I could think about was the Ernie Dunns and Jack Corys of the world, the Powells and the John Sinclairs; the millions of Americans that did the right thing because we’re Americans, and we’re decent to other people, and it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.  Watching Grant Park last night I realized that my question why was a faulty one: nothing ever really ended.  As we were reminded last night, we’re not at the promised land yet, but every day we make progress: brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

The next four years could be some of the hardest our country has ever faced.  President Obama will take office with a long list of crises, any one of which could have qualified as the defining challenge of Presidencies before his.  Expectations could not be higher, and I expect this week we’ll already be hearing about political battles over the cabinet and the direction the country will take from here [as of this writing, Rahm Emanuel has been announced as the new chief of staff].  For now though, let’s all take a breath and realize what a thing we’ve achieved.