Election Day

The idea of a grown man crying is enough, to witness it is quite more than I can handle.

But, before that, the facts.


"Fact"
On November 4th, 2008 A.D., The United States Of America elected to the office of President, for one four year term, the junior senator from the state of Lincoln, Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama.
Well meeting the requirement of 270 votes from the Electoral College with an estimated 364, Mr. Obama will be the 44th President following inauguration in front of the country on January 20th, 2009 A.D.
Mr. Obama meets all Constitutional requirements for President, being a natural born citizen, being of at least 35 years of age, and having lived permanently in the United States for the past 14 years.


1,287,446,400 Seconds
Obama's inauguration to the height of the free world will take place 14,901 days since the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Present on the balcony Dr. King was killed on on April 4th, 1968 was Jesse Jackson, a leader in Dr. King's Operation Breadbasket. Operation Breadbasket was a boycott system, targeted at business that did not buy goods from nor hire blacks in Chicago. Dr. King made Jackson the national director of the organization in 1967.
Since that day Jackson has been nothing less than controversial. He wore the same blood stained turtleneck in an interview on the Today Show the next day.

For this reason I forgive the transgressions of Jesse Jackson, for I know I am not strong enough to have accomplished any of the things he has since that day. To watch him cry in joy tonight was overwhelming. He has seen the fruition of the greatest American's Dream, lived to see him pass away, only to see his spirit alive and well, reaffirmed by more than 64 million Americans from all across this country. Never will I be able to imagine the storm inside his mind as Barack Obama congratulated hundreds of thousands of supporters upon being elected as our President. 

A man is flawed as rule; to disregard the accomplishments of Jackson for his illegitimate child or his penchant for drawing attention to himself lacks scope. This is a man that has spent his entire adult life working towards the equality of his fellow man; one that traveled to Syria in 1983 to successfully plead for the release of a captured American pilot; one that Dr. King thought worthy enough of promotion to a national position within his organization. This is a man whose heart is in the right place, but whom occasionally lacks the best outlet. He has earned his place in the annals of our nation's history. 

The Dream

I hold great pain for what the 27 year old Reverend Jackson went through that day. Dr. King is my hero. That phrase, so common, so played. But I feel lessened by him; I feel I can never match up to his example of selflessness, of dedication, of love for his fellow man. One man decided that eradicating 400 years of history was not an idea, not a goal, but that anything less was pure failure. One man, with a wife and children, decided to push against the fibers of this country and it's atrocious past. One man, able to discriminate the bad and the good of the country that had failed him, failed his family, failed his community, and most importantly, failed itself. Somehow, one man decided that despite all those in this country who did not deserve the frightening strength of a unified America, the needs of those trodden upon for so long were paramount. In a speech on the war in Vietnam, Dr. King empathized with his followers, and grossly understated the stresses of his life's work, stresses that impelled a coroner to declare his heart 21 years older in wear than the rest of his body.
"Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it means being frustrated."

Frustrated.

More than a decade of unwavering work towards bringing together a nation: frustrating.

How worthless I am in comparison to this man makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry. Dr. King talks of the guidance of a higher power as the impetus behind his actions towards equality, but only a genuine caring for his fellow man could have carried him so far. Lacking knowledge of that all-powerful source of strength does not make me revere Dr. King any less.

"I've seen the promised land"
232 years after the Declaration Of Independence declared the equality of man to be fact, fact incarnate, beyond presumption of mortal minds, this country has elected a man of direct african descent to lead the free world. His margin of victory enough to prove that the majority of this country has taken to heart Dr. King's dream that his "...four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." While I have fervently supported and am in awe of the accomplishment of the President-Elect, the night belongs to Dr. King. Without the tireless work of the pastor from Alabama, none of this is possible.

The night before his assassination, Dr. King told a crowd,
"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

It would appear, to the absolute elation of myself and millions, that he was right.