Today in History - January 20, 2009


It seems appropriate on this undeniably historic day to record some thoughts. While I was lying in bed last night not sleeping I narrowed it down to three things.

1. TODAY it matters very much that Barak Obama is a black man. He has become the first black man or any minority in this country to achieve the highest office in the land and arguably the most powerful single man in the world. It matters that he has attained that office in a country where many citizens of all races remember times where this could NOT have happened.
That said, TOMORROW, it matters not that he his black. It matters how he governs, the decsions he makes as president will matter.

2. While it would be foolish to assume that just because a minority man has become president all issues of race have resolved, it is time to rethink racial politics. Ideas like gerrymandering and quotas need to be examined in the light of this occasion.

3. This observation is far more specific to Barak Obama. It still remains to be seen that he is up to the job. As president of the United States the full weight of leadership desends on his shoulders. Can a man who has not stood for a position many times by voting "present" in the Senate square his shoulders and find his core to be the place where the buck stops? I hope so.