Posted by Perry
Last night, as I watched the returns come in in the Presidential Election, I thought about just how far we have come as a country. I watched the end of a campaign for two good men that fought hard for the chance to lead the Nation that both love deeply.
Notice that I said ‘good’ men – because for the first time that I can remember in an election, we had two good choices for President. In the past, I (like many of you no doubt) had selected a candidate because they were the lesser of two evils, this time we had a rare choice of two men who were both qualified to lead.
A leader, in my opinion, has to do more than just make sound decisions, he or she also has to have the ability to inspire people in a way that makes them want to get involved, they have to be someone that people rally around when times get tough and they have to have the ability to know that they do not always have the right solution to problems, and therefor, look to ideas from others to solve common problems.
We had two of those types of leaders last night. John McCain and Barrack Obama both inspire, show good judgement, and honestly care about our country.
Much is being made (as it should) about where we now stand as a people having elected a bi-racial president for the first time in our history. But it goes beyond that for me – it isn’t about an “African American’ thing to me, but rather, a statement from all Americans no matter what race about where we should go as a Nation. All races spoke last night and chose a new leader for the next four years.
When the world looks at us now, they can no longer say that we talk a good talk, but don’t walk the walk. They can say now that in America you truly can be anything you want to be no matter what color you are, or your religion.
Think about this for a minute – we made history last night no matter what the results would have been. We were either going to have the first bi-racial president, or the oldest first term president ever elected to office. Not to mention the first female vice-president.
Some may view this election with a bit of skepticism or maybe even a hint of bitterness, but we all should be proud of ourselves as a country because we did something that not many people in the world thought would ever happen – we lived up to the promise of our founding fathers and made dreams into reality.
We can thank two good men for this historic moment in our time – John McCain and Barrack Obama.
I salute them both.