I am Proud of My Country

I was fully planning on posting my thoughts on Chapter Two in The Tangible Kingdom this morning, but after last night, I don't want to miss this chance to respond to something special that happened last night in our country.  I will get to the book soon enough.

For the record:  I am not a democrat, I am not a republican, and I am not a libertarian.  My allegiance does not lie with a particular party, but I also have to acknowledge my intrigue in this senator from Illinois.  That being said, I did my best last night to look objectively at what was happening and see it for what it is.  I didn't want to look backwards in 15 years and say, "Yeah, I guess that year was sort of a big year."

Last night, the first person of color was tagged as the presumptive nominee of one of the major political parties for president of our great country.  This is HUGE!  It would have been huge no matter which candidate survived the tightly contested primaries.  If Senator Clinton had won, I would be writing about women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who began the fight for women's suffrage 160 years ago.  I would be writing about how Wyoming broke through by allowing women to vote in 1869.  Even with that, on a national scale it wasn't until The 19th Amendment in1920 that women were granted the privilege to vote.  What's great about this year is that, as Clinton said last night, she has talked with women during her campaign that haven't always been allowed to vote and a woman almost won the democratic nomination.  That's big in itself, but not as big as Obama winning the nomination.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment provided the privilege of men to vote no matter their "race, color or previous condition of servitude."  Unfortunately, our country tended to maintain segregate voting practices by imposing policies on voters that basically shut-out anyone who was not white.  In 1965, the National Voting Act of 1965 outlawed all such practices, and practically speaking, everyone in America now had equal privilege to vote. Wow...forty-four years ago, not only would Barak Obama not have been able to be on the ticket, but he would have had no say in who was.  We have come a long way.  I listened last night to African-American men try to explain their feelings on this day.  I watched clips of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his "I have a dream" speech and couldn't help but wonder, how much sooner this day might have come, had he not been gunned down by some idiot.  Obama's words, "America, this is our time," had deep-seated emotions attached to them that I can't fully comprehend.

Today, I am proud of my country.  I am proud that we have progressed to the point where we could have had a female run for president.  I am proud that we have progressed to the point where we do have a black American running for a predominantly white office - the most powerful office in the world.  I have never been more proud of my country as I am today.  Whether you agree with his policies or not, take some time and reflect on the incredible move in our country from where we were just 44 years ago!  You don't have to vote for him, or even like him.  I'm not asking you to support Barak Obama.  I am simply encouraging you to reflect on the fact that you could if you wanted to.