This is the eleventh presidential election that I have voted in and the results of this one seem to exist at two different levels. There are the usual winners and losers and everyone will react to the results in a way that is consistent with their own priorities. At the same time, however, there is another level to these results - a level of which I think we all can be and should be proud.
Obviously and simply it is the result of a predominantly white nation electing a black president - let me say that again - a predominantly white nation electing a black president. What that means, also quite simply is that a clear majority of people thought he was the best choice to be President. That doesn't mean they are correct, only history both short and long term will determine whether this was the right choice or not.
I think this once again honors the values of the American Revolution - the values of the Declaration - "that all men are created equal," which at its most basic level has to include equal opportunity. The white men of property who voted for that document most likely defined "all men" as "all white men" or even "all white men of property." But regardless of what they meant, they didn't say that, thereby, opening the challenge of living into that value to each future generation of Americans. The best example I can give of how that is true, is when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech in 1963, he didn't bother to try to come up with new values or a new way to say it. He simply called on American to live out the meaning of its creed - "all men . . ." - you know the rest.
Back in 2006 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church elected the first woman as Presiding Bishop. Not much was made of the fact that she was elected by a House of Bishops who were probably 90% white males - in relative terms white men of property. Today the Episcopal Church is in trouble with a lot of the Anglican Communion both for that decision, but also for wanting equality for all regardless of sexual orientation. Why is the Anglican church in the United States in such a different place than the rest of those churches that came out of the Church of England? One reason might be because for over 200 years the Episcopal Church has lived in the context of the values of the American Revolution.
When George Washington was inaugurated as 1st President of the United States, he said, "the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." Our choice of our 44th President based on "the content of his character, not the color of his skin," has shown that this generation of Americans still honors those values - still as revolutionary as they were in 1776.
Obviously and simply it is the result of a predominantly white nation electing a black president - let me say that again - a predominantly white nation electing a black president. What that means, also quite simply is that a clear majority of people thought he was the best choice to be President. That doesn't mean they are correct, only history both short and long term will determine whether this was the right choice or not.
I think this once again honors the values of the American Revolution - the values of the Declaration - "that all men are created equal," which at its most basic level has to include equal opportunity. The white men of property who voted for that document most likely defined "all men" as "all white men" or even "all white men of property." But regardless of what they meant, they didn't say that, thereby, opening the challenge of living into that value to each future generation of Americans. The best example I can give of how that is true, is when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech in 1963, he didn't bother to try to come up with new values or a new way to say it. He simply called on American to live out the meaning of its creed - "all men . . ." - you know the rest.
Back in 2006 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church elected the first woman as Presiding Bishop. Not much was made of the fact that she was elected by a House of Bishops who were probably 90% white males - in relative terms white men of property. Today the Episcopal Church is in trouble with a lot of the Anglican Communion both for that decision, but also for wanting equality for all regardless of sexual orientation. Why is the Anglican church in the United States in such a different place than the rest of those churches that came out of the Church of England? One reason might be because for over 200 years the Episcopal Church has lived in the context of the values of the American Revolution.
When George Washington was inaugurated as 1st President of the United States, he said, "the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." Our choice of our 44th President based on "the content of his character, not the color of his skin," has shown that this generation of Americans still honors those values - still as revolutionary as they were in 1776.
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