The Burdens of History, Reconciliation, and Fatality
Amid the euphoria last night in Chicago, one network's cameras zoomed in on an elderly black man who simply stood there weeping. Jesse Jackson wept quietly that way, too. So did I.
Everything in Barack Obama's bearing and speech showed he understood what we were feeling. Last night he shouldered the burdens of history and fatality with a gravitas and, I thought, a sadness reminiscent of Lincoln's.
I couldn't help recalling a moment during the 1990 inauguration of David Dinkins as New York City's first African-American mayor, when the elderly Rev. Gardner Taylor of Brooklyn's Concord Avenue Baptist Church prayed,. "God of our weary years, God of our silent tears...." Those opening words carried so much that I could hear little more.
But Dinkins' mayoralty failed. It failed not only because, for all his personal dignity, he wasn't quite cut out for the job, but mainly because swift undercurrents, more economic and political than racist, undid him.
Barack Obama is far more ready to be President than Dinkins was to be mayor, but the undertows ready to devour him are far more powerful, too. He has no illusions about that, and he has the faith and the strengths required to face them.
But do we? Are we who supported Obama ready to reach as he did last night for those who opposed him? I point the question a bit more in a special "morning after" issue of the social-democratic quarterly Dissent. Others share their impressions and analyses there, as well. Go there now.
I may be able to forgive eventually but I can't forget the ways in which conservatives have behaved towards me and my beliefs. I can't reach out to them if they continue to reject so completely liberal views. President Obama would do well to understand theirs is an uncompromising position.
November 5, 2008 2:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a smart blog. I mean it. You have so much knowledge about this issue, and so much passion. You also know how to make people rally behind it, obviously from the responses. Youve got a design here thats not too flashy, but makes a statement as big as what youre saying. Great job,children health indeed.
January 21, 2011 8:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
By the way Obama's speech was amazing..... very powerful.
November 5, 2008 2:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
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December 22, 2010 6:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are we who supported Obama ready to reach as he did last night for those who opposed him?
--
I don't get this, Mr. Sleeper. Those who opposed Obama think that Young Earth Creationism should be taught in schools, that Global Warming is a lie and that spraying DDT is a great thing.
This election was, more than anything, a referendum on Science and the Enlightenment vs. superstition and pseudo science.
I respectfully ask you to rephrase your question.
Thanks.
November 5, 2008 3:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh .. and what on Gods Earth does this event have to do with David Dinkins, except he has black skin?
Stereotype much lately, Mr. Sleeper?
Why not throw in some Marion Barry smack?
November 5, 2008 3:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's you who ought to stop stereotyping. What linked the two events waa African-American history and the opening line of Gardner Taylor's invocation.
November 5, 2008 5:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Watts, it's you who needs to stop stereotyping. I have to laugh when you ask me, "Did you ever say that about Mayor Koch or Giuliani? Did I ever! Go to www.jimsleeper.com and click on the section called "Leaders and Misleaders."
Getting beyond double stnadards is hard if one is too bitter to take "Yes" for an answer.
What linked the two events waa something called African-American history and the opening line of Gardner Taylor's invocation.
November 5, 2008 6:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
But Dinkins' mayoralty failed. It failed not only because, for all his personal dignity, he wasn't quite cut out for the job, but mainly because swift undercurrents, more economic and political than racist, undid him.
Did you ever say that about Mayor Koch? Or Giuliani?
Hmm ... only the black mayor was not "cut out" for the job.
Move on, please.
November 5, 2008 3:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't anyone ever tell you to do your homework? Or is that question racist, too?
November 5, 2008 6:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
"I don't get this, Mr. Sleeper. Those who opposed Obama think that Young Earth Creationism should be taught in schools..."
Oh, you're so wrong. In my state, all the wealthiest counties voted Republican, as per usual. And, as usual, they'll figure out how to take him out.
November 5, 2008 7:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's take this discussion to a level worthy of Obama's victory last night.
I spent years arguing that whites would vote for blacks, just as blacks had long voted for whites, and that this country's redemption will not come through making race a central organizing principle of our political culture. whether for "progressive" or reactionary purposes. Both "identity politics" leftists and racist rightists were wrong about that. The long, painful history of racism did not justify -- and, strategically, it would not reward -- racial protectionism and "wagon-circling" on the part of those who had been hurt.
Obama's victory vindicates that important truth, big-time. It helps to untangle the 400-year old racial knot in which this country has tied itself since Jamestown. It opens a big door to a destiny America can be proud to claim.
November 5, 2008 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess I agree with what you are saying in principle, but when I went into to vote, Obama's race didn't figure into my decision. I voted for Obama because he was the better candidate. In the primaries, I was attracted to Denis Kucinich and John Edwards. I was not likely to ever vote for Hillary Clinton because her brand of centrism I could not stomach. Now, Obama is a centrist as well which leaves me uncomfortable on many levels. His reaching out to conservatives, could lead to his ultimate undoing. Obama's real job should be to convince conservative's of the real value of liberal ideals. If he doesn't, I think we will sink into an abyss.
November 5, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of all the troubling things that have happened over the past eight years the one that I found, in these final months of the campaign, to be the most compelling and worrisome is the distance between the parties. I think Obama showed, in his speech last night, understands this and not just in the perfunctory way most winners acknowledge. Repairing the damage by years of purposeful division won't be easy but it has to be the centerpiece of this administration's spiritual, if not, political mission.
November 5, 2008 8:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just posted what is, in effect, my detailed reply to your question:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/mans_best_friend/2008/11/thoughts-on-yesterday-today-an.php
The short answer is that if we really believe that it's time to put the smallness of our politics behind us, we must walk the walk. The operative word in "Yes we can" is "we".
November 5, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Our first test in reaching out will be when we decide if we want the Bush criminal administration investigated and prosecuted, so as to bury forever the Republican Party. My answer to that test is no, we don't want that. We want to get on with solving the massive problems that face us. We can do that. We have to not pressure our leaders to start such investigations. We have to, instead, start the dialogue about how to solve those massive problems. Let the Republican Party live.
November 5, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
To move forward we must reach out to the better parts, the better angels of those we have opposed, but we must not compromise with the despicable, hateful, greedy elements that have taken over the Republican Party. We must provide opportunities for those that wish to redeem themselves to work with us but watch for those that wish to prevent all of us from moving to a more just and fair society.
November 5, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
A vote cast on the basis of ethnicity or race or gender etc could be viewed as a wasted vote.
I have never known decisions based upon emotion to achieve the desired result. Unfortunately there are those who have predominantly emotional tools in their mental arsenal. This isn't going to change. It's a statistical impossibility.
Simply put everyone won't ever be college educated and have a chance to learn how to think and make objective evaluations. That's an admirable goal but not very realistic and would actually undermine the social diversity that is a signature feature of democracy.
November 7, 2008 4:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
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