Because of this can I ever understand the heritage of black people? Of course not. It would be shrill of me to even assume that.

Nor could I assume to understand the plight of gay people as they struggle for acceptance today.

Dredd Scott was a free man who had his freedom taken away by people who did not know him and who would never feel that pain. Are those devoted couples who are about to have their freedom to marry, to express their love like everyone else, torn to shreds any different?

Jim Crow laws were laws designed by an ignorant and backwards group to divide and to shame. Are these laws no different? Do these laws also divide and shame?

What does it matter how big the wrong was? What does it matter if it was 400 years of hate or just 5 minutes?

Is that the mark gay people must cross in order for the wrongs against them to count? Must they lose the right to vote? Must they be enslaved? Only by that standard can their freedom and equality be truly worth fighting for?

I say no. Wrong is wrong. The line must be drawn here and it must be drawn now.

I will never know racism toward me, and I will never know bigotry. I am not fighting because I understand the pain. I don't and never will. I am fighting because the cause is right and another person's freedom is as important as my own.

The work that is required of us will not be solved in 4 or 8 or probably even 16 years and we must act responsibly to better insure that in the long term we can remain a force for good in America. The more mistakes we make, the more likely it will be for a return of the Far Right in American politics and none of us can afford that.

It is the habit of those in power to begin to assume that they deserve power and that breeds laziness and corruption. We must not forget that if America smiles kindly on us in just 10 days, this power has been given to us and can just as easily be taken away. It is our burden to be wary of that fact and work as though every day is our last day in the majority.

That's really what I'm trying to say.

"Go ahead."

Mike pointed triumphantly at Jubal. "Thou art God!"

Is it nationalism that takes the place of the smaller tribal instincts? Is it because we identify ourselves as Americans before we do race or religion or ethnicity? I don't know. All I know is I've seen it work and one evolutionary trait we all too often overlook as human beings is our ability to learn and better the world around us.

I for one think that in the end this evolutionary trait will win over any evolutionary trait for petty tribalism.

What I'm wondering is how long it will take for a real Muslim to actually have a chance at being elected president. It's taken black people what, 150 years almost, to have an honest chance in a mainstream candidate?

Cranky old white men have had their go. Time for some new perspectives in government.