Monday, October 20, 2008

Racism: Is the End Near?




A very nice 106 years young lady by the name of Ann Nixon Cooper (notice the middle name? Follow the link to the CNN story about her) just can't help but hope that this will be a change year of historic proportions. She remembers a time when being black meant you could NOT vote. We should also mention a time when WOMEN were not allowed to vote. Ms. Cooper might be just young enough to recall the Women's Suffrage Movement of the early 1900's, too.
Winning the right to vote and the right to run for public office has had some deadly serious obstacles in this country throughout its sometimes turbulent history. Our senior editor is young enough to remember water cannons and police dogs and rubber hoses and many other deterrents being turned on the demonstrators in Selma, Alabama (where Obama was when this photo was taken, some decades later). That was some real suffering that happened then. We almost weep when we think of the vagaries that have led Mr. Obama to the point in this image and to heights he has reached today and may reach even higher tomorrow.
We haven't adjusted the numbers for inflation, but neither can we recall a candidate (any candidate) that generated so much cash and popularity. Look at the $ 150 million received in September (CNN). Is the death of racism so near that we might actually have a diversity president in office next year? It is almost unbelievable. We hold our breath for the white vote that may or may not turn out. See the BBC story "Closet racism Might white voters abandon Obama on election day?" WE ARE still predicting a WIN in his column. If you dare doubt his solid popularity, look at the throngs that come just to see him when he arrives in town. Just look back at the tapes. There has been much talk of the "Bradley Effect", but we don't believe it to be present in this election.
BUT, there has been some positioning of Obama to get him to this point. Though, too there has been much political wrangling to get Mr. McCain to the same point, though with some high ups and some very low downs. We watched with great interest the Frontline (PBS) Documentary The Choice 2008 on just this topic. (You can view it online). It was powerfully done with exacting research and background. We were amazed at just how uninformed some of us were when reviewing this spectacle of political brinkmanship. Its just a whole lot more than a Kansas City Toedance.
Will the election be the absolute death of racism? No, not yet. But it might just be a big, all-important step in that fateful direction.






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