An Obama supporter cries with joy after his victory. (AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)
Tears for Obama
I know why Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, and Oprah shed tears when Barack Obama won on Tuesday, said Mary Mitchell in the Chicago Sun-Times. It's still hard to believe it—a black man is moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As that reality hit me, I cried, too, "because the dream had been unfilled for so long, it no longer seemed to matter."
"A new era began with the election of America's first black president," said Joan Vennochi in The Boston Globe. The tears in the eyes of Jackson—who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.—served as "a reminder that Obama's victory closes a curtain on the old civil rights movement."
Jackson's eyes told the whole story, said Matthew Norman in Britain's The Independent. "The angry black man, whose struggles helped pave the path to the White House for the serene black man he waited to greet as his president-elect, was angry no more."
The election proved to black Americans, said James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal online, "in a way nothing else could that this country is theirs as much as it is anyone else's." It would have been "fanciful" to suggest America could elect a black president back in the 1960s. "At some point along the way, a barrier fell."
"If you see tears of joy, try to understand this," said Bryan Hudson in the Indianapolis Star online. "African Americans, even from the days of slavery, have staked their lives on the hope embedded in these words from our Declaration of Independence: 'All men are created equal.'" And now it's clear the nation is living up to its promise.
Comment on this article
Recent comments | 4 total
Yes, with the election of Barack Obama as our 44th President-to-be, our great Nation is finally living up to its Declaration of Independence promise of 'All men are created equal.' But there is one big problem with those words -- it leaves out WOMEN! Our founding fathers should have used the words 'All people are created equal' rather than 'All men...' Women are still second-class citizens, and this includes African American women. When we finally have a 'woman President' of the U.S. that will be the day our founding fathers' ideal of all 'people' being created equal will live up to its promise! I do realize our founding fathers wrote 'men,' not 'people' but we must correct the mistake they made 232 years ago when we elect a 'woman' as President of the United States of America in the future. Congrats to President-elect Barack Obama!!! I have a good feeling that Obama will 'unite' our great nation once again :)
From the self-aggrandizing action of Jesse Jackson when he smeared MLK’s blood on himself falsely declaring that he was next to King when he died, to the blackmailing practices of his rainbow coalition, Jesse Jackson has only been out for himself. Jesse wasn’t crying tears of racial joy, he was crying because it wasn’t him on that stage. After all where did this black man come from? Jesse was entitled!! Crocodile tears!!
Oh please... Jessie "Hymietown, cut his balls off" Jackson was crying because he wasn't making the acceptance speech himself.
The crying was only a side effect of all the nobama kool aid those people had been drinking the last 21 months. The real crying is going to begin when income taxes rise, the increased import tarrifs kick in, and the federal government dictates how your 401K should be handled.
digg del.icio.us stumbleUpon newsvine reddit furl