As Senator Barack Obama officially accepted the nomination as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States, at least two ironies struck me.
First, the house he seeks to govern from—the White House—was built on the backs of Black slaves. While Senator Obama noted in his speech that this election is not about himself, but about you—all Americans—his humility perhaps overshadows the historical uniqueness of the moment. Here we see an African American who ten short weeks from now could govern the very nation that only 150 years ago enslaved African Americans.
The second irony relates to more recent history—it was just forty-five years ago today that Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his historic I Have a Dream speech. Dr. King’s dream has become a reality. As Dr. King said, and as Senator Obama echoed, in America together our dreams can be one. We cannot walk alone. We shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
One need not be a Democrat, one need not plan to vote for Senator Obama, to at least celebrate the reality that 150 years after the end of slavery, Senator Obama is the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. And to celebrate the fact that 45 years after Dr. King’s speech, Senator Obama is the embodiment and fulfillment of that very dream.
