Progress!

While watching Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States, I couldn’t help but think how great of a country this really is.  When my mother was born, in 1952, the thought of a black man becoming the world’s most power leader would have been laughed at; well the reaction probably would have been worse.  Back then “separate, but equal” was how America treated race.  Blacks drank out of separate fountains, used different bathrooms and sat in different sections on the bus.

Yesterday, we watched progress.  Progress that has taken place in a mere 56 years.  That is less than one person’s lifetime and it’s nothing short of amazing.  We have changed how we view race enough to elect Barack Obama president.  Something President George W. Bush admitted he never thought he would see in his lifetime.  He turned 62 last July.

Let me be clear, the history of this nation is scarred by slavery and second-class treatment of blacks in particular, but a great nation will not only learn from its mistakes, it will correct them.  Over the course of the past 60 years or so, the American people have worked to heal the wounds of our past.  In 1954, Brown V. The Board of Education effectively ended “seperate, but equal” in schools.  From there, it was leaders like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and four college students who dared to sit at the Woolworth’s lunch counter knowing they weren’t going to be served.  It was people like these that spurred an entire movement to wake up America’s conscience.  We finally told ourselves that “separate, but equal” was not acceptable and goes against our American creed that, “all men are created equal.”

Of course, racism will always exist in some form and there is still plenty of heavy lifting to be done.  But, with each passing generation, the load gets lighter and lighter.  Let’s keep it up America.