Post-election thoughts

Last night reminded me that this country, above all, is the culmination of an awesome idea. The idea, not sewn into its founding documents, but emergent through the years, is that people from all all different parts of the globe, the outcasts who have no place or no dignity or no hope elsewhere, can come to this country to live peacefully if not-so-harmoniously together. They may argue and disagree over everything, but people of diverse backgrounds can live together.

As the president-elect said in 2004:

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- at least most of the time.

Certainly there are tarnishes on this idea. About fourteen percent of the population didn't come here voluntarily, and weren't necessarily welcome. They didn't enjoy freedom from fear, from retribution, from poverty and marginality.

As Charles Blow wrote in the Times last night:

"History will record this as the night the souls of black folk, living and dead, wept – and laughed, screamed and danced – releasing 400 years of pent up emotion.

They were the souls of those whose bodies littered the bottom of the Atlantic, whose families were torn asunder, whose names were erased.

They were those who knew the terror of being set upon by men with clubs, of being trapped in a torched house, of dangling at the end of a rough rope.

They were the souls of those who knew the humiliation of another person’s spit trailing down their faces, of being treated like children well into their twilight years, of being derided and despised for the beauty God gave them."

So we go about fighting to perfect the idea, to overturn barriers and prejudices. This election was a step, a very big step, toward perfecting this idea. The idea, as stated by the candidate in 2004, is that only in America can a skinny kid with a funny name go to the best schools and achieve his potential. In America, it doesn't matter what your name is or how rich you are, because in America anyone can achieve if they work hard enough.

This possibility, this belief in equality and peaceful co-existence, for people from all over this planet, makes America to date the pinnacle of human civilization.

This election showed why.

To the marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the members of SNCC and SCLC, to all who work to make the American idea better, more whole, and more concrete, thank you.