"Tonight is Your Answer." Nothing like this has ever happened before. The sheer numbers of people - a quarter million in Chicago's Grant Park & environs - all mesmerized, inspired, united, moved to the core, and ecstatic about Barack Obama's election as President of the United States - doesn't count the untold millions watching on their televisions and computer screens: an amazing celebration of democracy - a peaceful, dramatic, and real people's victory - of the people, by the people, for the people. Was it the numbers, the enthusiasm, the sense of release from a dark period, of freedom from some unnamed threat, or was it the sheer power of human cooperation on a scale grander than anyone really comprehended until it actually went down?
Or was it the power of one man to lead in a time that cried out for rational, sensible, genuine leadership - by gathering and uniting an entire nation to turn the page??
The end of the campaign crept up on me like a slow, protracted labor ... knowing childbirth is coming inevitably, but afraid of what could happen, what could go wrong, there's always so many variables, but in any case, when the time comes, it will come, and then, suddenly - no matter how much preparation, it will go down suddenly - a child will be born. Where no life existed, in the final stretch of the campaign, I had this strange feeling of being unable to focus on anything else, unable to stand the wait, yet forced to wait, unable to just calm down and get a life.
But then suddenly it did go down, just as predicted, and yet the release was palpable, the baby was born!
But this child was like no other...OK, I've seen elections since the days of Eisenhower. I saw the elation and excitement over JFK's election, yes! But it was not like this.
And I saw the anticipation and enthusiasm over Reagan's election, where he got swept into office in a huge mandate. But it was nothing like this.
Jimmy Carter's campaign was marked by crowds and hope and energy, I remember. But nothing at all like this. Others such as LBJ, Bill Clinton, or even Nixon in his glory days before the Fall, also had their share of fans and supporters and hopeful followers. But all that pales in comparison to this.
So it is not surprising that journalists mentioned the Moon landing as a moment when the nation and the world were transfixed as they were with the election of Barack Obama. But even that transcendent moment, in many ways more historically significant than the election of a leader, yet even that moment does not compare in its power over a nation to this. The moon landing did not cause dancing in the streets, did not shake the social structure that was once built on slavery to its core, did not electrify democracy, did not cause millions of apathetic citizens to suddenly, passionately, and from their heart to love their country. It was a giant step for humankind, to be sure. But it was not the defining moment of turning the page...
"Our stories are distinctive, but our destiny is shared..." A man destined to shape and change that destiny, whose moment of triumph and joy is also characterized by his trademark cool seriousness - that intuitively-understood sign that he recognizes, unlike his predecessor, the gravity of the situation through which he must now lead us. He knows how mind-boggling is the great book whose page he - and all of us, in a sense - must turn...
Now we must turn the page from divisiveness, from all the "isms" starting with racism and sexism and including all the ethnic and ideological differences that so often end in hate, destruction, and war. We must turn the page from mean-spiritedness and demeaning those with whom we disagree. We must turn the page from rigid ideologies that cause us to see others, even countrymen, even neighbors, as enemies. It is time to turn the page...
Now we must turn the page from war as a solution to all ills, and turn the page from confrontation without compassion, without even rational consideration. The war on terror, the war on cancer, the war on drugs, the war on crime... all these wars have not succeeded. Could it be the solution is not necessarily to declare, and then wage war? It is time to turn the page...
Now we must turn the page from self-centered, Me-first values. The values that led to greed, to believing we can get something from nothing without working for it, the values that led millions to believe that the Market, the Almighty Market, would save us all. The values that threatened to destroy our economy, our status, our nation, and our lives. It's time to turn the page...
We must turn the page from exclusiveness, from looking down on others and saying, "We are Americans" and "They are not", or from saying those who agree with us are "Real America" and those who disagree are false. Or from believing that our religion is the only acceptable religion and all others and all other beliefs are a threat to our security or our society. We must turn the page from desiring to force others to our beliefs, as if that is even possible. It is time to turn the page...
We must turn the page from Big Brother surveillance and fear-mongering, from the use of torture, extraordinary renditions, and secret prison ships as a means to supposedly bring a victory to democracy - by undermining its ideals, its principles, and even its laws and Constitution. It's time to turn the page...
We must turn the page from emotionalism which so quickly turns to hate and fear, and open our God-given minds to actually use them... yes it is time to use our minds to turn the page...
And from the gracious and eloquent concession speech of John McCain, the very power of Barack Obama's page-turning has inspired his opponent to also turn this page, for without turning the page, our nation and even our planet are in peril, and we are our own worst enemy, as the last period of history has warned us, but it could change, and it will change, if we do turn the page...
The moment is great beyond words, but we all know and sense that. Even the world senses that, most certainly. And we all know ... there is no turning back.
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