Obama and Hope

"The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, and our strength, and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States." SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, bowing out of the presidential race.


There are many people who might have voted for Senator Clinton for president but who are reluctant to vote for Barack OBama because of his race. White Blue-collar workers, and even White liberals, are turned-off by the failure of inner-city blacks to make progress beyond poverty, crime, and a ghetto mentality. They hear the diatribes of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and it confirms for them that there is a vast chasm between the beliefs of Whites and the resentments of Blacks. Many white people are angry at black people.

What these white voters fail to think about is that there are millions of poor Whites stagnating in underprivileged, crime-ridden sections of large cities, starving in destitute rural communities, and unemployed in poverty-ravaged hills all over America. No president in our history has ever had deeper empathy for these fellow citizens than Barack Obama.

Now is the time to turn that anger against African Americans into exaltation. Now is the time to rid ourselves of the bitterness of sour race relations and to glory in the new thing that has been accomplished by a great nation. Now is the time to look beyond the petty hatreds of the past and seize this moment to project America into a new and better future.

Millions of African Americans all over America have risen out of the dark heritage of slavery and segregation to become leaders in business, science, medicine, law, and politics. Look at Clarence Otis, CEO of Darden Restaurants, parent company of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and 1,325 other restaurants. Look at Kenneth Chennault, CEO of American Express. Think of Stanley O’Neal, who until recently was CEO of Merrill Lynch, and Richard Parsons, who was CEO of Time Warner. There are many other Black CEOs of major American companies.

Television watchers have only to tune into PBS to see Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who is Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and frequent host of NOVA. Then there is Ted Wells, one of the country’s top attorneys who recently represented Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Wells is a partner in the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison, one of the nation’s biggest and most prestigious law firms (disclosure-I once worked there). Look at Vernon E. Jordan, one of the top attorneys in America, a power in Washington D.C. politics, and friend of Bill Clinton. Look at Oprah Winfrey!

America can take great pride in the achievements of African Americans like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, and thousands of congressman, state legislators, mayors, councilmen, and other politicians. I could go on for many pages listing the accomplishments of outstanding African Americans who overcame prejudice, and often poverty, to help lead this nation.

Now, above and beyond all of these great Americans, has come a man who could lead all of us into a better world. Barack Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review. As a lawyer, I can appreciate what an extraordinary accomplishment that is. Obama worked as a community organizer, university professor, political activist, and lawyer before serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Along with all of the great African American leaders, he has given the lie to the quietly whispered calumny of Black inferiority.

I feel that this nation has been wandering in the darkness for a long time. We have a chance to overcome the evils of our past and march into a better future. Barack Obama could be the president who brings back the prestige, respect, and appreciation of America around the world. He could be the president who unifies the people of this nation and solves the problems we now face. He could be the president who improves our economy, ends the Iraqi war, brings health insurance to all, begins the fight against global warming, and puts the nightmare of racism behind us.

When the time comes, don’t vote with bitterness and anger. Vote with hope and trust and optimism. If you can, like me, vote with a crescendo of joy and gratitude that you were born in this wonderful country.