CHILDHOOD'S END

Nations, like the people of which they are comprised, have a life cycle; nothing is forever. The United States was formed in the minds of seditious men in smoke filled rooms. Doctors, lawyers, farmers, businessmen . . . all gathered to form a nation for which they had no template. Arguments raged over issues like federal supremacy and taxing authority, but the most difficult issue for them to deal with was slavery. Even slave owners like Thomas Jefferson demanded its abolition, while others were equally adamant that if the new constitution abolished slavery, they would not sign, and there would be no new nation. In the end, even abolitionists conceded that it was more important at that moment to have a country, than to try to determine its course forever.

Seventy-six years later, the Blue and the Grey clashed in the American Civil War, sometimes referred to as the “War Between the States.” There were many issues leading to the war, but once more, none was more profoundly important that that of slavery, and many historians feel that the Civil War was really the final battle of the American Revolution. It ended with the slaves freed, but in many respects, no better off than they had been. In fact, for many in the South, no much had really changed.

Not until nearly a century later did the law catch up with the promise. In 1954, the Supreme Court held, finally, that separate was not equal, and that schools had to be desegregated. The South fought back, and by the 1960’s, the Civil Rights acts were passed and codified the promise that was America. We were the “shining city on the hill” to the rest of the world, but people here remained splintered. Those who marched through Selma Alabama, or surrounded the Reflecting Pool in Washington to hear Dr. King proclaim that he had “a dream,” were seeking to change the world, while other told them that they could change the laws, but not erase prejudice and bigotry from the American psyche.

On November 4^th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected to become the 44^th President of the United States. He was a black man who embodied all of the hope that America had held out to the world for generations. His father was an immigrant from Kenya, making him a true “African-American.” His mother was white and, when his father left, raised him the best she could in a single parent home. When she died, his white grandmother took over and helped to guide him the rest of the way. His origins were humble, but he was extraordinary, and refused to accept anything less. After attending Columbia University and graduating first in his class from Harvard Law School, he turned down high paying jobs to do community organizing and try to make the world a better place than he found it.

On November 4^th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected to become the 44^th President of the United States but the real measure of our maturity as the “last best hope for mankind” was not that we elected black man as president, but that we elected a man to the Presidency who happened to be black. His race neither propelled him to the White House, nor kept him from it.

On November 4^th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected to become the 44^th President of the United States and “We the People” began to mature into a nation whose promises are kept and dreams fulfilled. We left our rancorous childhood behind us, and entered the glory and discovery of political adolescence. The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, no matter what follows, will always, therefore, mark our Childhood’s End.