Scratched Lacquer Haze

Yesterday the collective voice of America was heard. We, as an entirety, yearned for something that resembled little more than a forgotten fancy. A memory it will no longer be, but a reality.

Most of those who I have talked to about the election always mention the two terms that Bill Clinton occupied the White House. They reflect on it as if it was a golden time in their lives. A time before a war, before the country fell victim to the most vicious tyrant of all; fear. This fear was evident in the onslaught of negative media surrounding Obama. Instead of embracing the possibility of a new face, fresh ideas, and a drive that goes unmatched; some shrank in horror at the mention of his heritage. Those that relinquished their reason to baseless assumptions committed the worst crime of all.

America has never been any one race or religion. From her birth, she has been a diverse collective of those who fled from persecution because of their religion. Yet, in spite of this truth, some were prepared and willing to throw down a label that, at best, described little more than what he was born into. The title "Muslim" has had a negative association with the American public since those devastating events that took place on 9-11. Out of fear, most have suspended truth for temporary relief in ignorance.

We, as a whole, cannot fall victim to this ignorance. Those individuals who are responsible for multitudes of horrid and inhumane acts do not represent the entirety of the Islamic community. This same rule applies to zealots from any faction of life. The Caucasian bigots who throw nooses around the limbs of trees or set blaze to a cross do not represent the white population, nor do they express a sentiment shared by Caucasians across America. In all reality, this blind hatred is shared by very few and the number decreases daily.

Race or any other factor that one is born with or in should not have a blinding effect on what should really matter. Socrates said that when confronted with death "a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong, acting the part of a good man or of a bad." These concerns should be all that plagues us. Questions that should occupy our thoughts shouldn't be "Who does he know?" but "What kind of person is he?” The answer to that, only time will unfold.

I am grateful to have participated in a pivotal event in our history and more proud still am I of the outcome. I believe that he will reunite our country as a whole. Not under the pretense of religion, sex, race, or gender, but as a nation in need of the gadfly. A nation prepared to push its way out of the depths of the belly of the beast and back into celebration of the diverse patching of the American quilt. We are a country unlike any other and we should embrace the reality that the power to move, mold, and change this country rests solely in the hands of the individuals who occupy it. Finally, from the fire of fear springs forth the anointed bird of possibility.