The Editorial Page

Hope restored

By EDITORIAL | November 6, 2008

But that sense of hope, that notion that as a nation we can overcome our communal adversity, will be sorely strained and severely tested in the days, weeks, and months to come. As so many applaud Obama's historic achievement, candor compels the recognition that a minority does not share in that applause. The great racial barrier has been bridged, maybe even narrowed, but it still exists.

And the anxiety that prohibits us from considering that Obama might be assassinated — as were Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy, and as others attempted to kill Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Ford, and Reagan — should not be sublimated, even in this moment of celebration.

Joy need not be muted by hard possibilities. But frightful contingencies should not be ignored.

At a time when the United States is viewed with suspicion, if not scorn, around the world, Obama's election is a ringing reminder that hope is real, hope is vital, hope lives. It is a refreshing sense.

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Comments

Re: Hope restored. Let's move forward

Years ago, as police officer in Texas, I lived by one very simple rule (as do most police officers) when I stopped someone for a traffic violation. I either wrote a ticket, or I bitched at the person for being stupid. But never both.

I’ve found this is sound advice in life. So while I understand the giddiness of the winning populace after the election, I do not understand the vitriol that has been thrown on the Bush administration after this wonderful win.

We should be celebrating a victory for democracy, not chasing the last administration out with insults and jeers. As Plato said, every form of government tends to perish by an excess of its basic principle. Whether the excesses of the Bush era will show him as the “worst” president ever or not, it’s not really for us to say. The fact is that the terrorism that put a stranglehold on this country a few months after Bush took office required action. There is no way to know how excessive that action was, or whether a different course would have produced different results. The one thing we do know is that our new president inherits a country that has had no terrorist acts on its soil since 9-11, and only 10% of voters polled thought it was even an issue.

Let’s let the last administration be. We voted. We wrote a ticket. That’s enough.

Let’s celebrate history – and then move forward.

Because yes, there’s a lot of work to be done. Bob in Providence

By Boberuska on 11/08/2008 at 2:07:02

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