First thoughts on Barack Obama elected President

Barack Obama elected president

Two years of ardent support, hope, desire and belief culminated in those four simple but profound words blazoned across a television screen shortly after 11 p.m. last night.

It was those words that connected this long and improbable campaign, as Obama might call it, this noble and righteous crusade, to win the official title and more, the immensity of the Office of President of the United States.

What is impressive about Obama's election victory is the broad coalition of persons who supported him. An overwhelming African American vote certainly, about 95%, but also and for the first time, a monumental percentage of white voters stood for an African American candidate, even though a venerable white candidate was his opposition. Obama garnered an estimated 43% of the white vote. That percentage was not the majority, but it represents a long-awaited maturing of the white electorate who finally put off the long cloak of knee-jerk racial prejudice to actually deliberate on the choice they had between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama. And not only deliberate but act with courage on their convictions.

In this regard, Sen. Obama's victory is as much a transformative moment for white Americans as for Black Americans.

Afterall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream for his four children "to one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" was a liberation dream for white Americans to transcend the bondage of bigotry and to act on the democratic ideals of America's founding fathers who declared that "all men are created equal."

Additionally, part of Sen. Obama's broad coalition included about 66% of Latino votes, according to news reports, as well as boosts from younger voters, white women, including those Hillary Clinton dubbed "18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling.

So Sen. Obama's sustained and successful coaltion has already proven the viability of his most appealing platform for me, which is that we are not a nation of blue and red states, but we are the United States of America. And that American are in the fight together to improve our country and to be a positive influence beyond our borders.

On that fundamental premise President Obama must lead our nation, and among the priorities of his sdministation must be a reform and revival of public school education in this country. Tackling that behemoth will be a test of Sen. Obama's vision for domestic change. That's because the factors involved in rescuing public school education include a renewal of family values, respect and inclusion of cultural identity, equitable funding, eradicating the plague of social ills visited by high unemployment, drug abuse, poor housing, inadequate health care, and the lack of political will to champion a fair and balanced curriculum and a standard of accountability among all stakeholders in public education.

Across these issues are drawn the deeply entrenched lines of racial and class divide that lie yet unchanged beneath the euphoria of this justifiably proud stage in America's maturing democracy.

The hope now is that President Obama will lead us across these lines -- and that Americans of all stripes who enthusiastically supported his candidacy will follow his direction, and when necessary, even help to lead us further across divides into a truly free and fair democratic Promised Land.