During an interview with Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson (ABC news) this evening, Congressman John Lewis talked about being beaten when he and others (including Martin Luther King, Jr.) attempted to register to vote. And he talked about crying, when under President Lyndon B. Johnson, congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a speech, President Johnson had echoed the cries of those who fought in the Civil Rights Movement declaring a change is indeed going to come.
Lewis said he cried when he cast his vote today, and he cried again when Obama won Ohio, a key state in the race. He concluded his interview by saying he'll probably cry again (if he has any tears left) when Obama wins, for his win would signal a "non-violent revolution."
That's the kind of emotional feel the evening had as I sat around with my family and watched the results come in one by one, state by sate.
And now it's real. America has elected its first Black president. And I hope many more like John Lewis, who were resilient in the face of a brutality that sought to deny them their basic human rights, are still around to cry and bear witness to this moment that is so full of America's cruel past, and its potentially healing present.
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Interesting note: Guyanese blogger, Stolid Charisma (I wonder what's the story behind that name) gives his two cents on yesterday's election. And the Media Critic, in his usual punctilious manner, asks "will the Messiah cometh?"
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And even more... Bahamian blogger (I say blogger, but she is a mouthful lot more), Nicolette Bethel theorizes on why Obama matters to all of us, everywhere.
