“What the election of Barack Obama tells me is that American Democracy is not only alive and well but that it has matured and has become real for every American.”
by Ducky Paredes
The excitement of the elections n the United States was something that I could not escape. All of my four children are either in the United States or in the service of the U.S. in a foreign posting. I also have four of my siblings living and voting in the U.S.
To me, the fact that a little over a century ago when Africans were captured like animals in their country, shipped to the United States where they worked as slaves in the plantations, an African-American is elected President of the country is an achievement not of any one man or any segment of the country but of the American people as a whole.
What the election of Barack Obama tells me is that American Democracy is not only alive and well but that it has matured and has become real for every American. Too bad that it works well still only in the United States. And even there it does not really work too well still. There are still ways that this system does not work for all Americans.
But, if the African-Americans could progress from having no rights, being emancipated by President Abraham Lincoln and, within one lifetime, winning for themselves the right to vote and the right to be treated as equals to one of them becoming President, this tells me that there will even be more miracles that will be happening in America.
I congratulate the American people. It is not any one man’s or any sector’s triumph but wholly that of the United States of America.
* * *
One of the great black leaders of America was the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Here is the last part of his “I have a Dream” speech delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.: “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“I have a dream that my four little children will 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.
“I have a dream today!
“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
“I have a dream today!
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’
“This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
“With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
“And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
“My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
“Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
“From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
“And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
“And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
“Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
“Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
“Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
“Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
“But not only that:
“Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
“Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
“Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
“From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
“And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
“Free at last! Free at last!
“Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
* * *
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. He was just 39 years old.
By the time of his death, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.
According to the government, a lone gunman fired the fatal shot. James Earl Ray, after initially confessing to the crime, later retracted his confession. There is widespread belief among King’s family and followers that Ray was not the shooter and that his death was part of a deeper conspiracy.
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hvp 11.05.08)
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