History in the making

• Tweet
• 

I know I don’t want to call the election this early, especially when I may jinx it for some.

But honestly, history is in the making, one way or another.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is close to being elected into the Oval Office. He is leading in virtually every poll that is done by the media to get an idea of how the election is progressing.

Although the polls do not and should not decide the election, it is the best method of figuring out how any election will go, since it is in the media’s best interest to be the first and foremost source of any information it deems reportable.

Pragmatism aside, the national media is chomping at the bit for the moment when the first African-American is elected president of the United States. I only realize this because this would never have happened 30 years ago.

Heck, African-Americans weren’t allowed to vote due to made-up excuses and false pretenses as recently as 40 years ago, making the notion of African-Americans and other minorities involved in the democratic process on any level seem impossible. American democracy has come a long way in a relatively short time.

But what may be the most amazing thing to take away from this election is the fact that most sane Americans do not feel this election matters from the issue of race all that much.

Many people can afford to joke about the various things behind an African-American – who, in the case of Obama is actually only half-black – taking the Oath of Office on the steps of Capitol Hill all they like. Things that may have seemed unlikely to ever happen before are often the easiest things to poke fun at.

Like the demographics behind the 2008 national election, the vast amount of change that is about to happen cannot be stressed enough. The new age that Americans are about to enter will completely alter the way this country thinks about itself in terms of a national identity.

White, black, yellow, red and any other color you can think of will no longer matter, despite the rantings of some individuals.

It may or may not be accurate for me to suggest this, but I feel the goals of one American who struggled and ultimately died for equal rights for all his fellow Americans – Martin Luther King Jr. – may actually be reached after all these years. No longer will a man be judged by the color of his skin, but by the judgment of his character.

Come Nov. 4, the final votes cast will be made on the issues and the character of the candidates, not the premise of skin color.