This morning, as I signed in at my precinct to vote, I felt tears gathering in my eyes. I blame it on Abraham Lincoln.
I went to vote with my wife and daughter — the three of us old fashioned enough to prefer casting our ballots with our neighbors rather than doing it in solitary fashion by mail (this, sadly, was our last chance to vote that traditional way in Washington State). As we walked into the polling place at Seattle’s Lincoln High School, we passed a large bust of the nation’s 16th president and it struck me how appropriate it was to be taking part in this historic election under the great man’s gaze.
The significance of Americans electing their first African American president cannot be overstated. From the day the first African slaves arrived at Jamestown in 1619, the curse of racism has warped the history of this country. More American blood has been shed in the fight to erase this original sin than in any of America’s foreign wars. Every inch gained in the drive toward racial equality has had to be seized from fellow citizens who refused to give up their deep prejudices and ancient privileges without a fierce fight. From the Civil War, through Reconstruction, the era of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, slaves and the descendants of slaves came to believe that their second class status, though steadily improved, would somehow be a permanent impediment. To believe differently seemed to court inevitable disappointment.
Obviously, there are still many divisions to be healed and injustices to be addressed, but, now, African Americans can embrace the reality that anything is possible in this country. Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States of America. We have moved from our long, dark night of racial antagonism into the dawn of a more perfect union. The anticipation of that change is what brought tears to my eyes as I voted today.
Lincoln rose above his own prejudices and upbringing to start America moving on this path. Today, Lincoln’s dream was fulfilled. Whoever your favored candidate may have been for president, that is something of which all Americans can be proud. For myself, I am also proud of my daughter and son’s generation. No matter what part of the country they come from, most young Americans have grown up without the prejudices of their elders. This election demonstrated that the fearful, narrow-minded old guard is passing away. The torch has been passed to a better generation.
Call them the children of Lincoln.