Dear Friends,

It seems that just when I start to lose faith, to allow cynicism to get the better of me, the American people--my people--show me their collective wisdom.  Tonight, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America: convincingly.

An African-American lawyer friend invited me to her house to watch the election results.  By the time I arrived, around 8:30pm PST, John McCain had reportedly called Obama to concede the race.  Her house, which I had never visited before, is in Richmond, CA--the murder capital of Northern California.  When I told people I was going to Richmond they half-joked that if Obama lost, I would not be able to get out of Richmond safely.

But Obama didn't lose. He won. The results poured in swiftly.  By 9pm PST, John McCain was on the TV screen making a concession speech.  I cried during that speech.  I simply couldn't control emotion that I didn't even know I possessed for this election.  I cried because McCain gave a speech that reminded me of the decent man that I knew he was, the man of the 2000 campaign who swore off negative ads, the man who called torture what it was and opposed it, the man who called for campaign finance reform; but that man seemed to disappear during this campaign until he gave his concession speech.  In it, he recognized Obama's achievement, he quieted the crowd's negative reaction, and he called for unity and support of our newly elected president.

In fact, what really made me well up with emotion was that McCain's speech brought home the fact that the election of Barack Obama, a man with an African father and an American mother, with a strange, Arabic-sounding name in the most anti-Arab period in American history, the election of this man was a REALITY.  And I was proud again.  I was proud to be American. I was proud that my people saw past skin, past names, past hype and misdirection, and simply heard the man, and decided this is the man we chose to lead us.

I left her house (after listening enrapt to Obama's speech acknowledging his victory) and went to another friend's* house in Oakland.  This friend is also an African-American--a lawyer turned businessman.  He was raised in D.C. and attended an Ivy League college and a top law school--one of the brightest people I know, and also one of the most controlled.  I have never seen him get too excited, too angry, or even a bit drunk; very controlled--he actually reminded me of Obama, and vice versa.

But when I showed up at his house in which he and his wife were hosting a small party, it was clear he had been drinking.  And you know what, we were going to drink some more, and that was just fine!  I have known him for nearly 25 years, I had stayed with his family in DC, and in all that time I had never seen him in such a state.  It was one of relaxed exuberance!  He had let his guard down and he was downright giddy!

No one can see into a person's mind and soul with certainty.  But knowing this man as well as I do, here is what I was seeing.  My friend was never one to limit himself, to say that he couldn't do something because race would hold him back in American society.  And although he believed that he could do anything, and I believed he could do anything, I suspect that in the deepest recess of his mind there was some doubt, some concern that his "blackness" might hold him back ever so slightly, ever so unjustly. 

I think most every one of us had this same doubt about whether a Black man could be elected President.  And then it happened.  And it was as if a burden had been lifted off of my friend's back, as if the asterisk next to "you can do anything" had been erased--and he truly could do anything. Because if a half-African man named Barack Hussein Obama, who was born to parents whose marriage would have been illegal in 16 states at the time, can be elected the President of the United States, then anyone who has the brains, talent, and determination to chase their dreams will not be held back by their skin color in American society.

Whether you believe in the truth of that last statement, Barack Obama is proof of at least the potential of its truth.  And I believe it will allow a whole generation of people like my friend to breathe easy just for a moment, to let their guard down and be downright giddy at the prospect that the only things that they will be judged on are those relevant to the task at hand.

Sleep well America, tomorrow the real work begins.

Peace,

Jim

* I do not wish to include his name to respect his privacy.

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Jim Sowers
+1.415.449.1434