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Something wonderful happened in
America this Inauguration Day. Call it a historic first, call it something many thought could never occur, at least not in their lifetimes. Call it the final vanquishing of the demon of racism that has plagued our nation since its founding.
Some of us who were filled with high hopes and idealism back in 1968 (the first year I was eligible to vote), that worked for Eugene McCarthy or Robert Kennedy, only to see our hopes cruelly destroyed, could call it the end to “40 years of wandering in the wilderness.”
I remember the Inauguration I attended, that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, of standing there on a D.C. sidewalk and waving to the president as he went past. I remember the fall before, when I gave a speech supporting him in our mock election at Rappahannock County High School. (He won that election as decisively as he won the real one).
The thought occurs to me that President Johnson deserves thanks and recognition for helping make possible the election of Barack Obama. His shepherding through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and especially the Voting Rights Act of 1965, changed our nation, by putting an end to legal discrimination. His achievements often get overlooked, between the adulation for the Kennedys in the popular culture, and his association with an unpopular war.
I will be upfront and state that I was not in the Obama camp initially. I avidly supported Hillary Clinton, then considered McCain based largely on his experience. But I became more impressed by the Obama campaign - and became totally dismayed by the negative campaign, the lack of anything inspiring, that seemed to mark the Republican efforts.
But I am delighted that matters
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