Obama's victory and Jesse's tears

I did't write about the newly elected president of the United States yet. I know that many of my fellow Christians in the USA were supporting the Republican candidate John McCain, but I am excited about the choice that the majority of the American voters have made and I have high expectations of president Barack Obama. I pray that the change that he has promised to bring, will be a change for good.

In our country about 90% of the people were 'supporting' Barack Obama, but according to Dutch on-line news bulletin NIS they often have the wrong idea about Obama's views on several important issues:

Obama is against same-sex marriage, but 62 percent of the Dutch believe he is in favour of this. No less than 78 percent wrongly believe that Obama wants to abolish the death penalty, and 90 percent failed to believe that the statement "We will kill Osama bin Laden" was made by Obama. And three-quarters think that Obama wants to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan, while in fact he wants to send more troops there.

Another observation... I saw some TV images showing the Rev. Jesse Jackson tearing up, right after he had heard that Barack Obama was elected 44th president of the United States. I think that this emotional reaction says it all. His tears tell the story of the suffering and the joy of the black people and I fully understand his emotional reaction. Asked about the reason for his tears, Rev. Jackson explained the next morning that he was thinking about "...the martyrs and murdered whose blood made last night possible. I could not help think that this was their night." source

Another racial barrier has been removed and finaly a black man has reached the highest elected political office in the world. Race shouldn't be an issue in politics, but in real life it unfortunately often still is. I am happy that the Americans decided to elect an intelligent, eloquent and inspiring new leader, and the fact that he is a black man (well, more or less) is a bonus! Only half a century ago black people were totaly excluded from positions of power in the USA and many other parts of our world, but now Obama shows that this really belongs to the past. I hope and pray that president Barack Obama will be able to inspire people of all colours, faiths and backgrounds, that he will lead his country out of the current economic and politcal crises and that he will make some wise decisions in both domestic and foreign politics. May God bless, guide and protect him.