Thursday, November 06, 2008

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.

5 comments:

Heavenbound said...

I couldn´t agree more! One barrier has been broken. I saw Rev. Jackson´s tears too and I think I (as a white) can never fully understand the meaning of this election. But it touched me too.

We truly experienced a historical day in this week. My blessings to the President and to American Christians!

Anonymous said...

This is a great time for America. I can't say I agree with everything the president elect does. But he is our president and we will pray for him.

I have mixed feelings about Jackson. The bigger issue is this long journey the nation has been on has now come to it's conclusion. The only nation in the world that has the words, "all men created equal" in it's founding documents have now been brought to conclusion in this new president.

Many Europeans seem to think the President is going to fix world problems. Sadly they are wrong. Only Jesus can do that. I don't envy this presidents job.

Rebecca Opetsi said...

I also saw tears,
It is such an inspiring thing to happen.

Daniel Mumby said...

Personally, I'm pessimistic about American politics in general. Obama will have a long honeymoon period, but eventually he will become like the others who went before him and become a villain in the public mind.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an embittered McCain supporter (far from it), but I just think that all this optimism and praise to America for finally electing a black President is fruitless. America, like a lot of nations on earth, is still racked with race divisions which cannot be solved in four hundred years, let alone four.

I wish Obama all the best, but I shed no tears for all those who become disillusioned when the time comes. You should have seen it coming, and realised that change on this earth is close to fiction.

Paul said...

Thanks Heavenbound, Mike and Rebecca. We may have some different opinions and expectations and we all live in different places and have different perspectives, but we all hope and pray that the new US president will be a blessing. I think we need to give him credit and we certainly must pray for him as he needs to lead his country through a very difficult time!

Thanks also for commenting here, Designed to Provoke - I appreciate your thoughts. Your comment is thought-provocative indeed! You have good reasons to be a bit cynical, but we cannot live like that, can we? We need to have hope and faith and give elected leaders the benefit of the doubt. We all get the government we deserve, but I think that it is a good thing that the Americans have elected a black president for the first time and I only hope that he will not disappoint us all.