From MLK to Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton is a gifted politician.  Watching her give a press conference like the one she held today in Philadelphia, one cannot help but be struck by her mastery of policy and the facility with which she moves between subjects.  She was absolutely fluent on both the troop surge in Iraq and the decisions the Fed has made over the past couple of days to stabilize the faltering economy.  In short, she's a big-time wonk.  I have few doubts that her grasp of the issues and extraordinary intellect would serve her well were she to sit in the Oval Office.

But then there's Barack Obama.  The speech he gave this morning on race in America illustrated clearly the difference between what he brings to the table and what both Clinton and McCain have to offer.  Now, unlike Geraldine Ferraro, I do not think that being a black man gives you a leg up on the competition when running for the presidency of the United States.  It does, however, legitimize your positions and feelings expressed when discussing the history and current status of racial divide and intolerance in America.  It just does.  If you want to discover how AIDS affects a community, go talk to a gay man or a drug addict who uses needles.  If you want to get to the bottom of the effects of racial oppression, you're probably best served by starting in the black community in this country.

Obama made the most important speech today this nation has heard since Martin Luther King's words, "I Have a Dream," thundered across the mall as he spoke to the March on Washington from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.  King said:

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.  Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells.  Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.  You have been the veterans of creative suffering.  Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.  Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the meaning of its creed:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident:  that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."

That speech, as much as any single event, emboldened President John Kennedy's civil rights position and allowed Lyndon Johnson to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after Kennedy was assassinated.  It gave a voice to America's hopes and fears and laid bare the fields of oppression sown by state-sponsored segregation and racism.  As white Americans, we could no longer credibly view blacks as them.  They were us.

It was a landmark moment.  But old prejudices and fears die hard, as the Rev. Wright controversy reminds us.  This country still has much work to do.  It is still a nation of rich vs. poor and the haves choose not to live amongst the have-nots.  Most of the haves are white.  Most of the have-nots, are not.  It's denial to pretend that the disparities in this country do not create animosities between those who eat well and live comfortably and those for whom each day is a struggle.  Often we are happy to engage in that pretense, but it doesn't make it any more true.

We have an opportunity to take a huge step here.  In his speech, Obama said:

"...in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.'  This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children.  This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem.  The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy.  Not this time."

And he said:

"This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag."

And then he said:

"I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country.  This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.  And today, whenever I find myself doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election."

Barack Obama is another, the next, landmark moment.  It is so rare, perhaps to the point of being generationally unique, to encounter a figure who can bridge the divides that traverse this country, be they racial, economic or religious.  Who can speak to all Americans without playing on mistrust and ignorance.  A Farrakhan or Wright often fall short and end up speaking only to their base.  King was the master and his legacy is supported by his towering achievements.  We would not be where we are today without his leadership.  

But it is Obama now who is speaking to those "sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners."  It is Obama who is inviting us to take a seat at the "table of brotherhood."  Obama is the dream of which Martin Luther King was speaking.  He's multi-colored, multi-cultural, non-ideological.  He's the perfect conduit through which we can open a national dialogue and perhaps come together as a result.

These moments don't come often.  This would be the second of my lifetime.  The speech that Obama gave today transcended politics.  It would have been easy for him to renounce categorically the Rev. Wright and all of his provocative statements.  It would have been the politically correct move.  The right move to help him get elected.  But that's not why Obama is doing this.  He's bigger than that.  It's what separates him from Hillary Clinton.  She is a political machine and her mind can crunch electoral odds and the political outcomes of comparative policy positions with the best of them.  But Obama's mind works with a creative brilliance that makes accessible to him an extra dimension.  It allows him to take a potential depth charge like Rev. Wright's sermons and transform it into an opportunity to move this country forward.  He's not willing to play politics-as-usual with an issue so crucial to our future as a nation.  If falling short in his quest for the presidency is the price he has to pay for not choosing the politically expedient road here, so be it.   I believe it's a sacrifice he's willing to make.  The stakes are that high.