US has come far but is not at its journey's end (AZ Republic)

[azmouse]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/01/18/20090118sun1-18.html


You have to look back to see how far you've come.

So as Barack Obama becomes president, it is tempting to characterize this as the end of an astonishing journey.

Many will say that Monday's celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Tuesday's inauguration of the nation's first president of African-American heritage represent the view from the mountaintop and the arrival in the Promised Land.
The night before he was assassinated, King told the crowd in Memphis: "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land."

That was April 3, 1968. Barack Obama was 6 years old.

On Tuesday, Obama becomes this nation's 44th president.

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The changes many young people take for granted were the result of "extraordinary events," says Thomas J. Davis, professor of history at Arizona State University. As a Black teenager growing up in New York, he never imagined someone who looked like him could be president. He's still surprised.

But now, he points out, a White child growing up in Appalachia may look to the Oval Office and say, "I want to be like Obama."

That startling reality makes it tempting to characterize this week's presidential inauguration as the end of the journey.

But "change" is not a destination. It is a process. The diversity of this nation - in skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, philosophy, politics, social standing - means we need to continue our collective journey toward that "more perfect union" the Constitution envisions. We need to continue, as Davis puts it, to learn to value and accept each other as individuals.

It's a tough job. We haven't always been kind to each other. But our Constitution is a powerful tool for those with the courage to use it to work for justice.

When Barack Obama takes his oath as president on the same Bible Abraham Lincoln used to swear his oath, people across the nation will shed tears to baptize a new era. Those tears cannot wash away the sins of the past. And that's a good thing.

The truth of our astonishing national journey is more genuinely beautiful than a prettied-up version that glosses over unattractive facts.

Obama's inauguration is one measure of how far we have come. It shows how much we can overcome when we pursue our national ideals.

That's reason to celebrate.

So is the fact that our children will someday look back on how much farther they helped us go.