PRIDE SWELLS AS OBAMA ADVANCES
by Paul Wyche and Corey Mitchell
The Saginaw News – MLive.com
June 5 2008
MI
Saginaw NAACP President Leola Wilson remembers how three years ago,
a friend phoned her about an upstart black politician with a "funny
name."
"She was traveling to Illinois to help with a get-out-and-vote
campaign," Wilson said, "and I remember her telling me she didn’t
even know how to pronounce the candidate’s name and wondered how in
the world a black guy with a name like Barack Obama thought he was
going to get elected to the U.S. Senate."
Well, get elected he did, and today he stands as the first black
American with a true shot at the White House.
"Pride swells over you, but no, I never thought I would live to see
the day," said Wilson, who heads the Saginaw County chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"This is a defining moment, not just for black America, but for
America."
Retired attorney and Saginaw’s first black mayor, Henry Marsh, said
he hopes so.
"I didn’t even know who Barack Obama was when this thing first
started," said Marsh, 86. "I would have voted for Hillary (Clinton)
in a minute, but not now. I don’t like the way she ran her campaign
with the (verbal attacks), and she should have conceded when he got
all of the needed delegates for the nomination."
Across the country, people across the political, racial and
socio-economic spectrum expressed excitement, pride, hope, relief
and caution as they considered the implications of the 46-year-old
Obama’s historic achievement as Democrats’ likely presidential nominee.
His rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, ended her bid to
become the first female president. She prepared to declare Saturday
that she is backing the Illinois senator after Obama on Tuesday
secured the 2,118 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination.
Obama now has turned to the hunt for a running mate.
"He seems to be an extraordinary young man, but he will need some
help," Marsh said. "But this means the country has turned a corner."
When Saginaw High School graduate Sandile Ashford heads to college
this fall, she may get a firsthand look at history.
Ashford plans to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., to
study journalism.
The 18-year-old is among millions of black people, young and old,
celebrating the accomplishments of Barack Obama.
Ashford graduated second in her class last week.
"I’m happy," said the daughter of Stephen and Cynthia Ashford of
Bridgeport Township. "Being that this is America, it’s something that
should have happened already."
The teenager also could play a role in determining history.
The excitement surrounding the presidential campaign led her to
register to vote shortly after her birthday. While in the nation’s
capital, she plans to cast her first-ever vote for via absentee ballot.
"It’s going to be a big deal there, and I’ll actually have a say,"
she said. "It gives me hope that I can make it further than I ever
thought."
Around the nation
Retired pharmacist Arthur Dees, 80, marveled at Obama’s triumph. An
Army veteran, he recalled attending Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration
in 1953 and finding he was not welcome in any downtown Washington,
D.C., hotels or restaurants.
"They were all segregated," he said at a mall in Wheaton, Md.,
12 miles north of the White House. Fighting back tears, he added,
"My people have always had doggone names. We were darkies. Then
colored. Next they called us Negroes. After that, we were black. Now,
we’re Afro-Americans. But with Obama, we’re going to be just
Americans. Won’t that be something!"
John Trapp, a 46-year-old white homebuilder from Poulsbo, Calif.,
echoed Martin Luther King’s famous line when he said he hopes the
country is "beyond race" and will judge Obama "by the content of his
character." He is dubious, though.
"Some people will vote for him because he is black, and some will not
vote for him because he is," said Trapp, who said he is more excited
by Obama’s age than his race. After all, he said, "He’s the first
person of my generation" to be a major party nominee.
In Atlanta, Sharon McLaurin, 43, a clerk who grew up in Mississippi,
stared into the reflecting pool surrounding King’s crypt and recalled
that her parents had to sit in the back of buses, use separate
restrooms and drink from different fountains. When she sees Obama on
TV, she said, she’s struck by how many faces in his crowds are white.
"That tells me they are looking at the issue of change," she
said. "They no longer see his color. That’s great."
America is ready for a black president, said Rady Williams, 40, who
sells T-shirts and King merchandise. "He just has to be clean-cut,
drive a Chevy truck and be an apple-pie Christian," he said. "He
can’t be a crook, and he can’t be bitter about slavery."
For Daphne Brown, a 21-year-old North Hollywood student and single
mother, Obama’s success could give younger blacks like her a renewed
sense of their own worth. Plenty of young people, she said, have
adopted the attitude that " ‘I don’t care about anything. I just want
to be a rebel.’
"But now," she said, "I see that we count. We’re important. We’re all
important. Every race is important. And I think with Obama, coming into
this candidacy, that it’s just going to be a total change for my race."
The world is watching
Obama’s ascent has captivated many of those watching the American
political contest abroad.
Newspaper front pages and television newscasts throughout the world
Wednesday featured photographs and footage of the smiling senator.
The French daily Le Figaro described him as "the man in a hurry who
dethroned Hillary." The London-based Guardian called him "a political
giant slayer" who defeated his own party’s entrenched interest.
And in Mexico, an editorial cartoon in the daily Reforma depicted
him as a Christlike figure atop the Democratic donkey on Palm Sunday.
"Obama’s America on the doorstep of history," said a headline on the
front page of Assafir in Lebanon.
Obama remains popular throughout the world. According to a poll
released this week by the pan-Arab Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel,
more than half of those interviewed in 22 countries preferred Obama
over Clinton or Republican John McCain, who was the least recognized
and least preferred presidential candidate.
Still, some analysts expressed concern about Obama’s foreign
policy positions. In Turkey, some worried about Obama’s support for
Armenians, who are locked in a dispute with Turks over the Armenian
genocide of the early 20th century. And many Israelis worry about
Obama’s willingness to negotiate with the Jewish state’s enemies,
especially Iran.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
