What Did We Expect?

The evening is winding down. The talking heads have had their day as is usual on Sunday. I've been listening to them worry the subject of Obama and who he is to death.

Here is a man who was encouraged to run now because he has so little baggage, unlike Hillary Clinton. If he waited another four or eight years, what might happen to his idealism, his purity of spirit and yes, his magic? So he's running.

Now the "heads" are touting the possibility of buyer's remorse. We really don't know who Barack Obama is.  He hasn't been thoroughly vetted. What about his endorsements from the likes of Farrakhan and the rhetoric of his own church's Reverend Wright? What did we expect?

Not having experienced what it is like being black in America I would not presume to understand the depth from which the rhetoric comes. Nor will I be quick to condemn it on style just because it is one I'm not familiar with nor in some cases comfortable.

Obama, not to credit Ms. Ferraro's statement, is fortunate to be who he is. And we are fortunate to have him in our midst because he is the first to transcend the confines of his parentage, his race, his cultural heritage, to this level, successfully. He is the first to articulate the need to stop the very divisiveness that is now occurring in this campaign. He is being criticized for not fighting back more forcefully yet it is the very premise of his campaign. If he does, it betrays the very essence of what he stands for.

What did we expect? His issues, the issues of his community are very different from mine. I don't understand the anger, the resentment nor the frustration because I've never had to deal with them. I refuse to diminish them because of my own lack of understanding.

I have only hope that he has the judgement and ability to bring about change at the level for which he strives.  There is no guarantee.  He has the educational credentials, he knows the people better than his opponent because he's rolled up his shirt sleeves and worked with them.

That he can transcend the differences of cultures on the world's playing field I have no doubt. This is one area of experience he owns.  He's been there.  He's lived it.  His opponent has not. Nor have most of us.  

Did we expect this?