Finally, the United States of America has confidantly voted into office its first black President, and today is the first day of the Future after all. I am so proud again to be an American.
We owe a tremendous debt to black, female, latino, and other “minority” voters, many of whom have until today been disenfranchised – not just for what they have done today, but for what they have done in the past to bring us to this moment.
I can’t help but recall the more joyful lines of Walt Whitman‘s loving ballad to his President:
O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daringO Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won.
(Of course, i have omitted stanzas which are not needed and do not serve this day; the poem, after all, is an elegy.)
