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• Wednesday, June 4, 2008 05:27 AM

  Congratulations On What You Take for Granted

  If when visiting a partly burnt out Chicago back in April 1968 anyone had told me that American voters in 2008 would select an African American as a major party nominee to be elected president, I would have asked if he was on LSD.

  As much as it is disconcerting to watch the back and forth between the Clinton and Obama camps still going on, I can only admire the enormous progress that America as a nation has made in race relations in those forty years. (Don't get me wrong: there is still room for significant improvement!)

  I am really in shock and awe - and what a nice shock and awe to be in! - that the night after an African American eked out a close victory over a female candidate, there is no difference in the bickering as there had been between, say, Carter and Kennedy backers, or Clinton and Brown backers after their primary fight were at last over.

  The significance is that you take this historic fact (as, obviously, you would have, had the winner been the first woman nominee) for granted in such a way that in your bickering you perish the thought of the historic achievement. Don't get me wrong: I think that is progress.

  Now, don't overdo it! You don't want to lose the opportunity to not only nominate an African American, you should now elect him. Not because he is an African American but because he will be the better president than the Republican candidate, for the US - and for us other mortals.

  —AugoKnoke Read AugoKnoke's other letters
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