Commentary

History has been made. He is a great orator. He inspired the younger generation by his message of “change” and they voted for him overwhelmingly. The blacks considered him black because of the color of his skin (although he is half white), saw an opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill the dream narrated by MLK a few decades ago and voted for him along the racial line. The younger generation could not relate to the old, experienced, war veteran and a POW (who practically sacrificed his life for the country), as they were generally not from the Vietnam era. The old man did not epitomize “change” to them. So, experience lost out against “change”. 51% voted for “change”, 48% for experience. The divide remains – if not Red and Blue, it is young and old.

One thing is for certain. Only in America anything is possible if you can dream and for that alone I am proud to be an American. We have come a long way in less than 50 years from the days of “Woolworth Sit In” in Greensboro, North Carolina, whereas many countries still struggle after thousands of years yearning for justice.

Finally, King George's era is over. Now we wait for the proof of the pudding. We wait to see the much-touted “change”. We wait to see a woman president, a brown president. We wait to see if the “3^rd world” we saw in our back yard during hurricane Katrina will disappear. We wait to see if old and young, red and blue, men and women will truly blend in.