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January 20, 2009
An Historic Day
First American born outside the continental U.S. to become president. The first clearly mixed race American to become president. The first man my age to become president. Barack Obama (born just a few months after me) is clearly "of my generation". Many people have describe Obama as a post racial candidate and I think there is some truth to that. I think that many of us, growing up at that time of social ferment were determined to see race in a new way, at least in a new way for this country. As something that was incidental to our identity - not essential. An accident of birth that would (or should) play no role in defining who we were, who we wanted to be.
America is said to always be reinventing itself. We Americans believe in the real possibility of change, of improvement. Obama, growing up in Indonesia, then Hawaii, and later California, was clearly not willing to see himself defined by his racial background.
I didn't vote for Mr. Obama though I fully expected him to win my state and (by mid-September) the election. That said, I wish him the best of luck in his coming term of office. I hope that he can accomplish at least some of his goals and I hope that he can make some progress on fixing the very real problems this country faces.
I'm proud to be an American, and I'm happy and guardedly confident in the future under the Obama administration.
Posted by rakhier at January 20, 2009 12:26 PM