DC in 1968, DC in 2000. Source: Google/?Forty years ago DC was burned. The murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy brought to light what Harriet Martineau called the anomaly between the morals and manners of a society. That the Declaration of Independence embodied the morals of American society and said "all men are created equal" yet such men as RFK, MLK, Malcom X, and JFK, those who were chosen by the people, were not deemed equal enough and eliminated showed the stark difference between what people felt was true and what they acted out. The riots that brought DC, among other cities, to its knees exemplified the massive unhappiness in America.
That was forty years ago.
Tonight I was on U Street. U street was torn apart brick by brick in 1968 but tonight it celebrated. Cheers and honking horns sang out in the night and it was the most beautiful thing I have witnessed in my life. I was at a concert, Blue Scholars, we had our fists in the air and shouted "I got your back even if you don't got mine" as the news updates projected on the stage announced Barack Obama's presidency.
"This means I might be able to stay in school now," my friend told me.
Such a long way - we've come such a long way since 1968. That McCain/Palin supporters were still chanting "Barack HUSSEIN" at McCain's speech tonight lets us know that we still have a ways to go, but a new era has opened up.
Let's hope that he delivers.
1 comment:
Great side-by-side photo comparison. I hope something like that never happens again.
By the way, Congrats to D.C.
More than 90 percent of voters there chose Obama. Hawaii came in second with something like 70 percent and I think Vermont fell in around 65-67...if I recall correctly.
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