Blink

America wanted to blink.

She wanted to blink really, really bad.

There she was, toe-to-toe with fate, destiny, history, eye-to-eye as well and she wanted to say, “No, not yet. Not quite yet. It’s really not time.”

In a race for president that was never not about race, she wanted to blink and say, “Okay. We’ve come very far. But not this time. Next time. Yes, definitely next time.”

She didn’t, though.

She stared right at that conflux of forces that began with the very beginning of this country, that conflux that has run its course from slavery to segregation to discrimination, that conflux that has sung the praises of equality while having no problem designating some more equal than others – she stared right at it and said, “This is a black man. He is what we need right now and he will be president.”

At that, the American electorate responded in a manner that will reverberate throughout the world.

We didn’t blink. We did the right thing.

G. K. Wuori © 2008