Lifting the Mill Stone from around Our Necks

An outstanding commentary placing the President Elect in the context of Dred Scott, World War II desegregation, and voting rights:

Back in January, I posted another Moyers video that supported that argument that Martin Luther King, Jr. required a strong president (LBJ) to force the reforms of the Civil Rights Acts when they are unpopular. Barack Obama has been carried a long way on the shoulders of forebearers and martyrs of different stripes to become our President Elect, and he has the opportunity be the same sort of catalyst for reform in troubled times that Johnson was for common people in America, regardless of their race.

I believe that President Elect Obama has received the support of so many different kinds of Americans because he has stepped from the shadows of a history of American racism to do the hard things that the rest of us cannot bear. Some may question his politics, but no one can question the legitimacy of the avalanche of support he received in every quarter of our land. He is the best qualified to act from an office where lasting progress can fill the pages of future history books along side names like Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Johnson.