Election Day 2008--4:48 am

In 72 minutes Rona and I will finally be able to vote. I’ve been waiting my entire conscious life to be able to do this.

I think you know what I mean.

It would still be a remarkable opportunity even if Barack Obama were just an ordinary candidate—the lesser of two evils, Tweedledum to McCain’s Tweedledee. The usual kind of choice that we have had for decades. But like millions of others, hopefully enough to elect him, I have come to see him as an exceptionally promising candidate who has the capacity to be a great president just at a time when we desperately need one.


If I believed in a divine providence I would say we are being blessed.

So let me be explicit—in addition to all of this hope, not enough can be said about the stark fact that in 2008, “only” 142 years after slavery was abolished in America, we are likely to elect an African American to be the 44th president of the United States.

To state the meaning of this even more starkly—until 1866, all 16 of our country’s previous presidents could, if they wanted to, have owned African Americans as property.

In fact, 12 did--

Washington owned between 250 and 350 slaves

Jefferson, 200

Madison, 100

Monroe, 75

Jackson, 200

Van Buren, just one

Harrison, 11

Tyler, 70

Polk, 25

Taylor, 150

Johnson, before he became president, 8

Grant, before he became president, 5

It’s now, at last, time to go downstairs and vote.