The first black president of a Western country was just elected.
Whether Barrack Obama will be a conventionally liberal president or a transformational president remains to be seen. All signs point to the former. And he may win with the largest electoral vote majority since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Despite my skepticism, and the justifiable critique about America's imperial role in the world, this is a moment of hope. Even as the U.S. media gush about the historic nature of the United States electing a black president. But this change will have to be proven.
Nevertheless, I still believe in the hope of America, an opinion that many of my friends and colleagues reject. The important part is to remember that change only begins with an election, and requires the participation, active engagement and monitoring by ordinary people to succeed as the dream that Martin Luther King and many, many others have envisioned.
Chicago police estimated that 200,000 people waited for Obama's victory speech in Grant Park.
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