This incredible week!

A few days ago, our country made a historic decision with unprecedented national and world wide repercussions, copiously documented by US and world news outlets. The government of Kenya has even declared Thursday November 6, 2008, a National Holiday, all over their land, on the other side of our planet. Somehow, however, the significance of this day in America, and indeed, World History, was ignored by my children’s schools. I was stunned and disappointed when my sons came back from school, Wednesday evening, as they informed me that there had been no mention of this historical event whatsoever by any of their teachers, except from a football coach who mentioned that, regardless of our political leanings, this was a day to remember.

Our Nation has finally broken the race barrier that has, in so many ways, been at the crux of our daily lives and, from now on, can no longer be tacitly accepted as a determining factor in the choices for so many of our fellow US Citizens. As the conservative author Thomas Friedman wrote yesterday: “A civil war that, in many ways, began at Bull Run, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, ended 147 years later via a ballot box in the very same state.”

This week, our schools failed to seize the opportunity to teach History-in-the-making to our children, to help them understand that History is not just about old books and passed events; but rather teach them that History can come alive, that it is made up of powerful salient moments that are perfectly real to their contemporaries and worth remembering, documenting, and, sometimes, cherishing as brilliant expressions of our humanity.

Regardless of anyone’s individual choices at the November 4, 2008 polls, one must stand in awe before this historical moment and elevate our discussion to evaluate, indeed, educate our children and ourselves, so we can better appreciate and understand the richness of this day, the significance of this National decision and the meaning of its power as it relates to and celebrates our American ideal of Freedom, Equality and Justice for All.

The November 4, 2008 electoral results have provided this Nation’s educators a clear proof that education can deliver real opportunities and open any door to anyone willing to learn and develop their intellect. The mixed race son of a foreigner, born into a family of modest means, which, during hard times, had to rely on food stamps, was able to rise to the most influential position in the Nation, and arguably the world, thanks to his family’s drive towards providing him the best education available for him.

Our Nation’s achievement gave teachers a rare opportunity to use current events to illustrate and celebrate the promise of a good education and how anyone who wishes to make the necessary sacrifice and efforts can qualify for the highest office in the land. Although it had long been established that, in this country, education can pull anyone out of poverty, education was not enough, and did not provide a workable path to the Presidency of the United States of America until Tuesday. From the beginning of our Nation’s history, only white men were considered for the Office.

Until Tuesday, teachers could not tell all of their students that any one of them could think of themselves as credible candidates to occupy the White House. Tuesday has changed this forever. Tuesday has spoken to the promise of our Republic. Tuesday has delivered on the American Dream our Founders defined in the Declaration of our Independence.

As of Tuesday, 232 years after these words were signed, it is now possible to state that, in our Nation, “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Education allowed President-Elect Obama the develop tools to pursue his goal to conquer the Presidency. His education enabled him to grasp our Nation’s current challenges and shape his propositions to resolve them.

Unlike any of his predecessors, our new President-Elect is the son of a black African man and of a white North American woman, of which the union was considered to be criminal in many states when he was born. President-Elect Obama was 6 when the US Supreme court lifted the ban on interracial marriage with their 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia.

We should all take pride in this glorious collective decision as we have finally transcended a long lasting sin and realized a fundamental promise: our President’s race no longer matters.

Tags: Presidential Elections