Most political analysts agree that this year’s presidential elections are very different from any other in a long time. They notice the exceptionally long pre primaries, the unusual number of candidates on both sides, including a former first lady and a black person.
Most people, because of the present political situation and the unexpected happenings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and a few other places, see the above differences as a welcome sign of people concern and an increased hope for electing the person to lead the way towards a lasting solution to these problems.
I too had hope that this election will result in the best person getting elected for the difficult job ahead, and that we would finally see light at the end of the dark tunnel. But something special caught my attention.
I watched with interest the first serious black candidate Barak Hussein Obama throwing his hat in the ring, and campaigning vigorously. I was glad we have matured enough to allow this to happen, and willingly accept it. But what I saw develop after that frightened me and left me asking many questions and groping for answers.
I saw this candidate, who is a first term senator with no other experience in politics or any other administrative job, climb in the polls and lead all the democratic candidates including Hillary Clinton who was surging in the polls ahead of the other candidates until the Iowa caucuses. I saw hysteria and obsession that defied any logic. This made ask why?
I listened to Obama and found him a good speaker. Nothing else. This is important but alone is no sufficient qualification for electing a person to the most important job in the world, the President of the United States. They say “talk is cheap”, so why is it important and precious in this case?
I learned that Obama’s father was a Muslim and, after his mother divorced she married another Muslim who helped bring Obama up, including attendance in a Muslim school in Indonesia. Despite this, he claims he is Christian. I saw that he could get endorsed by many blacks and Muslims, but he is also endorsed by many whites. He won in Iowa where the whites are 93 per cent of the population. John Kerry, the former candidate for president endorsed him over his own running mate John Edwards. Senators Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy endorsed him. I wondered why? There may be more that one possible reason. One could be our superficial way of judging people. Sometimes we judge them on fame, appearance, youth, or charisma. This may be more tolerable if we were choosing the best actor, or the best salesman, but definitely not the best person to be the president of the United States.
Another reason is probably the collective guilt that the white people feel for the long history of discrimination against the blacks and the desire of many to make it up to them now. But this is the wrong time and the wrong issue for that. One time a few decades ago the president of New York City teacher’s Union Albert Shanker was asked to give the black teachers in the city a privilege over the whites. His answer was: “Not because we said to the blacks no, no in the past should we now tell them yes, yes when they ask for anything, for no other reason than they are black”.
This logic should apply in this case. Will it reach the bulk of the white voters in time to rectify the situation, so that this nation will have a chance to elect the person who is qualified to lead the free world in the coming years during which our way of living, our values, and our very freedom will be threatened as never before. I hope so.
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Dr. Sami Boulos is a retired college dean who lives in New Jersey. He authored a few books in biology, raising children, the life of Christ (4 volumes), and the history of the early Coptic community in the USA.