Robert L. Terrell

Revolutions tend to focus the mind.  Anyone who has lived through one, victors and victims included, will attest to this fact.  Last Tuesday’s election here in the United States was, for all practical purposes, marked the onset of a revolutionary process.  As a result, most American, including those who have flooded gun shops around the nation during the past week, readily admit that the magnitude of the election’s significance has left them in a heightened state of awareness.

The first indication that we are caught up in the transforming draft of a revolutionary event was immediately apparent on election night as the votes came in confirming Obama’s resounding victory.  Citizens from all walks of life, and from every section of the nation, responded in an amazingly uniform manner.  Big, wet tears emerged from their twinkling eyes, and flowed copiously down their cheeks.  Most were smiling broadly through their tears. Nonetheless, the dazed expressions on their faces were clear proof that their minds were in the process of being keenly focused on our emergent, new reality.

We went to bed that night marveling at the magnitude of the forces of transformation launched by Obama’s victory. And we emerged from sleep the next morning highly conscious of the fact that something profound had taken place, so profound in fact that the character and quality of life in this nation had been irrevocably altered.  By electing Barack Hussein Obama, the citizens of the United States formally, and conclusively, chose to fundamentally alter our historical trajectory in domestic and international affairs. 

Accomplishing this required us to unambiguously reject virtually everything associated with the Bush administration and the Republican Party.  On election night that rejection was rendered loud and clear.  Thus, the near total collapse of Republican hegemony over the nation’s domestic affairs and international policies has freed us to pursue options considered virtually unimaginable less than two weeks ago.  Among many other reforms to be implemented as long inhibited transitions in power and priorities take place, peace making, tolerance, universal healthcare and greater economic justice are blowing in the new winds of change sweeping across the nation.

Anyone who doubted that revolutionary change was in the air on election night had only to venture into public the morning after, and thereby witness the fact that entire swaths of the citizenry had already begun to see themselves, and relate to each other, in ways which were somehow new, different, and intoxicatingly liberating.  The sense of exultation flowing across the nation via smiles, cheers, warm hugs and uninhibited kisses was only heightened as the day unfolded.  Our delicious sense of mass empowerment and egalitarian deliverance was magnified via video feeds of joyous people around the world celebrating Obama’s victory with unrestrained cheers, and the same big, wet tears which had flowed from our eyes the night before.

The most impressive impression I have gained during the past week via discussions with friends, colleagues and random strangers is that a critical mass of the U,S. citizens believe Obama’s victory has freed us from a psychological prison.  The ignorance, violence, divisiveness, militarism, manufactured hatreds and brazen criminality characteristic of the Bush administration were confronted by the people at the polling places last Tuesday– and defeated.  As a result, the way has been cleared for us to move together toward a more humane, peaceful, life affirming future.

Despite our collective euphoria, most people appear to be level headed and practical regarding the hard work that lies ahead.  Even Conservatives are conceding that it will take a year or two for the Obama administration to fully implement its agenda, and produce significant tangible results.   I am particularly impressed by the fact that our emergent, dominant consensus is that the reforms required to move the nation in the desired direction require broad participation by huge numbers of people. As Obama indicated during his extraordinarily modest acceptance speech before the multicultural multitude of infectiously happy celebrants in Chicago’s Grant Park on election night, the most important work required to institutionalize our revolution is ahead of us. 

Nonetheless, it is clear to me that a critical mass of this nation’s recently liberated citizens are going about their daily affairs with focused minds.  We are supremely inspired, and more than ready to meet the challenges ahead with courage, creativity, grace, dignity, and all the most distinguished intellectual resources we possess.