Talk shows
and news programs were abuzz this week over Morgan Freeman’s comments about
President Obama’s race. According to the press Mr. Freeman stated that
President Obama was not the nation’s first African-American President, he was
the first “mixed race” president because his mother was white. The ladies of
The View gave their opinions about the statement and one of them had to admit
Mr. Freeman was right. I don’t know what point Mr. Freeman was trying to make,
whether it is that President Obama is not a representative of the African-American
people or stating the obvious about the President’s racial status. In any case,
I have never thought President Obama’s African-American heritage was the most
important thing about his election to the Presidency.
In 2009, upon the completion of my
book “The Peacemaker” I wrote in the Epilogue:
“History was made in the election
of 2008 pitting a female and African American male in a dramatic race for the
Democratic Party nomination for President. Barack Obama has been elected the
first African American president; however, Obama’s mother was a Caucasian.
As I have tried to point out in my
book, America
is a country of blending. We are not an Aryan nation. We are one people from
many different ethnicities and cultures. We are one nation, and the key to our
unity must be in coming together as one celebrating our different heritages and
traditions that enrich us as we put aside past hurts and grievances.”
The importance of Obama’s election
was not that he was of one race, but that he was from a diverse background. The
President of this country represents all the people, not one race, economic
group or political party. For too long, the President represented only one
group of people – those originally enfranchised – the while male, over 21 who
owned property. The hope of the 2008 election was not that an oppressed race
finally had a voice in the White House, but that perhaps there was someone who
would put aside the concept of race and represent all the people of this
country and listen to all the voices. The polarization that I wrote about in
2009 still exists and seems only to have gotten worse, paralyzing the nation
and crippling the government’s ability to serve the people it represents.
If we are to move forward, we must
free ourselves of the concept of race and the entrenched divisions in our
government based on race, political party lines and agendas. Perhaps George
Washington said it best in his Farewell Address:
“The alternate dominion of one
faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge… is itself a frightful
despotism. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which
nevertheless ought not be entirely out of sight) the common and continual
mischiefs (sic) of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest
and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It (political party)
serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public
administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false
alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another and foments
occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and
corruptions, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through
the channels of party passions.”
The same could be said of dividing
our country along the lines of race. We’ve come a long way from the 18th
Century of George Washington, but have we?
