Shortly after the results of the most recent presidential election were confirmed at 11 PM, our eldest grandson called me. Connor Shepherd is a 24-year-old grandson who lives and works in San Francisco. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 2007, and spent the next year in Japan perfecting his use of the Japanese language. Connor called me to exclaim about the spontaneous celebrations that he had witnessed on television taking place after the election of Barack Obama. Connor asked me, as his grandfather, whether any such thing had taken place during my lifetime. I thought for a moment and then told Connor that the only comparable demonstration that I could remember took place on August 15, 1945. That was the day that the Japanese Empire surrendered to the United States and signified the end of World War II. For me, that was an emotional day, just as the election of Barack Obama was a happy occasion as well as an emotional one.
For the last eight years, the current administration has told the rest of the world that it is going to be our way or the highway. On more than one occasion, George Bush has enunciated the thought that if you are not with us, you must be against us. There was no room in the middle for neutrals. Your country was either on our side or it was our opposition.
Those eight years have been spent in alienating other countries. For friends and foes alike, the American government has stepped on their toes and poked fingers in their eyes. I believe it is fair to say that the Bush-Cheney operation was the epitome of arrogance. I have been watching elections since 1928. In that 80 year span, I believe that this is an occasion when the American electorate told the current administration that they had had enough and wanted the current occupants of the White House to leave as soon as possible.
But more than a simple rejection of George Bush and Richard Cheney, this election celebrated the triumph of intellectualism over the lack of ideas and know-nothingism of the Bush administration. For the first time since Bill Clinton won the presidency, the American electorate welcomed sophisticated education to the Presidency. In and of itself, this is a triumph to be noted and it marks our return to civilized society.
One further fact has to do with the color of Barack Obama’s skin. This is the first time that this signal honor has been bestowed upon a person with African roots. Prior to the election, one poll suggested that at least 17% of the American electorate intended to vote against Obama simply because of his race. Obviously, Obama had a difficult time overcoming this blind prejudice. But he did that in grand style and rolled up a victory that could be described as a landslide.
It seems appropriate to inject a personal note here. For all of my long life, I have been a liberal Democrat. I offer that as an objective assessment of my beliefs. For years I have chafed at and been outraged by the inequalities that people of Afro-American ancestry have endured. The triumph of a black man such as Obama is a sweet moment for all of us who identify ourselves as liberal Democrats.
Following the election of Barack Obama, a column by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times contained a prayer that seems appropriate for this occasion. In 1959, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was addressing the Hawaiian legislature. Dr. King quoted this prayer by a preacher who had once been a slave. It goes like this:

“Lord, we ain’t what we want to be.
We ain’t what we ought to be.
We ain’t what we’re gonna be.
But thank God, we ain’t what we was.”

It seems to me that this former slave captured the moment. There is much to say for “Thank God, we ain’t what we was.”
Barack Obama’s victory has led to celebrations throughout the civilized world because they know that we are now going to rejoin them. The fact that this country can nominate a black man for the Presidency is a triumph without equal. For more than 400 years in this country, the people of African descent have been at the bottom of our social order. And as the Bible says, “The last shall now be first.” I am a non-believer in religious affairs, but to that thought I must say “Amen.”
Near the conclusion of my conversation with Connor Shepherd, I told him of the widely publicized photograph of the American sailor kissing a military nurse in the middle of Times Square in New York City when World War II ended. It revived my soul to relive those old moments. But the more I thought about what had happened in this election of Barack Obama, tears came to my eyes and at the conclusion of our discussion, Connor told me twice that he loved me. The tears caused my voice to falter and I was unable to tell Connor that he always enjoyed my love. In a case like this that happens once in a lifetime, it seems to me that crying is the manly thing to do. In my case, I had no choice but to do it.
In the preceding paragraphs, I have tried to tell you about the emotional celebrations that accompanied the surrender of Japan in the Second World War. The nation that used to be our enemy is now our ally. And of interest, our eldest grandson speaks the Japanese language and is peculiarly suited to understand the mindset of the Japanese people. Liberal Democrats are hopeful people. My hope is that before many more months pass, Barack Obama will turn many of our former enemies into allies as we have done in the case of Japan. I believe that he will do that.
Again a small personal note… When the surrender of the Japanese government was announced, I was at my home in St. Louis. At that point, I had completed 28 months of foreign military service and there were orders in my hands to report to a base in Greenwood, Mississippi. There were hundreds of bases like Greenwood that were preparing for the final assault on the Japanese homeland. Objective observers commented that in defending the homeland, the Japanese could inflict as many as one million casualties on American soldiers. I did not look forward to the assault on the Japanese homeland, but as a soldier I knew that I had no choice. But in the final analysis, it all ended well. I am grateful for that outcome, and I am also grateful for the fact my grandson speaks the Japanese language so well. Again, I express my hope that if we have turned Japan into our ally, there is hope for other enemies to become our friends as well. At least Barack Obama will not step on their toes and poke fingers into their eyes.
E. E. CARR
November 9, 2008
Essay 343
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Kevin’s commentary: I was a Freshman in college that year. My whole dorm went out to Grant park to see him win. I feel nostalgic every time I think about it — the energy there was absolutely unreal. I actually remember talking to Connor later this night and he told me about what Pop said here. It’s kinda funny to be finally hearing it from the other side.
These six years have been by no means flawless. We’ve seen a lot of mistakes and a lot of spinelessness but at the end of the day this administration has never come close to being the perpetual trainwreck that characterized 2000-08.
On a personal note, this is for whatever reason one of the first essays in a long time to provide me with a true temporal anchor, probably because my memory of this particular event was so strong. Almost everything that has been published on this site up until this point was written AFTER I started my first year of college. I’m 23 now, but still occasionally have trouble acknowledging that Northwestern is more than a year behind me now — coming rapidly up on two. So I have this dissonance where about four hundred essays materialized between now and the Yesterday when I found myself in Grant park with half of Chicago, feeling absolutely electrified.