Sitting in front of the TV on Tuesday and listening to Obama's victory speech really brought home the idea that this is indeed a historical event. The media threw that idea around, but in my lifetime, I didn't feel that this election was historical in the way watching the Twin Towers fall on CNN or seeing the Challenger blow up was historical. The message is not unusual. We've heard it before, but said now, said in this way, with these words strung together like a Baptist sermon, with the pulse of the crowd as they stood in silence, save for the call and response, "yes we can." That's history, "our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared." Hundreds of miles away, whole continents of people that watched or listened to his speech shared breath with those people watching him, and the message really resounded. . . "while we breathe, we hope."
Connecting Random Readings to the Courses I Teach