I still get chills when I hear that speech. Today is the 43rd anniversary of a march led by King in Selma, Alabama. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are speaking in churches today in Selma literally yards away from each other.I have to think about what an amazing thing it is to have a woman and a black man running for president. And not just running, they are the leaders. Odds are one of them will be sworn in as president in 2009.
What a contrast to a mere 43 years ago. 50 years ago black people still had to sit in the back of the bus and had different rest rooms from whites. Racism is not dead but we have come a very long way and that chokes me up as much as Martin's classic speech.
Obama said that King was Moses, who led the people to the promised land but could not enter himself, and that he, Barak, was Joshua, the one to lead us across. Very powerful. Hillary sounds like she's trying to imitate King and just sounds lame and even worse, insincere, as if she's just putting on the act she needs to for the occasion. Now I'm pretty sure Barak is going to beat Hillary for the nomination, although I wouldn't count out John Edwards just yet.
2 comments:
If Hillary is so insincere, how come both she and Bill have had huge popularity and support among blacks in this country?
I didn't say she was insincere, I said she sounded that way, as if she was trying to imitate a black preacher. She put on an act and didn't do it well. Surely you can recognize bad acting?
One commentator said if you just read Hillary's and Barak's speeches Hillary's would have been better, but she just isn't a good public speaker.
I wasn't even saying she'd be a bad president, it was just the comparison between the two with Hillary coming immediately after Barak. He was in his element, she wasn't.
Besides, it's Bill who has the support of the black community, she's riding his coattails on this.
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