Rene Pomerleau(11/9/2008 2:34:40 PM) The Kenyans aren't alone. Here in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood we all expect to be invited to the inaugural ball as well. As if! On the evening of election day, the dancing and screaming and people driving around blowing horns and waving shirts and signs out their windows rivaled the Kenyans. Two days later, when I stood in a long line to buy reprints of the previous day's Chicago Tribune, people were still excited but the dancing had subsided.
On a more serious note: Let's hope that this worldwide acclaim presages a force for unity and peace to counter the divisions and wars that have been visited on the world by our current administration. But, as usual, our reach probably will exceed our grasp. Someone said this morning that the choice of Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff would allay any lingering doubts on the part of the "Jewish community". I know a number of Jews who believe that the Chosen People are coequal members with the Goyim of the human race, that justice for the Palestinians is both due and overdue; and they are not reassured.
But in the midst of three ill-advised and failing wars (I'm counting the "war" against terror), the other wars in Africa, the rapid destruction of the environment through the indiscriminate release of the carbon trapped in fossil fuels, the meltdown of the world's economies, the deplorable condition of the US health care system, the continuing leakage of our production to the cheapest and most inhuman providers, I choose to believe that there will be lots of changes for the good. There's certainly enough room for improvement.