It’s a time buzzing with excitement and new possibilities. There will be children in the White House again, along with a younger man who promises hope in a time of great cynicism and anxiety.
So please, can we stop talking about race?
My heart overflows with gratitude that we have passed the milestone. It should have been possible long ago; its passage must be marked. But to focus on it day in, day out, as the news media has been doing, is insulting to the man. Let him be who he is, without making his race the most important part of his unborn administration.
Of course there were some who voted in November on the basis of skin color. But I think the vast majority of the American public has been beyond that for a long, long time. To be sure, there is racism in America, but the kind of racism that makes people vote for or against a person based on skin color…that is a thing of the past. Let it go, and dismiss those who hang onto it, the way you dismiss those who still believe that the earth is flat, or that we didn’t land on the moon, or that the universe revolves around Earth. The best way we can honor this milestone is to judge Barack Obama by his actions in office, the same as we would any other president—without regard for his race.
Kathleen M. Basi 
AMEN!!! I am with you! I think it is great that we have reached a milestone in American History. But, I also think this election was very hard because the media and others were trying to make the fact that either the first Black American president was going to be elected or the first woman vice-president was going to be elected a greater issue then the actual “issues” that they talked about. It is not gender or race that should be the deciding factor, it should be which candidate fits your ideals the closest.
Thanks for this!
I agree with all of the above!