It's On Our Watch

It’s the end of an era.

It’s the end of the time in which you had to be white and male to run for the office of President of the United States of America.

Now you can be black. Whether it’ll happen or not, we’ll know in November. That the possibility, with a 50-50 probability, even exists is pretty remarkable when one considers the past from which modern America has emerged, and how recently.

When King was killed in ’63, it was like some big voice in white America answering “Not on my watch” to King’s bellowing of “I have a dream.” Don’t think that’s fallen too far away from the collective memory of black America.

Tonight, though, it’s on our watch.

And we are all the better for it. Today finally is the tomorrow we’ve all been waiting all this time for. Today is the tomorrow, and it’s on our watch.

We’re blessed be here, now, when an almost impalpable but unmistakable veneer of cynicism seems to have fallen slightly away from America.

It has been a long, long wait. Nice dream, Martin. It plays out well in reality. A very, very nice dream. (Do we have to wake?)