Obama's election leaves world with great hope

I awoke this morning with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart. I know it sounds trite, but that is the way it is. Last night I had been reading comments on a blog by Charles Blow, a black New York Times Op-Ed columnist.

In it, he describes his emotions following the election of Barrack Hussein Obama as president of the United States. Not being Afro-American myself, and not having their history, I can hardly imagine their feelings about this event.

I have been reading some of the more than 1,000 comments posted in only a few hours. Just reading them has been a moving experience in itself, and I urge you to do so, too. Here is the link (http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/)

The outpouring of emotion on the part of black people has been extraordinary and permits the rest of us a glimpse into the black experience in America. That is worthwhile enough. But there is much more. Comments have come from all over the world, from all kinds of people: expatriates, Americans at home, whites, blacks, Asian-Americans, people from other countries, united by their tears and hope.

So many talked of their tears. It is if a dam has broken, and our emotions, so carefully hidden for so long, have come pouring out. People all around the world are celebrating the election of an American president. It is as though we have awakened from a nightmare. Now, we dare to hope again in the potential, the perfectibility of the American dream.

It is overwhelming - and frightening to hope again. If you hope, you can be hurt because hopes can be dashed. But I know that nothing can be accomplished unless hope is there first.

So, we take the chance. We almost have no choice. We are carried away on the flood.

It is also frightening to pile all our aspirations on the slim shoulders of one young man. We know now that he is brilliant, determined, and tough, but we also know that is not enough. We still do not have the full measure of the man. That will only come with time. He faces daunting tasks, perhaps greater than any world leader has ever confronted: two wars, a financial crisis worse than any we have known since the Great Depression, climate change, with time running out on the possibility of even abating its effects, the depletion of energy sources, and the disastrous effects of a culture in which everything has been commodified.  

He will inevitably fail at some of these tasks which fate has piled on those shoulders. He may not even turn out to be what we think he is. However, we do have our hopes back. Most of all, I depend on a few words at the end of his 30 minute "infomercial." "I am not a perfect man, and I will not be a perfect president."

So, I dare to let my tears flow, and to hope again. I do know this. He will need all the help we can give him. The seed is there. Others have grown great in the presidency. We need to water that seed with our tears of hope.

KEN FISCHMAN

Sandpoint