{"id":582,"date":"2008-11-05T23:30:42","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T07:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2008\/11\/we_got_there\/"},"modified":"2008-11-05T23:30:42","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T07:30:42","slug":"we_got_there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2008\/11\/we_got_there.html","title":{"rendered":"We got there"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just didn’t believe it could happen–this,\u00a0 <\/p>\n

<\/font>\"First<\/span>our new First Family. <\/p>\n

I’d been calculating and recalculating the electoral votes since the beginning of October–you know, switching a NH for a CO, a Michigan for a Pennsylvania, etc., etc.,–and maybe by Monday, I’d arrived at a glimmer of hope: perhaps he could pull off 280 electoral votes. (Please, please.)<\/i> But after the election of Bush for a second term<\/i>–after it had turned out the President had lied about WMDs (not that even the lie was reason to invade) and Abu Ghraib had been exposed–I lost all faith. <\/p>\n

And I thought the country was too racist to elect a black man. <\/p>\n

God, what a joy to be found out wrong. <\/p>\n

<\/font>And did you notice, in Obama’s victory speech, how he invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s Moses on the Mountain speech, his last speech, as if Obama understood he was going to carry on from where King left off? <\/p>\n

Here’s King<\/a>: <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

We’ve got some difficult days
\nahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the
\nmountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a
\nlong life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that
\nnow. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the
\nmountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may
\nnot get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a
\npeople, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not
\nworried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen
\nthe glory of the coming of the Lord.
<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

And here’s Obama<\/a>:
\u00a0
<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get
\nthere in one year or even one term, but America–I have never been
\nmore hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you–we as a people will get there.
<\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Choked me up. <\/p>\n

Finally. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

[Here’s<\/a> a video recording of the last minute of King’s prophetic speech. And here’s Obama’s echo and tribute, in the first 30 seconds, here.<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just didn’t believe it could happen–this,\u00a0 our new First Family. I’d been calculating and recalculating the electoral votes since the beginning of October–you know, switching a NH for a CO, a Michigan for a Pennsylvania, etc., etc.,–and maybe by Monday, I’d arrived at a glimmer of hope: perhaps he could pull off 280 electoral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}