"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain."
--Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding,
The Shawshank Redemption
Earlier this year, HBO premiered their brilliant mini-series John Adams, based upon David McCullough's epic biography of our second president -- the founding father who Thomas Jefferson referred to as "a colossus of liberty."
And as the scenes of the last 24 hours have rolled by, I can't stop thinking about a poignant scene from third act of episode six: "Unnecessary War."
The scene follows President and Mrs. Adams as they arrive at the still-under-construction executive mansion in Washington only to discover, to their visible disgust, that African slaves -- both men and women -- were being tasked with the construction of what would later become known as the White House.
We follow the Adamses, who were vocal opponents of slavery, as they walk below the familiar triangular peak of the north portico and through the front doors -- the first presidential couple to occupy that historic building. As they step through the mud in what appears to be silent horror, they're taken aback by numerous slaves toiling all around. Painting and plastering the walls. Sweeping the floors. Moving furniture.
"The negroes will see to your trunks," a white foreman offers to "help" with the presidential luggage, and then barks at a slave, "Here! You boy!"
The scene culminates with Abigail Adams, played by Laura Linney, shouting with indignation, "Half-fed slaves building our nation's capital?!"
Not only was this scene a powerful cinematic illustration of the contradictions and ironies of America's founding liberties, but it also sets the stage for an event you and I will be fortunate enough to witness just 76 days from right now.
Today, President Bush, of all people, described the forthcoming Inauguration Day and, perhaps inadvertently, presented the ultimate historical bookend to that scene from John Adams when he remarked, "It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House."
Indeed it will, sir. After eight years of awfulness, George W. Bush actually managed to say something that touched me in a way that didn't precipitate, you know, me breaking something. Damm you, Mr. President, you magnificent bastard.
To arrive at this moment has required a too-long and too-painful journey. For African Americans, yes. But also for the maturation of the ideals championed by John Adams and his generation of founding patriots. For a nation that professes to spread freedom and yet continues to deny it to some of its own people. For those of us who have hungered for some kind of redemption to help wash away the original sins lurking between the lines of our Constitution.
President-elect Obama hasn't and probably can't absolve those sins, and no single event or person can be expected to accomplish such a task. The southern and Appalachian white vote was evidence of the continued existence of those deep prejudices, and certain Gollum-ish elements of the Republican Party have proved this year that the Southern Strategy is very much alive.
But this new president has set for us a unique example -- he's become a national role-model and a guide, leading a record number of us towards the realization that it doesn't have to be "that way." It doesn't have to be us versus them anymore. The multi-racial, multi-cultural coalition that President-elect Obama achieved in this election -- his truly American coalition -- has succeeded in further marginalizing the ridiculous and archaic fear-mongers and fire-eaters who feed upon the exploitation of our original, founding sins.
Fact: their Reverend Wright ads failed in Pennsylvania. Their William Ayers attacks failed in Ohio. Their "little black man-child" remarks on the radio were wholly rejected in Virginia. Today, with their best tactics rendered ineffectual, they're rightfully staring into the maw of a change-or-starve conundrum. So it can be written that not only is our president-elect a post-racial leader, he's very likely the first post-fear leader of this new American century.
In terms of race, in terms of history, politics and American life we've crossed over to a better place and a more hopeful time. Not simply because of one man, but because we were prescient enough to have recognized ourselves and the true nature of America reflected in that one man. From there, we set about the task of freeing ourselves from the darkness of this decade and the skulking shadows that have for too long haunted us. In this respect, all of us -- all races -- are a little more free at last.
After all these years, we've finally arrived at moment when America feels like it's supposed to feel.
This January 20th, all of America will be stepping through those doors with President and Mrs. Obama as the dark ride of the last eight years reaches its long-overdue conclusion -- a conclusion more joyful and overwhelming than I think any of us fully anticipated prior to 11 p.m. eastern time Tuesday night -- when we pushed beyond a crucial threshold on our way to a more perfect union. And now, as the pictures roll in from celebrations here and around the world..."I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head."
Order my new book: One Nation Under Fear, with a foreword by Arianna Huffington. Now in stock at Amazon.