Making E Pluribus Unum Cool Again

Photo by Flickr user gingerbydesign. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Hmm. I haven't danced in the streets... I mean literally dancing in a street... in I don't know how long. Even though it was just my partner, my nine-year-old, and me, and even though we were the only ones out at that time of night, and even though we were just holding hands and jumping in a ring-around-the-rosey circle singing "Obama won, Obama won" to the tune of... well... ring around the rosey it felt pretty good.

During MSNBC's coverage I loved Rachel Maddow's takedown of Pat Buchannan when he had the gall to say McCain lost because of the financial crisis. I also have nothing but scorn for the "credit to his race"/"credit to our tolerance" crowd for trying to pigeon-hole President-Elect Obama's success as *nothing* but a signal about race. (Again, Rachel Maddow's body language and facial expression was priceless when Tweety Matthews kept going on about how swell it all was.) One needn't pretend to be colorblind, however, to appreciate not just the many parts but the whole of the person who has crafted this victory and who inspired not just this class or that religion or the other race or the other national heritage or this graduating class or that city, state, or region, or this persuasion or that orientation or the other expectation.

Instead they were inspired by what he ultimately believes in: a principle that guided... and also sometimes goaded... Americans from 1776 till 1956.

(Emphasis mine.)

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

...

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

...

This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people...

Yes We Can.

Source: Last night in Grant Park.

E Pluribus Unum, "out of many, one," a principle without which "honor diversity" is a slogan at best and at worse a mere euphemism for condescension.

And if I am ashamed that California's Proposition 8 passed, and Proposition 102 in Arizona, Proposition 2 in Florida, and Initiative 1 in Arkansas, and I *am* ashamed, I take heart that the generations that passed it are also passing away, and that those who opposed those initiatives... the ones under 30, and maybe 35... loom large. And they are not one man from Kenyan/Kansan stock, not someone who edited his law review, who attended Rev. Wright's church for 22 years, who left a white-shoe law firm for community organizing on the South Side, who's raising two daughters with his partner in marriage, who lived in Hawaii and Indonesia, New York and New England, Chicago and now, soon, the White House. They're the everybodies of every kind under who's sufferance a President Obama will remain President in four years. Or not. They're the everybodys, of every kind, to whom every politician will eventually have to answer. And so if the candidate balked or quailed rather than endorse Prop 8, well, I don't have to have faith in just one man to help forge a more perfect union if I can have faith in those he inspires to forge it with him... inspires all of us to say "yes we can."

Lest I dwell too long on one disappointment may wax both patriotic and nostalgic for a moment more and remember another patriotic couplet who's scansion was also divided... as it divided us... in the 1950s**.

One nation, indivisible
With liberty and justice for all

I always liked the sound of that too. Fingers crossed.

And finally, since I began this post as a recitation of my impressions, I'd like to close with a few more.

Early this morning when I ran down to my children's bus stop to deliver a forgotten lunchbox I saw my partner, who'd walked down to see them off, step into the street to greet a neighbor with a leaping high five.

A moment later, again before eight in the morning, another neighbor threw open his upstairs window with a huge "woo-hoo!"

I met a gay friend, a man around my age, who looked *terrible,* his face puffy, his eyes tired and when I asked if he was ok he said he felt wonderful, that he'd wept for joy for hours with friends last night after the speeches.

All day on the streets I've seen people smiling,

From all around the country, and all around the world, I've read post after post on sex blogs, food blogs, political blogs, nerd blogs, feminist blogs, church blogs and travel blogs, single-issue blogs and encyclopedic blogs, famous blogs and obscure, active and near-gone-dark and each in their own way they've all said mostly one good thing.

Out of many...

Update: Of all things *even Mickey flipping Kaus* gets the attempted confinement-to-race framing, landing like an absolute ton of bricks on McCain's concession speech

He went on and on--as if Obama's victory was all about race and not about a rejection of McCain or Republican governance. As if even if it had to do with race its rejection of bigotry was mainly of interest to African Americans as opposed to all Americans. As if the most important characteristic of the man most Americans chose over McCain was his skin color, etc. ... I know I'm overreacting, but McCain's tone seemed almost tribal. ... Maybe the problem was his distancing, clanging choice of pronoun--"theirs." Not "yours," let alone "ours."

Amazingly he said it here.

Good for him.

[** I'm not knocking religion here when I say I prefer our original motto and the original Pledge of Allegance. I *would* point out, though, that the acts of Congress that enshrined "In God We Trust" and "One nation, under God, indivisible" were introduced at the same moments that most Conservatives claim America generally started going to Hell. Nor am I suggesting that by harking back to pre-1950s language President-Elect Obama's religious faith is somehow a front. Quite the opposite. His choice of the words "she's gone home" when his grandmother died -- words spoken more often in heartland churches than madrassas or big city churches -- suggest confidence in his faith, and therefore grace, and therefore no need to bluster or intimidate or shut out. --fl]