In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Sen Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America and the first African-American to achieve this office. It is a day few thought would ever come.
More than 140 years after the abolition of slavery, more than 45 years after Rev Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks demanded civil rights for black Americans, a man who was barely a child at that time has been elected to the most powerful position in the US - and by extension the world.
This is not to say that racism or race problems in the US are over, but this is a historic day and one of the most significant milestones in black American history - and what a privilege and joy it is to be able to witness it.
Sen Obama did not become president solely because he is black. His intelligence, charisma, oratorical abilities, and message of change and hope resonated deeply with people and convinced them, that this Kenyan-American has the necessary qualities to be Commander-in-Chief, leader of the US, and the man who can restore the nation’s fortunes at home and reputation abroad.
President-elect Obama faces into the most difficult political circumstances since Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930s; a global economic downturn, an unwinnable war in Iraq precipitated on lies and the despicable ideology of the Neo-Cons (for whom George W Bush was a willing puppet ), a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, and America’s ruined reputation after the policies of the Bush Administration.
It is a huge task that no political leader would envy. President Obama has to live up to the expectations of hope and change he talked about. These are changing times and new problems call for a new voice, a new mind, and a new approach. Barack Obama’s time is now and Galway, like so many other cities across the world, is willing him on to succeed.
