We the people

By voting in their first African-American president 232 years after they declared their independence from the British, the United States of America showed the world this week that the power of US democracy is alive and well.

History was made on November 4, 2008, when 47-year-old Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States with young, old, black, white, Latino, Asian and native-American voters sweeping him to power in an unprecedented move for a country everyone else believed would never allow a black man to become the leader of the free world.

We were wrong and the American people got it right.

Established democracies with a constitution have always had my deepest respect. But despite the written guarantees people continue to suffer. The constitution as an inanimate entity does nothing for a citizen until citizens themselves decide to practise their rights and allow others that opportunity too.

As the only standing superpower in the world, the United States, its president and its people have the moral obligation to lead by example and this election has exemplified the power of inclusiveness.

As Obama said in his historic speech in his home city of Chicago: "…we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century". And while he may have been speaking to the American people, the very same challenges affect all the people in the world and including them in the solution would help make this planet a better place.

This should be the time when war should be waged as the last resort, when diplomacy should be given a fighting chance, when the environ-ment should be seriously considered and no parent should have to worry if they can manage to make ends meet.

Obama’s example of the change that 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper experienced is poignant; she was born in an age when she could not vote because she was black and a woman. That scenario extends to millions of women around the world today whose voices are silenced and dreams dismissed. The US is a great power today because it is a self correcting society. It makes mistakes but the profound ability to forgive and forget and move on makes it the greatest country in the world.

Obama has his work cut out for him. He still has to win over 47 per cent of the US population who voted for McCain. There’s the war against terror, Iran and its nuclear ambitions. For now, however, let’s just hope that democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope will be shared by Americans with all of us.

But I foreseen a future problem for USA!