Yesterday

While I committed a while back to not discussing national political issues but instead to keep this blog focused locally and on Roanoke City, I do feel the need to comment on the election results of yesterday in a broader context.

There's been a lot of talk about the history-making nature of Barack Obama's victory to become our 44th President, and I'm sure this talk will continue. It was only 45 years ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream speech." And it was only a year before that that LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

Yesterday showed just how far our country has come in the last 50 years. As many of us have discussed this election for some time now, it has impressed me a great deal that even friends of mine who did not support Obama and do not like many of his policies recognize and appreciate the historic nature of an African-American being elected president.

Hopefully the Obama message of bipartisanship and progress will help to unite Washington, and that the 2008 Democratic sweep of Congress does not in the end prove problematic as it did for the 1994 Republican takeover. Both parties need to work together, avoid becoming greedy with power, and try to accomplish positive policies that help the most people.