History Repeated?

One of the ideas expressed in American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass really stuck with me: the idea that laws such as the Fair Housing Act in 1968 were conjured and later passed largely so that they could be publically declared as solved. The issues then tend to fall off the radar for years, only to resurface with new, competing theories on the cause of the plight of inner cities.

I thought of our discussion of this book as I watched the vice-presidential debate, wondering how much of the proposed solutions and change would end up being only word that lacked true action. Sarah Palin spewed on about the War in Iraq and all of its successes, even moving this week to saying Obama used to hang with terrorists, in reference to a anti-Vietnam War Protester of years past. It is so easy to get caught up in these distractions from the real issues our country is facing: education, healthcare, and the unfortunate state of the economy. So how do we determine what is truth and what is just verbal vomit that aims for only one thing: gaining control of the White House?

It is this very question that leads me to Barack Obama. Just as the book's purpose is centered on shedding light on the issues of race and racial segregation as they relate to the current state of black Americans, I believe that Obama is the one candidate willing to accept America's systematic failure to the underclass that we have created. He seeks to improve teacher salaries because they hold the education of the future citizens in their hands, and I believe he sees the promise and possibility in all children from all walks of life. I suppose my hope is that through his presidency we will see government leaders owning the wrongs we have committed and working to fix and improve conditions for the future.

Perhaps I am too much of an Idealist, and I do become fearful sometimes that he may be powerful in rhetoric enough to convince me that the impossible is possible. But I would rather hold on to that hope than settle for politics as usual.