Special thanks to Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King & similarly motivated souls for bringing the world to the Obama moment
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From Wikipedia:
"Inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, King visited the Gandhi family in India in 1959, with assistance from the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee.[20] The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, “Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.”"
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Even though the idea has been around for a couple of thousand years - embedded deep in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, plus no doubts countless other religious & secular traditions over the ages - and more recently enshrined in the US Constitution in a less than perfect form when the document was written - the idea of human equality is, and has been, a very difficult one for humans to follow, practice, bring to life & keep alive on Earth. In "our time" so far - the 20th & early 21st century of the Common Era - two humans have served as the symbols for the radical practice of equality & human brotherhood - India's Mohandas K. Gandhi & the US's Martin Luther King Jr. Those two represent millions, if not billions, of people who have supported their work & have continued to try to build a world that those two leaders envisioned & supported when it came to humans accepting other humans as, at the least, similar to themselves, somewhat related, and worthy of assisting, dealing with, or otherwise accepting as equals. The inauguration of Barack Obama as the next President of the US, happening in less than 12 hours and less than 15 miles from where I am typing this blog entry, is a major event in human development - or in the development of the human community on Earth. It is, among many other positive things, a very powerful argument against the many negative & divisive arguments that live in the human mind - ones that encourage belief in ridiculous race theories (racial supremacy, ethnic purity, holy lands & people with a license to kill the "enemy", divinely sanctioned peoples & their missions of conquest, untouchables) & ones that lead people to accept inhumane & superstitious practices (slavery, segregation, the caste system) as the norm.
So, later today, on the small scale, US is getting a new, and popular, President. On the larger scale, humanity is seeing positive ideas of human equality put forth by Gandhi and King and their followers and many like-minded people being overwhelmingly accepted by the citizens of one of the most unusual, dynamic, and surprising (not to mention large, rich, creative, & militarily powerful) countries on the planet.
Even though we've got a long way to go to turn this planet into the paradise that it can and will be, today is a very good day for the world. I am glad I am here to see it with my own eyes.
- Sujewa
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