From Bromides To Brotherhood

The sentiment building for months reaches a high-water mark just minutes after noon on a cold and sunny January day as power hops from one man to another, Barrack Obama becoming in the Year of our Lord 2009 the nation’s first non-white president since Calvin Coolidge.

Shortly after George W. Bush's term expires, a self-congratulatory avalanche of well-wishing rains down on the people from all corners of the nation as millions rush to put their platitudes into the digital world, blogging and tweeting, calling and crying—white people being among the worst offenders.

My following on Twitter gushes with praise for the nation and with reflection on this historic moment. From a white man once booted from a military academy on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, “I am crying. I thought this moment would never come.”

From another white man, a former rugby player from my Alma mater, “What a difference one day can make!”

My mother, an ardent supporter of the president, calls. She is getting farklempt. Even my father, a 75 year-old veteran who refers unironically to black men as “black dudes,” has something positive to say. “I guess this is good for the blacks.”

“But that’s not the point, Pop,” I say. “It’s about brotherhood and uniting the country!”

“How’s the weather up there?” he says. “It’s like 60 down here in Orlando.”