As Barack Obama's inauguration begins Jesse Jackson, America's leading civil rights campaigner and a former presidential candidate, argues that the new President has a unique opportunity to lead the United States out of war and recession and into a new age of fairness and equality.
KEY POINTS:
Barack Obama's inauguration as America's first black president will be a magnificent moment in the decades-long race for civil rights, in America and around the world. For so many, Barack represents hope against cynicism. Expectation rides high for his success in leading us out of global war and recession. People trust him to restore the democratic values of America. He symbolises redemption in the face of a sordid past. It's the dawning of a new era.
On Wednesday, Barack will stand on many famous shoulders - Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela - but also the millions of nameless, faceless people who made his victory possible. From villages in Kenya to neighbourhoods in Kansas, his inauguration will be celebrated.
It is a victory that reflects the times and gives inspiration to the times. Barack's election is the expression of the idea of a grand, multiracial gathering. This coalition believed that together we could win what separately we could not. The figures are astonishing.
On November 5 last year, the coalition included 95 per cent of the African-American vote, two-thirds of the Latino vote, two-thirds of the youth vote. Barack won huge majorities among Asian Americans, Native Americans Jewish voters and Arab-American voters. There were big wins among union voters, gay and lesbian voters, single women and "secular" voters.
This victory took decades to cultivate. It could not have happened in an earlier America, certainly not before 1954, when the wall of legal segregation kept us divided, ignorant and fearful. Think of the black veterans coming home from the World War II, successfully demanding the integration of the Armed Forces. Or the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case that finally ended centuries of legal segregation. Or Rosa Parks in 1955 refusing to go to the back of the bus.
Or Dr King emerging to lead the Montgomery bus boycott. Or the Little Rock Nine breaking through the walls of school segregation in 1957. Or Dr King rallying millions on the steps of Washington DC, demanding jobs and healthcare, a "dream" for all America
in 1963, which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Or the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
My rainbow presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988 were a link in this unbroken chain. Hands that once picked cotton now pick presidents. It's a new day and a new way for America.
The US is maturing, changing for the better as we seek to fulfil our highest ideals of equality, freedom and democracy. Old walls of segregation, division and ignorance are being replaced by bridges built on hope and unity as people of all creeds, colours and backgrounds accomplish more by doing things together. In this sense, Barack's victory is a truly redemptive moment.
Dr King would have celebrated Barack's victory. And just as surely he would have had us focus on finishing the unfinished business. Dr King's last effort was to stand with garbage workers in Memphis, fighting for dignity and a union, and to support the Poor People's Campaign, fighting to end a war abroad [Vietnam] and to end poverty at home.
Forty years after his death, we are still facing these challenges. When Barack enters the Oval Office, the top two issues on his desk will be to end the war in Iraq and end the economic crisis at home.
On Wednesday, it will be high noon in our politics, yet it is midnight in our economy. We - all of us around the world - are embroiled in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and there's no end in sight. The unbridled, unregulated, unchecked greed and lust for profits typifying industrial capitalism of the early 1900s has found its twin in modern-day financial capitalism.
In the US, we have a financial system choking on its own excesses. Healthcare is broken. There's unaddressed and catastrophic climate change. Gilded age inequality and rising poverty abound. Infrastructure is collapsing. The global economic strategy has failed.
In the US, we export jobs, manufacturing and capital while drugs and guns come into our communities. The facts are daunting: 38 million people live in poverty, almost 13 per cent of the population in the wealthiest nation on Earth. Thirty per cent of African-American children are "officially" poor.
Some 45.7 million people are without health insurance. We have globalised capital without globalising human rights, workers' rights, children's rights or economic rights.
More than one million Americans have lost their jobs in the past two months. It's a moral disgrace and it's time for a change. It's time to wage a new war on poverty here in the US and around the globe.
Our nation, and indeed the world, needs a Franklin Roosevelt New Deal moment - a Lyndon Johnson war on poverty moment - where big ideas lead to big action. Barack now represents that moment for our time in history. Amid this current global and domestic economic crisis comes new opportunity to "redeem the soul of America", as Dr King prophesied and urged.
In America, we must cultivate our promised land. Barack's economic recovery plan must water the roots at the bottom, not just the leaves at the top. His plan is one that must develop our communities, rebuild our cities, educate our children, provide healthcare for all, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, protect the air we breathe and the environment in which we live and seek justice. We have to invest to make these changes. We cannot tax-cut our way out of this crisis.
Ordinary Americans want nothing more than "Equanomics", which has at its heart fairness, racial equality and economic opportunity. Last summer, we watched our athletes compete in the Beijing Olympics and saw our share of gold and silver medals. The athletes succeeded because the playing field was level. The 100 metres sprint was 100 metres long for everyone.
When the playing field is even on the economic front, and the rules are public and the goals are clear, we all have the opportunity to win. There is not a talent deficit, there is an opportunity gap. Each of us needs a fair chance at economic success.
This is not a retreat from work. The promised land is not a resort spa or an endless vacation. It is a land of tough challenges and new opportunity. So now, as Barack puts his hand on the Bible and makes his oath, it is not a time to rest. It's a time for redemption and redevelopment. There is new hope that an Obama administration will harness people power to rebuild - bottom up and brick by brick - the infrastructure, laying the foundation to close the inequality gaps and challenge poverty. Our quest is for Equanomics in this new era.
Everyone has to be involved. That is what our coalition is about. Most poor Americans are not black. They are white, female and/or young. They are the working poor, the unemployed poor, the unskilled poor.
They are the veterans who come home mentally disturbed. The new economic recovery plan must bridge this canyon between rich and poor.
Barack will face many challenges. Hopes are high that he will chart a new course for America's foreign policy and role in the world; that he will reverse the policy of pre-emptive military strikes, of unilateral approach, of violating international law under the guise of fighting the war on terrorism. Hopes are high that the rhetoric of division and fear will give way to meaningful initiatives to open up dialogue and rebuild alliances.
Hopes are high that Barack will end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home, that he will pursue peaceful negotiations and an end to the violence in the Middle East so that a Palestinian State and Israel may coexist.
It's high time for the US to restore its international reputation, become once more a nation that leads through its values of democracy and freedom rather than through its military might.
Around the globe, people and governments are rallying to Barack and it's because he does not view the world through a keyhole.
So when Barack raises his hand and takes the oath as president, he will inherit both the garden and the desert: the promised land and the bleak challenges that lie ahead.
For me, it will be a moment of unbridled joy at the achievements of the campaign for civil rights.
And if it can be done in the United States, why not in France, why not in Britain, why not elsewhere?
Walls that once limited human potential based on race and gender are coming down everywhere.
January 21 will be a grand celebration. For Americans, it will be a time to reflect on our troubled past and to project new remedies to the problems that face us. We'll put on our dancing shoes on Wednesday and our running shoes on Thursday to continue the civil rights race. There's still unfinished business.
So at this great moment of history, I will be mindful of the journey that we have been on and also the journey that we still have to take. Hope is in the air and help is on the way. Keep hope alive.
WORD ON THE STREET
Paul Harris asks people in Washington how Obama's election will alter the capital:
SATISH JAGDHANE, 35
Manager of a laundrette in Columbia Heights
"There will be changes. Of course, there will. That's why people voted for him. The big thing for me is the economy. It is terrible. He will open Washington more. It was not just black people who voted for Obama. Everybody did."
MARIA RAMOS, 45
Supermarket worker in the mostly Hispanic Columbia Heights district
"You can tell how tough things are because people don't buy that much. Some Spanish-speaking people have problems with black people. They are afraid of them. But most people don't judge Obama like that."
HYUN CHAU, 60
A Korean-American who runs a sandwich shop, Hot Off The Grill
"I am a Republican, because they are closer to the business community, but I like Obama. I hope he can bring about some change. The economy has to get better, otherwise we are really in trouble. The past few weeks have been bad."
BRENT LATTIN, 34
Washington DC attorney
"Washington is changing. I don't think white Washington will be able to ignore the state of the schools. That is a good thing. Obama is going to be more involved with the whole city. It is going to be a better place for everyone, unless you are a Texas Republican."
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