"I Have A Dream" + 45 Years

Whoever has his enemy at his mercy & does not destroy him is his own enemy

http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2008/06/05/what_does_obamas_victory_mean

What of the last 40 or so years?

-- Today, if black Americans' gross domestic product were measured separately, it would be the 16th-richest country in the world.

-- Nearly 80 percent of blacks live above the poverty level, contrasted with 65 percent 40 years ago.

-- The greater percentage of blacks live either middle-class or better lives.

-- The employment rate for married black men equals the employment rate for married white men.

-- The average black woman with a college degree makes more money than the average white woman with a college degree.

-- The highest percentage of blacks in American history -- 46 percent -- own their homes.

-- The majority of blacks live in integrated neighborhoods (defined as living with at least 10 percent of neighbors belonging to "other races").

-- Black-white interracial marriage has soared -- after anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967 -- from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005.

-- Los Angeles, a city devastated by the Watts riots in 1965, with a population about 11 percent black, hired back-to-back black police chiefs.

-- A black man served as United States ambassador to the United Nations.

-- A black man served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

-- Two blacks have served as members of the United States Supreme Court.

-- The largest association of doctors -- the predominately white American Medical Association -- elected a black physician as leader.

-- The largest association of lawyers, the American Bar Association, elected a black president.

-- The Ford Foundation, one of America's largest philanthropic private foundations, with 2007 assets valued at $13.7 billion, was led for 12 years by a black man.

-- Blacks hold or have held CEO positions at major companies, such as Merrill Lynch, American Express and Time Warner.

-- Black-owned businesses grow at a rate faster than white-owned businesses.

-- The multiracial Tiger Woods is the world's most famous and wealthiest athlete in earnings and product endorsements.

-- Major League Baseball -- America's pastime -- is comprised of 40 percent black, Latino and Asian players.

-- The Super Bowl, the most-watched sporting event in America, recently featured two teams headed by black coaches.

-- Black females have won the Miss America beauty pageant.

-- Black economist and best-selling author Thomas Sowell, based on the number of newspapers that carry his column, is one of the country's top 10 columnists.

-- "The Cosby Show," a positive, upbeat sitcom about a black, upper-middle-class family, reigned for years as America's most-watched television program.

-- Black faces on television abound -- in commercials, as local and national news anchors, and in shows playing a variety of characters -- from doctors and lawyers up to and including the president of the United States.

-- Will Smith, a black actor, tops the list of the nation's movie box-office stars.

-- Black actor Samuel L. Jackson appeared in more movies than any other actor of any color during the 1990s.

-- Black television host Oprah Winfrey, arguably one of the most powerful television personalities in the history of the medium, has amassed, to date, a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion.

-- Blacks serve or have served as mayors in many American cities, including the three largest -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

-- The current speaker of the California Assembly is the first black woman to head a statewide legislative body.

-- Blacks comprise 10 percent of the House of Representatives, including some from primarily white Southern districts.

-- A black man serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee -- arguably the most powerful committee in the House.

-- A black man served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

-- Virginia, one of the states of the original Confederacy, elected a black man governor.

-- The Republican Party, in the last election cycle, nominated blacks as candidates for governor of Ohio, governor of Pennsylvania, and senator from Maryland.

-- Blacks have served the current administration as back-to-back secretaries of State.

So, what does Obama's candidacy mean? His victory shows that America grows ever closer to Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a society that judges people based on content of character, rather than color of skin.

Obama's victory does not prove this. It confirms it.

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson