The "Other" Forty Year's War . . . . .

This was the scene last evening in Chicago's Grant Park,

awaiting the news that America had elected

Barack Obama as the nation's 44th President.

But those of us "of a certain age"

can't help but contrast images

of a different Grant Park,

some forty years earlier.

Denied the right to march in protest of the Vietnam War

during the 1968 Democratic Convention,

the protesters "took the hill" in Grant Park.

Forty is the Biblical number for testing;

in forty years, our nation has changed--

both from the impact of our youth and

in the softening of attitudes by those who are older.

We wince as we remember the the lessons of the past;

but we beam as we anticipate the promise of the future.

And, as Dr. Angelou wrote (see earlier post),

I wish all my fellow Americans

Good Morning . . . .