The New born Captain of American Boat

The New born Captain of American Boat.
(A reflection on the Presidential election)

Looking at the historic presidential election, many things remind me of leadership, dream, hope, desire for change, maturity of the American society and so on.

First of all, I could feel that an old dream of American people finally has come true and they can have hope for the future. 16 years ago, I have read the Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream.” It was so powerful and I was very impressed by his speech because I haven’t thought about racialism, differentiation pretty much before I read it. I felt the strong desire for freedom of black people. I felt as if I were in the presence of the place. The following are some of the speech.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
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And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Now, Martin’s dream has come true.
Secondly, I could feel that American people want and desire more strong leadership. I mean true leadership which leads them into free and happy lives ever than before. They longed for a true leader and now have a sense and hope that they have the one. That’s one of reasons why they are so excited and exalted. They wanted a leader who is intelligent, faithful and trustworthy like Abraham Lincoln. Have you seen the movie “Dead poet’s society” Robin William starred at movie as a teacher. He let the students listen to the poem of Walt Whitman (1819–1892). One poem of his poetry “Leaves of Grass.” The title is “Captain oh my captain.” Whitman wrote this poem in memory of Lincoln. The following are some lines.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills
Though this poem is in memory of Lincoln, looking at the lines, I thought that the American people also wanted their good and true leader will rise up. The leader who is not an image person but has real power to develop their nation. The leader who is strong and trustworthy like Moses who led the Israelite to the Canaan, the promised land.

Another thing I felt during the election is desire for change and hope. Have you ever experienced an escape from some trouble. I remember the movie “Shawshank redemtiopn” – titled “Escape from Shawshank” in a Korean version. The main character was put into a jail named Shawsank which no one had escaped before. He dig hole and make a tunnel through the jail with small hammer for about 16 years. Finally, he escaped from the jail. That feeling may be very similar one Martin and other black people want to have by expressing, “Free at last, we are free at last!” Suppose the jail as economic crisis of America, as a mountain of problems which the American people should overcome. I think that desire for change and escape out of economic crisis, suppression, bad situation made the result of the election. Desire for from crisis to success, from disorder to order and so on, I mean. They wanted an exodus from present situation in the US.Finally, I came into the thought that the American society has become matured enough to accept a black president. As you know, WASP(white, Anglo-saxon, pilgrims) are main stream in the US. I have thought it is impossible for the American people to accept a black president yet. However, they did it not because of race, color but because of mature of the society. They were braved and deserve to be proud of it