Obama's speech on race

We've known for a long, long time that race is the central test of who we Americans are as a people, as a nation.

We've come a long ways since I was a child, but we've much farther to go. Perhaps we'll never reach the point I'd like to see, but how we face the question is at least as important as how far we go; indeed, the means are the more important, for they - as always - determine the ends.

In America's long history of being tested, there are signal events which stand out, illuminating our lives and beckoning us onward. One such event occurred today. Barack Obama "had to do something," we were told, to deal with the racial issues swirling around his campaign. What he did was to rise well beyond the mere political, and move our collective discussion measurably forward.

I'll say no more, save to provide here a link to the transcript of his speech, as well as a link to an editorial review of it from a prominent newspaper supporting his rival. I commend both to your attention, in the hope and belief that our nation is better for the discussion he opened today.

Update: Here are some more editorial and op-ed reactions, from the Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Tim Rutten writing in the L.A. Times, Eugene Robinson writing in the Washington Post, and Mary Schmich writing in the Chicago Tribune. And here's a YouTube link.

Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 19 March 2008. The original post also linked to an editorial and columns by Annette Joh-Hall and Monica Yant Kinney which appeared in the 19 March 2008 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, but the newspaper removed those pages.