Reflections on the election of Barack Obama by a seventy-six year old Presbyterian minister.

My telephone rang just minutes after Barack Obama was elected the next President of the United States of America. On the line was my best Turkish friend, Ramazan Arkan from Antalya, Turkey. He called to congratulate me on the election of Barack Obama.

We talked for just a few minutes, exchanging thoughts on this extraordinary historical moment. Only after hanging up did the words I spoke to Ramazan really hit me ... “I am so proud to be an American.” I turned to my wife and said, “I can’t believe what I just said! I'm proud to be an American!”

I'm a loyal and patriotic American, but it had been 39 years since I'd spoken those words.

I lost my pride in America sometime during the mid-60’s when I faced the fact that my country was fighting a war in a foreign country that never invaded us, nor threatened our national security. During the following years, my country devastated a rural agricultural nation, killed more than one million of its peasant farmers and their families, all in the name of 'saving the world for Democracy.' The years have now rolled by, and today, while the same political forces govern Vietnam—a country that is still not democratic—Vietnam is now one of America's more important trading partners in Asia.

The United States has NEVER officially owned its actions in Vietnam, or apologized for embracing the foolish 'domino theory' that was responsible for inflicting massive suffering on human beings who were never our enemies, killing over 50,000 of American young men and women - then sending our troops home in disgrace, and institutionalizing a system of post-war veteran care that damned our wounded to become a permanent nomadic city of homeless wandering the streets of America.

Now we have turned the very same polices on the people of Iraq, and the brave troops of the United States military.

Last night, I took great pride in the collective political will of the American people to shake the foundations of history - electing Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States. I took great pride that the American people chose a new vision for America’s future, and a new role in the world by voting for a leader committed to manifest a spirit of humility, listen to, rather than lecture the nations of the world.

But my new-found hope for the future does not rest just in the election of one single man, political party, but in a nation that now embraces the judgment and political will to join with President Obama as he forges new alliances and blazes new trails, attempting to exercise American power within the 'letter AND spirit of our great American Constitution - providing leadership that reflects the old biblical adage "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.”

This new historic opportunity now rests on our shoulders - all Americans - and begins with an old and new cry, heard from 'sea to shining sea' ...

I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

Art Beals. Regional Liaison
Albania, Azerbaijan, Turkey & The Balkans,
Presbyterian Church (USA)