While watching this momentous event, the first inauguration of an African-American, Senator Barack Obama, as President of the United States of America, I could not restrain my tears. I was reminded of a speech I read of Sir Winston Churchill's given on November 10, 1942, referring to the Battle of El Alamein between British and allied forces led by Generals Alexander and Montgomery on the one hand and German forces led by Field Marshall Rommel on the other. Churchill said, "We have a victory - a remarkable and definite victory." This was a turning point in the Second World War.
In the same speech, however, Churchill cautions, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." On the same day as the inauguration, I received an email message regarding a young man from the Equality Coalition in North Carolina whose life has been threatened by American racists for speaking out against racism. The end of the beginning, perhaps, but much, indeed, remains to be done.
Peace.
(See also Winston Churchill)
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