Celebration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is truly an historic occasion \u2013 the election of our first African-American President (our first non-white President) and the rejection of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is truly an historic occasion \u2013 the election of our first African-American President (our first non-white President) and the rejection of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-05T13:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/SRHwBOgp_bI\/AAAAAAAAACs\/x0ASWBpK7aE\/s400\/obama.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html\",\"name\":\"Celebration\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-05T13:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-11-05T13:11:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"This is truly an historic occasion \u2013 the election of our first African-American President (our first non-white President) and the rejection of the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/celebration.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Celebration\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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$\"\"$ <\/a>
This is truly an historic occasion \u2013 the election of our first African-American President (our first non-white President) and the rejection of the policies and politics of the past eight years. It is a time to celebrate \u2013 but only for a while.<\/p>\n

I first heard Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Afterwards, I told a friend \u201cremember this guy \u2013 he\u2019s going to be President in 2012.\u201d OK, so I was off by four years. But I remember thinking \u201chere\u2019s a politician who gets it:\u201d someone who understands that what unites us is more important than what divides us, someone who understands that we\u2019re all in this together, someone who understands that we\u2019re safer and stronger by treating other countries as partners instead of as pawns.<\/p>\n

I do not envy President Obama. We have one war to end in an orderly fashion, another war we need to win (and then end), the worst economy since the mid 70s, an energy crisis that is currently masked by the slow economy, and the continuing problem of climate change. Health care, immigration, and the fight for marriage equality remain problems.<\/p>\n

Obama didn\u2019t win because he was the black candidate, or the Democratic candidate, or the liberal candidate. He won because he was the change candidate. Expectations are huge and resources are limited. And all those folks who said such nasty things during the campaign aren\u2019t going to crawl back under their rocks. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of work to do, but at least we\u2019re finally working in the right direction. And that\u2019s reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"