A 'candle of hope' has finally emerged

If it had been possible for Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King to have had a child, that child's name would be Barack.

As a 62-year- old white "liberal," I can clearly recall the onset of the Civil Rights movement. How we all believed that America was on the verge of becoming the great nation it was always intended to be. But just as clearly I remember how that belief was shaken in 1963 and all but destroyed in 1968. I felt it marked the death of the movement and the beginning of a country divided. We began to live our lives as individuals instead of neighbors -- dividing ourselves politically, regionally, religiously, racially, by age and gender.

Politicians and politics began to reflect these divides. They, Democrats and Republicans alike, became the antithesis of what we hoped an elected official would be. Instead they began to play politics with one another and pandering to groups that would contribute to their re-election. It is no wonder why people were turned off and apathetic. We felt that we had no voice but were just little herds of sheep; that we just had to hope that we were being looked after by a shepherd and not exploited by a corporation who saw us as something to be sheared. With each new election cycle we cling to the belief that this time someone will emerge to lead us.

We have waited a long time for someone to once again light the candle of hope and lead us from the darkness. Our wait is over. You cannot look at him and not see that he is more than a politician, hear him and not be inspired. He is a movement and his message is simple. It is not "Me" or "I" it is "We." That is the change and the challenge. To once again hope, to dare to dream, to become "We."

Thomas Sullivan

Mundelein