Obama win only first step in ending hate

As I read the recent opinion article "It's time to end racial psychodrama" by Mona Charen, it inspired me to write in and congratulate her.

With one letter she has declared racism dead in this country. Ms. Charen states that, "... segregation and racism were facts of life within living memory, but this country set its face against that history hard and fast and almost completely. It has been so for my entire life. I'm proud of my country for living down it's racist past."

I'm as impressed with her eloquence as I am with this delusional vision of hers. She first cites Colin Powell's brief consideration to have a run at presidency over a decade ago. By quoting New Hampshire exit polls from 1995 she supports the idea that as a country, we were already past our racist beliefs and might possibly have elected him.After all, Mr. Powell is black, isn't he?

Personally, I think having an African-American actually elected to the highest office in our country is quite a more definitive statement of our determination to begin bringing racial equality to all Americans.

A good beginning, indeed. But I need to ask Ms. Charen if she has ever visited the ghettos, the southern communities and the inner cities? Or is she too afraid? Prejudiced, perhaps? Has she heard of neighborhoods where hate mail is thrown on your lawn if you are black, Muslim, Jewish etc.? Has Mona listened to the rhetoric on the 2008 campaign trail? In just my lifetime, I remember an endless list of injustices and prejudices in regards to crime, jobs, loans, education and opportunity. What of the innocent Muslim-American people who are now topping the list of discriminated?

What of newsworthy racial issues like "Rodney King" and the more recent "neo-Nazi" plot to behead black children and assassinate Obama? Maybe Mona doesn't realize that a huge portion of the citizens who voted for Obama voted for him because he was the best person for the job and not because the Caucasian folk feel they must throw the black man a bone.

While the first African-American president is historic, my excitement for Obama's win was one of relief. I am relieved that I don't have to fear religious and constitution restriction. I'm relieved that I don't have to fear my small business sinking lower and watch my friends lose their jobs once again. I am excited to have someone who cares about people such as me, who pay huge health-care bills and who recognize that the poor and underemployed have been left behind for too long. I feel positive about Obama's vision for America in respect to ecology, economics, human rights, constitutional issues, alternative fuels, foreign relations, etc.

So I am hopeful that Mona Charen will continue her good work and write another article soon that declares poverty, disease, homelessness and starvation as things of the past. Then all we will have to worry about in America is what to do with the plague of ill-informed, shortsighted, right-wing, conservative, elitist journalists.

Lesley Wexler

Libertyville