I can’t believe how much of a dustup has ensued from the following – seemingly inocuous – quotation:

“For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” (CNN)

Regardless of your political affiliation, I don’t see how you could take this to mean that Mrs. Obama was ever anything but a proud American.

Did anyone on the right stop to consider what might actually be going through her mind?  And what it means?

I believe that what she meant to convey is that, just perhaps, on the momentous occasion of a black man – and the one she married – being put up as one of the major parties’ nominees for president, that a wall has been knocked down.  An injustice corrected.

That, from today forward, the game has changed.  40 acres and a mule be damned, we’re going for the big prize.

And also perhaps a bit of defiance, in that it doesn’t matter how many white racist bigots might still be out there and what they might think – because they, as of this moment, don’t matter a damn anymore.

The tide has finally turned, and the equation now works in favour of those so long oppressed and dispossessed.  It really is a new day.

Being Canadian, and – incidentally – white, you might expect that I have a different perspective on things.  Canada, as most of you should know, was the destination of the Underground Railroad.