The Nomination

[col. writ. 8/27/08] (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

From the maelstrom of ambition, politics and power, something new in symbol emerged from the Mile High City; Denver.

In a national political convention that was, until then, undistinguished, few saw the political sleight-of-hand that led Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's bitterest rival, New York's Democratic Sen. Hillary R, Clinton to seize the moment to move the convention to suspend the rules, and vote by acclamation that Obama be named the Party's nominee for President.

It was a political master-stroke, that left some, Black and white, Latino and Asian, male and female, in tears.

In that one, deft move, history turned on a dime, and a new card entered the shifting deck of politics.

As a youth, I recalled the thrill when the names of Channing Phillips, and Julian Bond, were entered into nomination, but these were symbolic acts, meant to garner less than a dozen votes (if that), with no possibility of more.

This is a different thing altogether, and speaks to a singular moment in American politics.

To be sure, a nomination is not an election, and the months to come promise to be hard fought and bitter indeed.

But it is a nomination, and marks a moment that this country has never seen before.

That is the essence of history.

--(c) '08 maj