Do I Dare Hope?: So many times Barak Obama has moved me to tears through his verbal eloquence. So many times I wondered in comparison to the uninspiring opposition, how Obama can lose. I need look to a grain in the sands of yesteryear’s time to see how. The brilliance of our Founders extraordinary experiment over two centuries ago to hammer out a more just political process, despite the nation’s obvious inequities, cannot be denied. Will, though, the seemingly indelible, indefatigable and haunting historical stain of slavery still not be washed clean?

At our country’s most perilous moments, great leaders have emerged. Washington, arguably the greatest of our presidents, for our nascent nation, chose not to claim the mantle of monarchy. Lincoln was determined, by any means necessary, to keep the nation united despite its intractable differences over slavery and its legal underpinning of “states rights.” When the Great Depression enveloped our land and the cacophonous discords of war in Europe could be heard, Franklin Roosevelt breathed into us new national life with his melodious tones of hope and faith in our country that encouraged us to prevail.

Now, in our own time, we face, perhaps, an equally dangerous shift in the historical sands. Our nation desperately needs hope, it needs unity and it needs to chart a new course. A new leader in the Democratic party now can give us this new course to chart to ensure our nation survives to see a new day. Do I dare have the audacity to hope?