祝福

本名はバラク・フセイン・オバマ・ジュニア。バラクはスワヒリ語で「祝福された」という意味だそうです。

そう、いよいよオバマ大統領の就任演説の時間が迫ってきました。もちろん生放送で見るつもりです。

アメリカ初の黒人大統領。南北戦争、公民権運動と経て、Black Americanの人たちにとっては3回目の歴史的な大転換点と言えるのかもしれません。

はたして新大統領は国民に、世界に、そして神に祝福された大統領になることができるのでしょうか？

楽しみたのしみ。

以下、シカゴで行われた勝利演説より。

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.

She is a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election, except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky, when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons: because she was a woman, and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America—the heartache and the hope, the struggle and the progress, the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed:

Yes, we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.

Yes, we can.