“There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.” 

- “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
     Bob Dylan

In a perfect world, the election of the first black President of the United States would be greeted as a major step forward in our social evolution, the culmination of more than two centuries of effort to justify the creed that, “all men are created equal.”   In the real world, though, the election of Barack Obama has brought out much of the worst in us and shown that while the economy may be in recession, racism is not.

Incidents around the country attacking Obama because of his race dampen the post-election euphoria felt by over sixty million Americans.  While the election may rightly be viewed as a hallmark of racial progress, cross burnings and racial epithets serve as reminders of the stubborn racism that still permeates our society.

Across the country, police have been fielding reports of vandalism, insults and physical assault.  There have been multiple instances of cross burnings, school kids chanting “assassinate Obama” and racial slurs scrawled on buildings and cars.

A middle-aged white man in Georgia reflected the feelings of many in this country who feel they are losing their world when he said, “I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.  If you had real change, it would involve all the members of (Obama’s) church being deported.”

The election of a black President is, perhaps, the most profound change in the area of race relations since the Civil War.  It has shaken the very foundation of many people’s worlds and thrust upon them a change with which they are ill-prepared to deal. 

Authorities say that Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect.

A sign inside the Oak Hill General Store in Standish, Maine, read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.”  The pool consisted of customers paying $1 to bet on a date on which Obama will be killed.  At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”

In Long Island, two dozen cars were spray-painted with racist graffiti.
The local high school and skate park were defaced with racial graffiti in Kilgore, Texas.

In Los Angeles, swastikas, racial slurs and “Go Back To Africa” were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.

Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, New Jersey and in Apolacan Township, Pennsylvania.

In the Pittsburgh area, a black man found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”

But if Obama’s election means anything to this country, it is the restoration of a national Hope.  And a part of that Hope is that the backlash we are seeing in the wake of the election is the death spasms of racism in America.

“The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.”