Regarding the US presidential elections

5th November 2008

Last night we witnessed history being made.  143 years after the 13th amendment to the US constitution officially abolished slavery, 53 years after Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama, refused to move from the part of the bus reserved for white people, and 45 years since Martin Luther King Jr stood at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. and spoke the famous words “I have a dream”, the USA has elected an African-American President!

This is a powerful symbol in a world where discrimination is everywhere to be seen, where people are discriminated against because of; race, gender, religious beliefs or lack thereof, their age, the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation, etc, etc.

It is a timely symbol that human consciousness can evolve.  It is a symbol that old truths can make way for new truths.  It is a symbol that what was once thought to be impossible, can indeed be possible.

This is the historical importance of what happened last night in the USA.

We congratulate President Obama and the inspirational social movement made up of people from all sectors of US society, especially young people who are so frequently ignored and disregarded in the political process; the idealists who are crying out for nonviolent change.

Not only is this change hoped to be a new start within the USA, many of the world’s population see this as a new start for the whole world given the important role of the USA in world affairs.

However, Humanists are not naïve!  Today we have the symbol of hope for a new future that could be on the horizon.  But this new future is not certain to arrive.

In these times of financial, environmental and violent crisis, the world is waiting for the USA to work constructively with other countries to solve this profound crisis.  We hope that the USA returns to the path of using the power of inspiration, freedom of thought and expression; the power of ideals, of truly democratic orientation and the promotion of the civil uses of science, instead of bullying the world with military power.  As Barack Obama said in his victory speech: "to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals".

The people of the world and of the USA aspire to go in a new direction. The global challenges that the USA and President Obama need to respond to, together with the leaders of other nations, are:

1) The removal of invading troops from occupied territories

2) The return of these occupied territories to the hands of their inhabitants

3) The dismantling of all nuclear arsenals

4) The creation of a new global economic system based on human values, eradicating usury and speculation

5) The protection of the planet’s resources to ensure that the Earth can support life for all the future generations that will follow the ones alive today.

We wish President Obama well.  These could be dangerous times for him.  We know that many of those in the corridors of power of oil companies, of weapons manufacturers and of banks will be wary of what the future holds for them today.  This tiny minority of people have the means to utterly destroy all of us in their greedy quest to control the world’s resources.

Let us work to make sure that the vast majority of the world’s people who love peace and the ideals of nonviolence are able to take the next steps from a Black president towards a Universal Human Nation.