"Nobody's free until everybody's free."

I find myself recently both elated and demoralized. I am thrilled at the election of Barack Obama for many reasons. He's smart, he cares about our country, he's articulate, he's a democrat, he cares about national service (and not just military service), he loves his family, he has inspired a nation, and last but not least he is an African American. For him to be elected to the highest office in the land, for the people, by the people, in a country that not 200 years ago was embracing slavery is a phenomenal leap forward. It is by no means and end to the discrimination and racism that still plauge our country, but it is an impressive victory. So why with all the positives that come from an Obama victory am I demoralized? It all goes back to the Fannie Lou Hamer quote above, "Nobody's free until everybody's free." I know I've written before about this quote, mostly when I returned from a conference on poverty this summer, but it is coming up and hitting me again this week. I think that for a lot of us there is the understanding that the different types of oppression are just that, different types of oppresion. They don't see connections between racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism,or albeism. But they are connected. If "nobody's free until everybody's free" then it seems to reason that if one of us is oppressed then everyone is oppressed. I got in a discussion with someone today about states rights. He was tellingme that I should be happy with an Obama victory and not worry about the rights that gays and lesbians lost on Tuesday night. That since I didn't live in any of those states that I shouldn't worry about it. To me this is missing a fundamental part of what it is to be human. We are all connected in this great chain of being. If my brothers and sisters in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas have lost some of their rights, then I have also lost some of my rights. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God and love your neighbor. In my opinion if you're doing these two things then you will find the way home. If you're oppressing your neighbor, taking their rights away, allowing them to be considered less than full citizens then you're not loving your neighbor. You're not even loving God. We are as a people of this planet connected, what affects one of us affects all of us. We need to fight for equality and justice for ALL. It is what our country was founded on, and I don't think it's unreasonable to hold our leadership to that standard. Indeed, "Nobody's free until everybody's free."