Absolutely Phenomenal

Behold: the state of American higher educational system.  I go to a top-100 undergraduate school (Northeastern University), and this is my buddy's final paper in his college career.  This was supposed to be an op-ed for his "capstone" class (a class supposed to be the culmination of your education at this university).  FYI, he got a B- in the class... I italicized my favorite parts.

Barack Obama: the great black hope

It has been a long road for the black population of America ever since the civil war. Ever since the gears of social equality and freedom started turning with the Emancipation Proclamation issued by the 16^th president on the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in 1862, scores of freedoms have been fought for and won by the once repressed minority.

From voting freedoms to equality in the work place, anti-segregation laws to equal access to education, the Civil Rights movement has taken Americans of African descent from slave to CEO. And now, for the first time, to the Presidency of the United States. With the inauguration of Senator Barack Hussein Obama, a black man formally of Muslim descent, into the highest office of our country on January 20^th, 2009, the question can be asked: Is the Civil Rights Movement over?

The simple answer is yes. And if it isn’t, America will surely see the end of it during Mr. Obama’s presidency. Mr. Obama did not reach this position by himself. The true credit goes to every black man in American history. The tireless, and at times fatal, effort which every black man in America put in to enduring racism long enough to see this day. The sheer courage it took for exceptional African Americans like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to stand up and say “I had a dream!”; or Rosa Parks to not move from her seat normally reserved for whites and say “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.” It was these people who fought for the freedoms which enabled Mr. Obama to seize the highest office in our country.

And now, at the end of the Civil Rights Movement we have one Mr. Barack Hussein Obama saying: “Yes We Can!” In Mr. Obama is the slide show of African American history, and it is a good one. If black entrepreneurs were alive today to see their handy work they would be proud of America. Obama, you were right, we can, and all of you did!