Did you see Barack Obama hit that ball?

Jeff Green | Jan 22, 2009

Editorial by Jeff Green

(Editor’s Note: the following was written on the night of the United States Election, November 4, 2008, but was not published – In the two plus months since it was written, Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm resolve, in his selection of a cabinet and staff and in the measured inauguration speech he delivered this week, to make the central thesis of the editorial as viable now as it was then)

There was an article in the Toronto Star on Monday, November 3 that was written from Selma, Alabama, featuring interviews with civil rights activists from the Martin Luther King era.

The article concluded by speculating about King looking down as Barack Obama symbolically reaches the promised land that King talked about in a prophetic speech he delivered on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The speech concluded with the following paragraph: “I have been to the mountain top. I have seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Less than 24 hours later, King was shot dead outside his motel room.

In terms of using mythology and metaphor to bring meaning to the disparate events that we call modern history, the article certainly hit the mark.

But if Barack Obama is being seen as carrying out the historic mission envisioned by Martin Luther King, he has done it by employing the discretion and determination that was exemplified by Jackie Robinson almost 21 years to the day before Martin Luther King was assassinated, and over 60 years before his historic victory on November 4th

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play a major league baseball game.

Like Obama, Robinson was something of a chosen one. He had been identified by Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey as a very talented, ballplayer, but unlike Barrack Obama he had a volatile temper.

Rickey made a deal with him, or so the legend goes. “Don't say a word, don't strike back, no matter what happens, for one season. Let the players, the fans, the newspapers do what they will, but only answer them with your play. Pretend it isn't happening”.

Robinson faced humiliations. He was insulted, kicked, knocked down. He was also maligned by members of his own team, but by the end of his first season, he said, “I had started the season as a lonely man, often feeling like a black Don Quixote tilting at white windmills. I ended it feeling like a member of a solid team.”

He also said “there is no looking back; we're in, the door has been cracked.”

In his demeanour, his carriage, and his pronouncements over the past few year, Obama has been the calm at the centre of a storm of overblown rhetoric and emotions that is a US election campaign.

He has not once been seen to lose his temper throughout the past year, as his every move, every word has been monitored and scrutinized.

He has known that he is cracking open that door, and he has known the best way to do it is to refuse to be baited, to refuse to flinch.

He has not been kicked; he has not been called a “nigger”. But he has certainly had to demonstrate an ability to rise above some petty, insulting attacks.

Not only was Jackie Robinson the first black major 

league ballplayer, he was instantly one of the best players in the game when he burst into the Major Leagues in 1947. Two months after entering the league Jackie Robinson became the first black ballplayer to accomplish the rare feat of stealing home plate. He went to have a storied career, winning just about very honour a playercan win, and stealing home 19 times.

Barack Obama needs to have that kind of immediate impact in his new job if he hopes to be able to coordinate a successful response to some of the challenges he isfacing as the leader of a demoralized superpower.

Unlike the way Jackie Robinson ran the bases, Barack Obama took his time walking down the stairs to be sworn in as President this past Tuesday morning. The assured

way he exited the presidential limousine and strode into that White House later in the day made it look like he was born to live in that house, just as Jackie Robinson wasborn to run the bases.

And maybe he was.