The Editor, Sir:

At this writing there are seven more days to go before this very big election. I have never seen the American people so animated. The only comparison that comes to mind is the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

This is big on many levels. The obvious shift in power is just one thing, but the underlying connota-tions are just bubbling away under the surface.

White Americans are in a quiet panic, and even though they are outwardly smiling, they are seething inside. I tell my children that they have to wrap their minds around the facts that up until 1865, slavery was legal.

Even though it has been abolished for 143 years, much of that time has been spent holding back the black race with Jim Crow laws and the KKK. It has just been in the last few years that African-Americans have fully broken away and have embraced politics as a way to better climb the ladder of progress.

Can't wait

A black man is poised to become president of the most celebrated nation on Earth, and it is going down like a big dose of washout medicine. I can't wait until November 4 to sport my 'I VOTED' sticker for the world to see.

There is no doubt in my mind that if Obama were a white candidate and showed the same poise and grasp of the issues that he would be running so far ahead, that the opponent would be a distant speck in the rear-view mirror.

The lessons of Nanny, Bogle, Garvey, King and Malcom X have not been in vain. I impart these stories to my children on a daily basis and as they come of age and are starting to vote, they see the importance of fighting for a cause even against long odds.

Just as our heroes of the past had to struggle to leave a great legacy, we must do our part and vote, or this great effort will fail.

I am, etc.,

SEYMOUR TAYLOR

staylor@sandc.com

Illinois, USA

Via Go-Jamaica