It was quite a night.
Walking into Hamilton Hall late Thursday night a buzz of excited energy overwhelmed the crowded room of Young Democrats.
Tar Heels gathered to watch a historic moment as the Democratic Party officially nominated the first African-American candidate for the presidency.
More Americans watched his speech than the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. And what a moment it has become.
The symbolism of Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech could not go unnoticed.
Forty-five years ago" a ""young preacher from Georgia"" gave one of the finest speeches in American history. Its soaring rhetoric and eloquence defined a generation.
And now" a senator who was only 2 years old when that speech echoed across the halls of this country leads a major political party.
Yet for the hoopla Obama's acceptance speech was just as notable for what it did not say.
The senator never once mentioned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He simply referred to him as a preacher.
Yes a preacher.
The honor of deciphering who this anonymous preacher was went to a Georgia congressman who was in his own words" the ""last remaining speaker"" from that famous march on Aug. 28" 1963.
We may never know why a man who was at the vanguard of that era was never named.
But one thing is certain. The advances in legislation brought on by that preacher allowed a young man from Hawaii born to parents from Kansas and Kenya to shatter an enormous glass ceiling in modern American politics.
America was living history.
Twelve hours later we woke up to another first. Sen. John McCain had nominated the first female to serve on a Republican Party presidential ticket.
And just like that the 24/7 world of cable news and blogs had moved beyond the events of the night before. We barely had time to digest what had just transpired.
Instead of talking about the significance of what we were living through we were left talking about teenage pregnancies and vetting processes. Say what?
Talk about America's priorities in politics.
We don't live these moments twice. History is afoot and it's time we stopped to critically think about how far we have come - and how much further we still have to go.
A female candidate is undergoing tremendous scrutiny about whether or not she's maintained a proper work-life balance.
An African-American nominee can't even talk about the legacy of race in this country on the anniversary of Rev. King's speech out of fear of losing the votes of white blue-collar workers.
We live through these issues on a daily basis and yet we act as if they have no significance. When in reality they have everything to do with the state of American politics.
We have a long way to go but the least we could do is start talking about what we're not talking about.
