Dear Editor,

I have been hauled over the coals, and my cartoon labelled “racist” and anti-social by indignant individuals (Sunday Stabroek 15.6.08). Aside from the allegation that my cartoon was “racist,” the question I am asking is, would you or would you not? One eloquent and enlightened mind did address that question but not to the extent I had hoped for. It seems very likely that Barack Obama will be the first black man to be the president of the most powerful nation on earth.

East Indians and Africans and other races of this fair land of Guyana will agree that it was believed to be almost impossible, nay, inconceivable that a black man would be President of the United States of America. Well it seems very likely that we will be (happily?) mistaken, and to boot, he was not brought to that position by a black vote, no sir! Barack Obama was given that vote by a wide cross-section of different races who, to my layman’s thinking, have broken away from mind-sets, deep-rooted prejudices, and traditional patterns of social behaviour and doctrine.

It is a welcome change which brings a hope that long-established, wearisome status quos will be overcome – perhaps for the greater good which we all long for.

It represents what we in Guyana should readily adopt – a race-free, unbiased, colour-blind election.
Whether or not Barack Obama wins, why can’t we?

Yours faithfully,
P Harris