This great country has arrived at the crossroads of history. Will it be up to the challenge?

Listening to the truly historic speech on race in America by Sen. Barack Obama, I was spellbound throughout his riveting presentation.

Rising above the petty campaign bickering, the playing of the race card, the politics of personal destruction, Obama transcended the racial divide, hate and anger which has deeply divided this great country of ours from the beginning. In one stroke, Obama redeemed our “original sin” and the legacy of slavery.

With his inspiring and elegant rhetoric, he reached the heights of an Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.

As an immigrant of German extraction with first-hand experience of Nazi and Communist tyranny, and as a conservative Republican, Obama makes me proud to be an American.

“My heart is filled with love for this country.” With those words, Obama is ending his recent book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

We all can join him in that with joy and gratefulness.

Klaus D. Kuck, Lewiston