Today President Bush spoke to the NAACP.  Even though he knew many in the audience would be hostile to his presence.  He also knew that his political opponents would mock his gesture.  Still, the President did the right thing.  There are moments in the life of a nation when the President stands for more than his party.  Today was one of those moments.  For a Conservative Republican President to speak to the NAACP is a symbol of how far this nation has come in the Civil Rights struggle. 

And symbolism is the key.  It doesn't really matter what the President said although his words were stirring.  What mattered more was his presence.  His powerful presidential statement that this isn't his father's Republican Party any more.  It is a party that has dramatically opened its doors, in the once almost forgotten tradition of Lincoln, to people of color.  Why isn't this an occasion that all politicans can celebrate?  Why aren't all Americans who believe in a healthy multiracial democracy hailing a Presidential appearance at the NAACP convention?  Can we not say in one voice that the President did the right thing?  And be proud that President Bush represented us - all of us - so well. 

Symbols don't instantly change reality, but they begin and strengthen the process.  In his Presidency, on the issue of race, whenever a symbolic moment has been at hand President Bush has made the right choice.  The choice to speak against bigotry and racial division.  The choice to acknowledge, as he said today, our continuing effort to remove the stain of brutal slavery and discrimination in our history.  The choice to appoint African Americans to the highest levels of government.  The choice to take the Japanese Prime Minister to the site where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.  And the choice to make the right decision not based on political expediency but rather on a profoundly held moral belief.  Because of the President's latest choice, today was another important step on the journey towards racial healing.  Whether the President's opponents like it or not!