The stunning victory of Barack Obama in last Tuesday's election is a cause of great joy not only for Americans but for people all over the world.

After nearly a century and a half of unresolved racial conflict — conflict that brought untold suffering to nonwhite Americans — the 1861-65 U.S. Civil War is finally over. The message is clear: There is no place for institutionalized or personal bias on the basis of race or color in the 21st century.

The rednecks have retreated to the woods. George W. Bush and his band of merry robber barons are about to return to the havens of their red states, or those states that once were red. Men and women genuinely motivated by a sense of justice dictated by the rule of law will surely transform Washington, D.C. into a more compassionate and humane center of politics. It may not be Hollywood, but the good guys have won.