It hardly seems believable that this has happened, that a black man is now president-elect of the United States of America. I remember so well listening to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, which still brings me to tears. "I have a dream of a day when a man is judged by the quality of his character rather than the color of his skin."
We're almost there. How different will it be for children growing up now, to look on TV and see a black man as president, and for that to be perfectly normal, nothing unusual at all? While their grandparents, like me, look on in astonishment and wonder. When I was 7, the age of my granddaughter Ally, the voting rights act had not been signed into law yet, that would happen 6 years later. Blacks in a position of authority almost anywhere in society were non-existent.
This was only 48 years ago, a mere speck of time in geological terms.
When I was a hippie what we were so upset about was the fact that the promise of what America SHOULD be was so at odds with what it actually was. In the past few years we seemed even farther from that promise than ever but today we have moved so much closer than we have ever been.
Too bad the American public is so stupid it takes a near-collapse of our civilization to get them to stop voting for Republicans. Even mules only needed a stick to get their attention.
We stand at a very unique moment in history and I am glad I'm here to see it happen and even participate in it. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell my great-grandkids about it. Unlikely I could live that long but now I have hope. Because a 55 year old with no health insurance is a dead man walking, it's only a matter of time. But if Obama can get some health insurance going that will cover me and that I can pay for the death setence might be removed.
1 comment:
Best election ev-ah!
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