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But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but I have a confession to make.
I’m in my fifties and I never thought that I would see an African-American elected President of the United States in my lifetime. I just didn’t think we had it in us but it appears that we have most assuredly come a long way.
I remember when I was nine years old, sitting in the back of my parents car getting ready to leave Torrey Pines State Beach when they announced on the radio that the authorities had found the bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer; I remember it as distinctly as I remember when JFK was shot. The announcer called them "civil rights workers" but I didn’t know what a civil rights worker was. I thought he was calling them "civil service workers" which, to my nine year-old mind, was like a postman or the guys who picked up the trash. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to murder them. Later, when I understood who they were and what they were doing, I understood it even less. Murdering someone just because they were trying to help people register to vote? I couldn’t comprehend the hatred of a people who could think that way. I just knew that they were vicious and they were stupid.
Later, when I was in the eighth grade, I read Les Miserables in class and I came across this:
There are souls that, crablike, crawl continually toward darkness, going backward in life rather than advancing, using their experience to increase their deformity, growing continually worse, and becoming steeped more and more thoroughly in the intensifying viciousness.
…and I realized that I knew exactly the type of people Victor Hugo was writing about.
Now, forty-four long years later, I will have the opportunity to vote for (and more importantly, so will my daughter who has already cast her vote in this, her first election) an African-American for President of the United States. The same type of "person" James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner lost their lives for; not so they could become president some day, but simply because it was their right to participate and have a voice within their own country.
I won’t say ‘what took us so long?’. I’ll just say that I’m glad to be here to see this day come.
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Very eloquently written, TBogg, as always.
This indeed is history in the making and I am so thrilled to be a part of it, to be alive to see it, as you say.
Joyous celebrations, some planned and some spontaneous, are going to occur, not just in the US but around the world the day Obama wins this election. (In my neck of the woods, all kinds of people and businesses are planning parties. Indeed, it’s front page news. Canadians are tickled and very proud of America for getting this right.)
It thrilled me to no end to read of this lady who has waited so patiently and long. I sure would love to be at that party.
Of course we will all be marking the end of the long and terrible reign of George & Dick; and their unparalleled greed, cruelty, corruption, incompetence, carelessness and stupidity. I don’t want to hear any mere door slam on the backsides of them. I want a the clang of a cell door.
But the pleasure about their demise will be almost secondary to the joyous reality of the first African American President of the United States.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s already won. Nothing else will be acceptable.
Not to be a complete kiss-ass, but bits like this are why you’re one of my favorites, TBogg.
Wonderfully written.
I’m a bit older than you are, TBogg, and when I filled out my ballot recently I kept bursting into tears. Not only was I voting for an African-American for president, but, unless the Republicans can find a way to steal yet another election, that African-American was going to be the next president of the United States. Like you, I was until very recently, certain that would never happen in my lifetime.
Last Friday I was “poll watching,” which doesn’t mean what it used to mean, since we’ve abolished the polls. Instead, I was observing the processing of ballots to make sure they were being handled properly and that election employees were following appropriate handling procedures. During the several hours I was observing, I saw thousands of ballots. While there is no way to draw any conclusions from what I saw that would be predictive of the outcome (locally) of this election, I can say that I saw an awful lot of votes for Obama (definitely more than for McCain) and every single Obama vote made me swell just a little more with excitement.
I can’t honestly say I’m proud of this country, because given the nature of the campaign that McCain and his fellow Republicans have run against Obama, it’s obvious that racism, suspicion, hatred, bigotry in many forms, and dishonesty are still widespread in America. But this election has given me some hope that four years from now this may be a better country than it is today. And it’s been decades since the passage of time made me feel that the United States was on a positive and hopeful path.
But I am proud of every American who overcame deeply ingrained biases, who ignored the vile messages from the Right, and who finally decided that their racism was not as important as the problems we face. With luck, Obama will be able to lead this country to a much better place over the next four years. In doing so, he may persuade more and more people to give up the past and reject the putrid message that John McCain’s campaign (and Bush’s before him) embodied.
I’m white and in my sixties, and many of my friends have been talking lately about how proud we are that we are actually getting to vote for an African-American because none of us really thought it would happen in our lifetime. We are old enough to have understood what was happening at the time all the strife in the late ’50s and subsequent. We all have our own specific stories to tell and have wept while recounting them to each other in the past couple of months.
This will truly change our country, for the better, for all time. Children born today will think nothing of having women and African-Americans and Latinos and Asians and Native Americans and combinations of all of those as serious, viable contenders for national public positions. I feel proud that they can look back with admiration at this time in history.
Amen.
Thank you, Tbogg.
Yep, me too. My husband and I are both mid-fifties and when we voted early nearly three weeks ago (in Texas to boot) we both admitted afterwards that we just felt this extreme feeling of pride that we were able to cast that vote for Barack Obama….and that we too were making history happen. That we were able to be a part of this huge opportunity for our country and the world. Wow. We never thought it would happen in our lifetimes either. I remember the water fountains and the counters at the five and dime stores and the schools where people of color were relegated when I was a kid. I never understood it then, but knew that it felt wrong. I am so proud to be able to be a part of this.
Thanks TBogg.
digg
I know exactly what you mean, and how you feel. I’m 57, and born in Ohio. I remember vividly the firehoses and the bombings on TV. As a senior in high school, we had a “disturbance” because we had approximately six inter-racial couples (out of a student body of ~2000). A teacher (who taught my mother 20 years before) took their pictures and gave them to the principal, who told the students to break this up or the pictures would go to their parents. And on, and on, and on.
There are many things I’m not looking forward to during the next decades, all part of the Republican legacy. But at least I saw this.
One of your best posts yet, TBogg. Thanks again.
I hate to say I’ve been a watering pot over this for months. I’ll be warden at my precinct tomorrow and I hope I can keep from getting the ballots wet. Thanks for this very eloquent post, Tbogg. I am younger than you, but not by much. I think back over the same history and I am awed and grateful to be here to cast this vote and to know that this is the first formative election for my daughters and what hits us like a ton of bricks will become simply reality for them.
aimai
I lived in the Mississippi countryside as a kid, when signs like those were standard in the towns around us, and my father didn’t allow black people to stop at his gas station. “Some day you’ll understand,” he said to me, but I never did. (Mom and I were Yankees anyway, or so I was told, and never trustworthy because of that.)
When I was in high school, back in Toledo, the streets filled with young black rioters after Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered – not the level of violence that happened in nearby Detroit, but still a shocking sight. My high school was in the middle of shifting from majority white to majority black, and for the most part the races did not mix, even though signs like the one above were nowhere to be found.
I feel like I’ve been living this story my whole life, but I never imagined I’d see a chapter like this.
All elections (and presidencies) are historic – some barely deserve a footnote, others their own chapter, occasionally some are good for a book or two. This one, I think, will get it’s own wing in the library.
I guess I’m too much a pessimist, though, as I am warily waiting for this joyous first act to come to an end.
Also in my sixties and, like you, I never thought I’d see this day. I went to high school in a little suburb of Los Angeles. We didn’t have a single black kid attending. Being black and being in town after sunset was grounds for a stop by the police. This in supposedly laid back Southern California. The struggle is far from over (See: Prop but Obama has reintroduced much of America to the better angels of its nature.
Yes. Everything you said. Yes.
I was in Philadelphia, MS about a month after they found the three boys, on my way to New Orleans. There were four of us from up north and we were followed, got flies in our water at restaurants, etc all because we were white guys from up north. All we really wanted to do was party in the Big Easy.
If you go to Philadelphia, MS today it still looks pretty much the same. One huge difference is the Choctaw Indian reservation just outside town. New roads, fire house, school, and two huge casinos and golf courses. The difference is day and night.
It is fun to be part of history. Knowing and experiencing the 50’s and 60’s make Obama’s victory even more satisfying. Maybe he can bring hope to Americans as well as change.
I’m the same age as you. When the primaries first started, my husband and I had a conversation about whether a black man would be president in our lifetimes and we both thought not. We cast our vote for Obama anyway. Now that it is steaming full ahead in that direction I am stunned, amazed and overjoyed. When you hear stories of a 109 year old black lady voting for a black man for president it brings tears to your eyes. I know I can’t appreciate what this means for the African-American community but I believe that this will come a long way in bridging a little bit of the divide that has prevailed in this country for far too long. He will be held more accountable than previous presidents, but I believe he is up to the challenge and that this will change the political landscape in America forever.
Did most of my stateside tour in Alabama and Georgia, Ft. Mother Rucker AL. and Hunter Army Airfield GA (outside Savannah) back in 67-70. Had a little detour to SE Asia in between. Quite the eye opener for a middle class white boy from Portland.
My vote is dedicated to:
Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14)
Brimingham Sunday (Joan Baez)
I delurk and actually sign up to put my feelings down. I’ve been a follower of TBogg since the Blogspot days, and as usual he nails it squarely on the head.
BUT…..
Why recently haven’t I been able to sleep at night? Why do Kos’s trendlines haunt me? Why do I mull over the latest idiocy from FOX and wonder how many people will be swayed by a “newly surfaced tape” or his poor Auntie Zeituni? Why do I STILL get in conversations with people and hear them say “I can’t vote for Obama because he is a Muslim?” From the other commenter’s, it sounds like Obama has it pretty well nailed it their area. But here in Jacksonville, FL it is anything but a done deal.
I early voted last week. But I hardly think that this is going to be a blowout for Obama like some have postulated. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m really nervous. This is going to be so close, that I just can’t get my hopes up.
We can only hope that this country votes to crawl towards the light.
Brilliant, TBogg. I’m voting tomorrow, and i will hold all these people in my heart so they can experience the joy, too. Thank you for writing this.
TBogg-I’ve seen many McCain ads attacking Obama’s lack of experience recently and get a little scared-what if McCain wins? What hell will that plunge our country into?
Then I see an Obama ad and hear him speak, and it feels like he’s already President. And everything will be alright.
Today, November 3rd, I turn fifty. I’ll be taking both my sons, 12 and 10, to vote with me tomorrow. This moment in U.S. history is something they and I, and their kids, will share forever.
Thanks for your beautiful post.
TBogg, thanks for this.
About twenty years ago, when my son was in the third grade, I was a Cub Scout den leader (the gender-inclusive term for what used to be a “den mother” in my childhood). Of the ten boys in my group, four were African American.
The Cub Scouts helpfully provided a guide book for us hapless leaders, which had a monthly theme. The them for January of that year was “American Heroes.” The boys had recently been learning about Martin Luther King in school, but were a little vague about who he really was–they knew he made speech about having a dream, and he was assassinated, but that was about it.
So I told them about the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and segregated drinking fountains and schools, and literacy tests. One of the black kids was incredulous–”You mean we couldn’t even go to the same schools?” I told him to talk to his grandma about those days.
One of the boys asked me if I thought an African-American would ever be president. I told him, “I’m not sure if it’ll happen in my lifetime, but I bet it happens in yours.”
Mike, Bobby, Cedric, Tony, you’re all about twenty-nine years old now. Wherever you are, I hope you’re voting. This election is for you.
Bravo, sir. I grew up white in that place and attended segregated schools for the first 6 years. When I was in college in the early 70s, we were still protesting for equal treatment. Today I teach classes on race and ethnicity and, like you, never thought I would live to see a black president elected. Even last spring I thought that. We have come a long way since my youth, further even than I had thought, but we obviously still have a long way to go. Tomorrow will be a grand start to the rest of this journey.
I would like to thank God, Dog, Eris, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, and Pure Random Chance that I am alive to see this.
Not only do we get a President that has a skin tone somewhat darker than mine, but is also brilliant, nuanced, and stands a pretty good chance of helping to dig my country out of the mess we are in.
My only real regret is that the Republicans had to fuck things up soooo badly for this to come about.
As a small reminder, it’s not over yet so if you haven’t voted be sure to do so (and if you have, volunteers are still needed).
And thanks to our host and all of you who believed and helped make this day happen.
I’m 53 and had tears in my eyes and a smile that started from my toes after I dropped my ballot in the box yesterday. What a joy it is to see this change.
After 40 years as a card-carrying Republican, I’ve decided to vote for Obama. I am a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. The party has taken a wrong turn, toward divisiveness and incompetence and fiscal irresponsibility.
Under the current leadership, the size of the federal government has increased and the national debt has doubled. In addition to budget deficits we have off-book spending to finance the war. They’re trying to demonize Obama as tax-and-spend, but borrow-and-spend is even worse in my book.
I think it is pretty clear that total deregulation has failed in every case. The free market system is an appealing ideal, but it has led to unchecked greed and has ruined the economy.
I strongly supported the war in Afghanistan. Going after Bin-Laden in his cave is the right thing to do. Invading Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al-Qaida. Those with dissenting opinions were ignored and smeared. (e.g. Valerie Plame)
To me, true conservatism means less government intervention in our lives. The Republican Party is toward ever more intervention, from wiretaps to Terry Schaivo. Many of these are hot-button issues meant to capture single issue voters. This has led to winning elections but the abandonment of true conservative values.
There is no evidence that trickle-down economics and tax cuts for the wealthy have created jobs or helped grow the economy. On the contrary, history shows little correlation between tax rates and job creation. Under current party leadership, the middle class has jobs and experienced a decline in real income.
John McCain continues to advocate tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and an indefinite continuation of the war in Iraq. I think we have pretty clear evidence that those policies are wrong. It’s definitely not working for me. I’m voting for Obama
Not to be a downer in the punch bowl, but…we’re not there yet. I won’t relax until we get through the inaugural. And, even then, there’ll still be work to do. There’s always be work to do.
Speaking of which, don’t forget Prop 8. Every time we hear or see one of those ads talking about “teaching gay marriage in classrooms”, my wife visibly stiffens. As a teacher, she’s offended that the idiots are using her profession as a cloak for their bigotry.
I’m leaving in a few minutes to go phone bank for Obama. I’ve always been passionate about politics, but I am ashamed to admit that I never did anything more than send money to candidates or causes I believed in. As of right now, that has changed for me, permanently. Tbogg, thanks for an emotional booster to help send me on my way.
Amen, Tbogg.
It’s a good day to be here. A very good day.
Oh yeah, and thanks for the Dan…
“If you listen you can hear it
It’s the laughter in the street
It’s the motion in the music
And the fire beneath your feet
All the signs are right this time
You don’t have to try so very hard
If you live in this world
You’re feelin’ the change of the guard”
Thanks for the reminder of that song, BOHICA. There’s a lovely version of it here.
And we’ll be canvassing tomorrow here in Colorado, as we have been every Saturday for the last two months.
I have to join the chorus. Great post. I too experienced segregated society as a child in the South. However, I also have to join Kama and others cautioning about overconfidence. Remember 2004, when we were all so confident that the country would wake up from the nightmare of Bush’s first term and elect Kerry? A lot can still happen and the republicans will pull out all the stops. [/concern troll]
I am 54, and remember those days well. I have three adopted children, all African-American, 10, 11, and 13. The 10 and 11 year old don’t really ”get it”, but my 13 year-old (a boy) sporadically tears up when we talk about the election.
We have volunteered one night a week, phone-canvasing (sp?) at our neighborhood Obama campaign office (there are now 3 in Santa Fe!). We feel a part of the campaign, and my son says ”WE are helping elect Obama!).
the import of this election bubbles up at unexpected times. We are living a truly remarkable piece of history here, folks. FEEL IT.
beautiful. me too.
Good job Tbogg.
This is thoughtful and eloquent.
I come here for the grade-A crudeness and to indulge my inner 12-year-old. What the hell’s goin on?!?!
(seriously, nice post.)
I’m not religulous, but all I can think to say to that is AMEN!
Best wishes, and fingers crossed, from your friends above the 49th parallel.
this may be the best fuckin’ thing you ever wrote…
and, i guess, that’s sayin’ a hell of a lot.
i about cried — and i dont usually go that way…
“I’m in my fifties and I never thought that I would see an African-American elected President of the United States in my lifetime.”
Me too. It was primarily all the violence and repression and bigotry directed at blacks in the 60’s that made me the lifelong liberal I am today, even tho I only witnessed it on tv. And anyone who doesn’t see the racism still deeply embedded in this country should wake the fuck up.
for Barack Obama to overcome that makes him a very special person, perhaps the greatest American of our lifetime regardless of what he does as president. The republicans should never be forgiven for their desperate, despicable and deeply racist campaign against him.
T: Great stuff.
To those worried; Take the post to heart. Not just about what TBogg wrote, but about the people who fought so long and so hard to get us to the point where this is even a possibility and not a Quixotic errand. People far more afraid than we stood up, fought back and took possession of the rights they were granted by law, but never given by society.
So now is not the time to be afraid. Now is the time for steadfast determination. Now is the time for those of us who have never felt the hose, the dogs or the clubs to say we’re too close to let John Lewis down. We’re too close to let fear, or bigotry, or hate, win again.
Nothing ends tomorrow, no matter what happens. But a much better America can begin, not because Obama will save us, or legalized gay marriage will bring about eternal happiness (as many married folk will attest), but because we can say we voted for compassion and tolerance and to make ours a more inclusive society.
You had me with the title. We were so small we Mother had to lift us up on to the stools at the lunch counter. She refused to be served until “the people who were there first got their order.” We were the only ones who did not get arrested. The manager told my mother she could pay or she could just leave. We didn’t make the papers and nobody took pictures. Not in East Texas. I would have bet money this would not happen in my lifetime. A great post, T.
I grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, and I remember those drinking fountain signs when I was a child. My parents, being kind, decent people, never could explain those signs to me, other than to say “It shouldn’t be like this”.
My Mom and I are looking forward to voting for Barack tomorrow.
A moving post and a great Steely Dan reference in the title!
I’m the biggest coward in the world, and usually, when there’s about to be some big change, I feel like hiding under the bed.
But this time . . . I know there are going to be changes associated with Obama’s race, most of them subtle and unforeseeable, but every time I think about it, I get this strange sensation that took some time to identify.
It’s optimism.
I have not been Obama’s biggest supporter, for an assortment of reasons, mostly having to do with my residence over on the far left of the spectrum. However, I am completely excited about (a) the possibility that we’ll have someone in the White House with a functioning brain AND a functioning moral compass, (b) the hope that this nightmare of the past 8 years is nearly over, and (c) as you said, the winds of change this signals. I also have to admit that it’s great to see so many people excited about this election–I may not share their particular enthusiasm for Obama, but just the fact that people are actually excited, are making it a point to VOTE, is v. v. cool.
Of all the wretched scum and villainy produced by this particular Mos Eisley of an election I’m glad it’s him.
Let’s hope he doesn’t fuck it up now. Early signs are not encouraging.
This is what we have to look forward to:
Ratcheting up the clusterfuck in Afghanistan/Pakistan. No discussion of universal payer or health coverage. No discussion of implementing real mileage/emission controls or moving toward a new national public transportation infrastructure. Expanding nuclear power. Expanding “clean” coal. A tax plan that does not do nearly enough to take back what has been stolen from us over the 50+ years. Trial and imprisonment of the criminals that perpetrated these most recent atrocities off the table.
Don’t get me wrong: he has some good ideas and could probably be pushed off any number of the bad ones if public opinion shifted far enough against them. He is, after all, a politician. But I wouldn’t expect too much in the “transformation” department, not right away.
Amid all the backslapping and much rejoicing over what appears to be not only a victory but a landslide of historic proportions we need to take a step back and realize that this is the side we choose because the other is too loathesome to contemplate and there is no good third option.
Have hope. Hope is good. I am hopeful. But be wary.
As for the historical significance I believe it to be overwhelming and in that sense this election truly will be transformational.
On January 20, 2009 it will be time for Obama to get to work making his administration transformational. He can if he wants to.
I’m a Southerner, and I don’t even think that Obama is black. But, nice to see a Steely Dan reference.
simply lovely TBogg.
I’m gonna out my inner pollyanna here and share with y’all – the moment I knew Obama was gonna win
random network footage of folks lining up for the Kansas caucuses. cut to an 70+ year old white farm woman in her walker, braving the cold for hours just so she could “help America grow up and elect a black man President”
preach it sister
do all comment threads deteriorate into pathology or is this a tbogg specialty?
Obama identifies himself as balck. How do you see him?
Not black, cvilletgr? You’re kidding, right? You’d even try to rob him of that, trying to downplay the moment? One of Hugo’s crabs, here, TBogg! Shine a light on it and make it crawl back in its hole.
Thank you, Tbogg.
Our Nation will be crossing a line, we did in 1860s and 1960s and we weren’t afraid to fight to hold our position. I somwhow feel we will be tested just as hard this time. There are many Republicans that are counting on the liberals and Dems to fold like we have seen in the past few years…it will be a time to capitulate or hold firm.
IBD just issued their daily poll- moving from a 2% Obama lead to 4.5%. They was jest fuckin with us ya know- as they scamper away from infamy.
You read “Les Miserables” in *eighth* grade???
“The gales of November came slashing”
Youtube link
First read it in 10th grade. my library teacher gave it to me, wasn’t allowed to teach it in High School..funny that.
When I was little I lived on the edge of the “color line”. Somehow this is a difficult concept to explain to my children.
They are truly color blind.
A lovely post and reflective of what I hear from so many of my friends -who are in the same age group or slightly older. One in particular who was a young adult in Detroit during the late sixties is moved to tears when she thinks about President Obama. Although great damage has been done by Republicans especially during the Shrub years, there is also much that has changed about our society that is good. I’m “pleased as punch” to be a part of the process that has produced this result.
I’ve got my memories too, tbogg. A tad different from yours needless to say.
Thank you. Just thank you.
LAKEWOOD, Ohio – It was not the best of beginnings for Palin Monday morning.
At the first of the Alaska governor’s six rallies of the day, there was plenty of room to spare. The crowd at Lakewood Park was sparse, to say the least, perhaps one of the smallest she has seen in weeks.
And then, speaking of Obama’s views on coal, she repeatedly stumbled on the word “bankrupting,” calling it “bankruptcing.”
Beautiful thoughts, TBogg. Thank you for sharing them with the rest of us.
Channeling my inner Frenchman, I did a little googling. This is how Hugo, a fine stylist I find unreadable, first wrote the quote in Book 4 Chap. 2 of Les Misérables:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/121…..f294.table
Not really, because just getting the nomination spoke volumes about how far this country has come.
A very touching and appreciated post.
Being a Black man in America and now on ‘the back nine’ of life, I certainly never thought I’d see this day in my lifetime.
I only wish my mom was still around to see it as well.
It occurred to me while reading your wonderful piece how lucky so many young voters are to have Obama as a candidate in their first presidential election. I had Fritz Mondale, a wonderful man, a good liberal, but not exactly epochal.
I drove right by her motorcade in the other direction this morning, not knowing which of the candidates it was.
Not surprising that the turnout was low as this is a suburb of heavily democratic Cleveland and has a huge gay population.
It was once said to have the highest density of gays outside of San Francisco.
I lived outside DC when the March on Washington occurred in 1963. If you’d told me that day that this day would come in my lifetime I’d have laughed.
Very well said, TBogg.
1,815 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen TBogg and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Great post Citizen TBogg, I have two daughters who will be votin’ for Obama and, as a matter of fact the youngest (20 years old) was the person who pulled me over the line in the primaries when I was still holdin out for Al Gore to enter…her breathless phone call from her apartment off campus went sumpthin like “Dad, I just heard the most amazing person give a speech on campus…and Dad, he’s actually running for President!!” After listening to her describe Obama’s speech and hearing her say “…and he spoke to us like adults, for some of my friends who heard him it was the first time anyone had ever spoken to them as though they were grown up.”
My other daughter who is 24 years old and teaching math in an inner city highschool, got the same call from Emily that I got and soon thereafter called me to ask who I was supporting in the primaries and when I said “Obama” she said “Emmy must’ve called you too huh?” This election is certainly about the future but it’s also about buryin’ the lies of the past and facing up to the truth of our history and for that I will be forever grateful to Obama…and because of him and the campaign he has run I no longer worry about my children and their journey into a future I will not be able to help them with ‘cuz they are gunna be asked to shape that future themselves!
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE’VE GOTTA WIN THIS BATTLE TOMORROW…WE OWE IT TO THE CHILDREN!!~
Here’s my 2cents and forgive those of us that heave heard it. I went in the Army on my 17th birthday, 42 years ago next week. Half my outfit in basic was from the induction center Chicago and the other from the one in Memphis. Bad ass brothers from the south side and from Memphis, bas ass racist rednecks from Cicero and the deep south. Race was always omnipresent. Then Korea and adn Vietnam for me a whole new dimension got thrown in with the Asians (polite huh?) I came home angry, angry at what I saw this country do to others and its own. The bulk of the people in the military were there because of socio-economic conditions and a system that had them fighting each other instead of that system. 42 fucking years later, I remember the guys in basic and I remember SSG Dallas A. Pinkney III, drill sgt and combat vet of the Korean war. I remember Sgt Branch, another African American who jumped in the only parachute assault in the Korean War right in front of our little fort South of the DMZ. These men were leaders and it didn’t make a goddamn bit of difference what color they were. For me to be able to cast a vote for another African American leader has incredible meaning. He’s not perfect, not progressive enough for some, but in my miserable 59 years it says that we are moving in the right direction. That means a lot to me and I’m sure it does to Sgt’s Pinkney and Branch.
what up flamethrower
March on, Brother Freebird, history didn’t leave us back there!!
There’s only one response to what you’ve written, T, you magnificent bastard. Get up out of your chair and work.
Pickup the phone and call with MoveOn or the Obama campaign. Call up the democratic party in your area and find a precinct to walk. Drive people to the polls, or just wave signs for your candidate at an intersection. Let’s drag all of us across the finish line, including gay folk (No on Prop 8 in California), teen-aged girls (no on Prop 4) and your local congressperson. Let’s all earn the right to dance in an Inaugural Ball whether it’s in DC, or in a private mambo in your little condo.
Oh, and don’t bother calling on Wednesday. I’ll be incoherent one way or the other.
Citizen Raven:
How you holdin out down there, Brother Raven…you been thinkin’ lately about some a those heroes you left behind, I sure have every time I hear Obama speak.
Doin fine I think. You know that we can’t be sure till this gig is done tomorrow night so it’s just ride it and keep the faith.
Cellar47 & Norske: You guys brought tears to my eyes. And that doesn’t happen very often.
[off to take more Z*loft]
http://www.virtualwall.org/ds/SteinPA01a.htm
Raven, I never tire of your recollections of that influential time in your life and our country. Thanks for sharing.
Brother Raven:
That’s why we keep marchin, Brother, can’t quit now…
I say, bring back those segregated water fountains, but with a modern twist. The sign should be electronic and switch ‘white’ for ‘colored’ every 15 minutes or so. Maybe the bigots will die of dehydration?
RIP Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. So Sad. Grandmothers for Obama.
Wow, I guess a lot of us survived our ‘flower power’ years. Sometimes I feel like I’m reading this blog to see what I’m thinking about today. My son and I were talking about this very thing just this morning.
My first exposure to conservative ‘ethics’ was watching the police riot at the bridge in Alabama and a handful of kids trying to get into school in Mississippi. I don’t know that I’d even heard the term ‘racism’ at that time, but even as a 14 year-old from Kansas I could recognize that something was fucked up. I’ve been a life-long liberal because of the outrage I experienced in those images.
I don’t for a minute believe that we’ve overcome the issues of race in this country. But, apparently, we’ve moved the peg quite a bit. I took my kids to an Obama rally in the neighborhood, not because I’m the rally type, but to give them a sense of participating in history.
As I think back on my journey in voting for Obama in both the primary, and in the general election, race or the color of one’s skin, played absolutely no part in my decision.
I simply voted for the person who I thought brought the wisest policies, who had run the most successful and the cleanest campaign. In short, the best person in my opinion to lead the country. In my humble opinion the country faces too many challenges to do otherwise.
It was only at that moment when I cast my vote, that I thought about how momentous this occasion was. I was casting my historic vote for a black man. I was very proud to do so, not because he was black but because I believe he is the best person to lead our country out of the mess 8 years of Bush has created.
I look forward to celebrating his election tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.
Thanks, TBogg.
It will be a fitting irony if George W Bush’s greatest legacy to the country is that he has so damaged the Republican party that it has permitted the (non-crazy) citizens of the US to elect their first non-white president. Not that he will ever see it that way.
I was going to get some champagne for tomorrow but being a Red Sox fan, I know the hazards of premature celebration.
Well said, TBogg. I’m holding it all inside until tomorrow night. I know its all in my head but old habits, yadda yadda yadda…
TBogg, you express my own thoughts and feelings better than I could. I said last spring, to an African-American colleague, that we would have to be a much better country than I thought we were to elect Obama to the Presidency. And now, perhaps, we will show that we are.
I’m 57, and I grew up in Nashville, seeing but not really understanding, segregation everywhere, until my school, a private school connected with a college, became the first junior high and high school in the city to integrate. I started learning about civil rights then – and I vividly remember the Birmingham bombing. Thanks so much bohica for “Birmingham Sunday” – I hadn’t thought of that song for a long time, but tomorrow is indeed for those four little girls and those three young men, and countless black men and women tortured and murdered and enslaved on this continent for 400 years. It’s almost a miracle, if only I believed in them, but really, that probably belittles what an extraordinary man Sen. Obama is to have come so far and so fast. I know he’s having to campaign through sorrow today after his grandmother’s death this morning – may he have great joy in the evening tomorrow.
It’s a tribute to the beauty of this post that I didn’t see the Steely Dan until what, the fourth time I read it? Well played, sir.
I share your memories of the years leading up to 1963. I’m white.
I don’t share your optimism about Obama, though. His job is far more complex than simply to disassemble the Bush years … he has to disassemble the past 200 years (all the way back to the establishment of the Federal Reserve Corporation) and simultaneously make certain that the policy mistakes, foreign and domestic, aren’t repeated nor even repeatable.
He’ll be doing very well indeed if he can even get the troops out of Iraq without that country totally collapsing in the vacuum. If our troops leave, we can kiss that oil goodbye. That may not be a totally bad thing … but the withdrawal is not without consequences any more than remaining there is.
I don’t think he can do this even if he wants to. And, I’m not certain that he actually wants to because all his election will actually prove about his prowess is that he can outmaneuver McCain. In other words, that he is every bit as manipulative as McCain .. but better.
We’ll see. But you might want to put that champagne away until he wins his second election. By then we’ll know what sort of leader he actually is.
RIP Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. So Sad. Grandmothers for Obama.
And may flights of angels sing her to her rest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axWxx-e8Z2o
Oh, TBogg, thanks for putting my feelings into words. In 1962/1963 in our Senior Room of the private school I was sent to in NYC we had a framed picture of James Meredith. I can barely fathom how far we’ve come. I was periodically teary-eyed about voting for Obama, but now with the news of his grandmother’s death I’m a wreck.
I haven’t read through all the comments (yet) so if someone already linked to these, my apologies:
A highly amusing video message for undecideds, otherwise known as morons and/or lazy ass shitfaces.
The sacrifice has been chosen. (May frighten children.)
And last but not least, if anyone is still not convinced the ONLY choice is “that man”, please see this comparison shot. Ok, maybe if you’re a zombie you’re voting for the guy who looks like he’s somewhere near the beginning of human evolution.
Right on, TBogg
Awesome post dad…. As a college student in Hawaii, I have come to realize the huge impact he has had on this state just by being from here and also the fact that he is African-American. My entire campus has been buzzing for the past three weeks about this election and we even had an all- campus poll about who is voting for who, which Obama won by a landslide. Although, I do have a few friends who will be voting or already have voted for McCain, most of them have admitted that it would be an amazing opportunity for this country to have a man like Obama running our country. He does have a lot of work to do, but he really is the man for the job. This is my first election and I voted weeks ago and it was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I was and am extremely proud to have contributed to this historic event.
L&T, thank you for contributing to helping the better guy win. When I was your age I rarely voted or had any interest in ‘establishment’ politics. But then that was the 70s when peace, light and liberalism was par for the course. Where I lived, anyway.
I too am a bit older than you, TBogg.
We moved from CA to TX [Houston] in 1954. I remember seeing the “white” and “colored” signs on water fountains for the first time. It took my brother and me a long time to figure out that “colored” did NOT mean that colored water came out of that fountain. We tried a lot.
Oh, that’s good. Thanks for the laugh and chance to see those hateful things as a child would.
I knew you were talented, I just didn’t know it was a whole lot deeper than king of the snark.
Well written, my friend.
Woohooo!! That’s sweet. TBogg taught you well.
RIP Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. So Sad. Grandmothers for Obama.
I’ve thought often in the past year how proud that woman had to be to see the boy she raised doing so well while behaving like the decent man she taught him to be — never once stooping to the depths that others tried to lead him to.
Although it made me terribly sad that she couldn’t live to see him actually win, my husband says, “She knew. She knew.” And I believe he’s right.
Perhaps she simply said, “I’m so tired now, and my work here is done.”
Maulmom @ 97….my grandparents lived in Houston and we would go visit them in the late 50’s/early 60’s. I vividly remember driving by a building and I asked my grandmother what it was…..she told me it was a school for “colored children”…..as a 5 year old, I then said…..”the green kids go there?”
I am a white 70 year old and my husband is 79. We both voted for Obama as did both of our kids and their spouses. It is the first time our whole family has voted for the same person. I am so proud to have voted for this man.
Great article TBogg.
Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1exiyBYnJ00