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01/13/2009 At the age of 61, I've witnessed a lot of history, most of it tragic and all of it from the distance that television affords. I've seen the Vietnam War unfold with its 58,000 American lives lost. I heard the daily "body count" announced each night on the news. I've seen the antiwar protests, the arrests and the shootings at Kent State. I've seen race riots and cities burned. I drove through Watts the day after the riots ended. I've seen assassinations of a president and his brother and a civil rights icon, and I've seen the murder of a presidential assassin live on television. I've seen two presidents lie directly to the people, with both paying a heavy price. One was forced to resign, one was impeached. I've seen another president and vice president lie to the people and not suffer the same consequences. Instead they led the nation to war on the basis of that lie and caused hundreds of thousands of others to pay a heavy price. I've seen a space shuttle explode as it launched, and another disintegrate as it prepared to land. I've seen the two tallest buildings in the nation taken down by terrorists. I've been part of the nation left traumatized. I've also seen a few amazing historical events. One was the landing of an American spacecraft on the moon and Neil Armstrong's famous "giant leap for mankind." But nothing compares to the amazing event I will witness next Tuesday when Barack Obama takes the oath of office and becomes the first African American president in the history of the nation. Not being African American myself, I can only guess at what this must mean to the African American community. Seeing the tears of tens of thousands of black citizens on election day gave me some idea, as did listening to Bill Cosby the other day talk about what it meant to him. He spoke of taking three pictures into the voting booth on November 4th: a picture of his father, a picture of his mother, and a picture of his younger brother who died at the age of 7. He took out the pictures of these three relatives who knew what it was to live as second class citizens and who did not live to see what he would see, and said to them: "Now we are going to vote." I know Bill Cosby was not the only African American to carry with him into the voting booth the pictures, the memory, the dreams of long dead ancestors. The tears streamed down my face as I heard Bill Cosby's words, but my tears are only tears of empathy, not tears of full understanding of the meaning of this day to all the living and deceased African Americans who waited so long to see one of their own lead the country. My experience as a white person is a different one, but my feelings regarding this historic event are intense. A few months ago, before the election, I watched the HBO miniseries "John Adams." In a later episode, there is an unforgettable scene of slaves building the new living quarters for the president. As a student of history, I'm sure I read about the White House being built with slave labor, but seeing it enacted on television was powerful. The irony wasn't lost on me, as I'm sure it wasn't on most viewers. In our two centuries of presidential elections, we have never before elected someone who looked like those former slaves. Only white men have inhabited the White House. Another event comes to mind. Several years ago my husband and I along with two of our sons drove across the country to take my son to college in Boston. I had never been in the South and was not prepared for one brief experience I had. We stopped at a drugstore in Memphis, Tennessee to stock up on some supplies and there was a line at the checkout counter. Directly in front of me was an African American woman who was buying a number of things. She made her purchase and was turning to leave when she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to ask the clerk for a pack of cigarettes. She expressed frustration to herself, but I could tell by her face that she was resigned to leave without the cigarettes, certain that I, a white woman, would not be sympathetic and would expect her to go to the back of what by now was a very long line. Not being from the South I did not have the same attitude she had obviously encountered from some whites, and I said "go ahead, I can wait." I'll never forget the look on her face. It was one of fear, confusion, and complete surprise. She timidly went ahead and bought the cigarettes and thanked me many times, still confused that a white woman would treat her this way. I hope I never see that look again. I hope black women in America never have to feel that way again. I know the election of Barack Obama will not instantly change attitudes among those who still harbor racial prejudice, but it is a start. It is, in fact, much more of a giant leap for mankind than Neil Armstrong's single step onto the lunar landscape. A nation whose Constitution did not recognize slaves as fully human, a nation whose economy depended at one time on the hard labor of millions of black men, women and children who had been kidnapped, sold and enslaved by white men, has for the first time in its history recognized that an African American is the best person to lead it. A people have overcome their long legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and lynchings and voted for an African American man to be their president. He is the one they chose not only to lead them, but to heal the nation after eight years of dreadful leadership by George W. Bush. After enduring eight long years of lies, war, secrecy, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, Guantanamo, destruction of the middle class, enrichment of the already wealthy, neglect of the poor, the suffering, the uninsured, the unemployed, the victims of Hurricanes, the families of soldiers by the worst and most ignorant president in the history of the nation, and after foolishly putting this white man into office a second time, the people of this country finally came to their senses. Not only did they elect the smartest man in a long time to inhabit the oval office, they also decided to right a wrong, to make history, to overcome their history of racism, slavery and unequal treatment of our citizens, and to atone for their sins by recognizing that their African American brothers and sisters are not only their equals in all things, but that one of them, Barack Obama, is superior to them, and is qualified to be what most of them realize they are not qualified to be - the President of the United States. Tuesday, January 20th is going to be a remarkable day. Not only will Barack Obama make history, but we Americans will make history. We should all stand a little taller that day. We have all overcome. All content © 2005 outragedcitizen.com |