• Home
• About
• Blog Roll

Just one more, I promise
November 10, 2008

I know I know, we are all very tired of the election. It’s all done. Let’s move on to the real tasks, and our equally historic challenges aren’t getting easier by the day.

I for one, really want to move on to a personal rant about how instead of giving $25 billion (they already got $25 billion not long ago) bailout to the big three auto companies, we can kick start a green economy, no matter how local, small and nascent it may be.

But I will do one last election related post - a forwarded letter from a good friend’s dad, who has been a minister in the rural areas of North Carolina for more than forty years. It made me want to work hard towards a better and a greener world.

Dear (my friend and his wife’s names),

I hope that you all are as happy today as we are about yesterday’s election. We have never been as involved in an election before as we have been this year–actually going out and knocking on doors some this past Saturday. This has put me in a reflective mood and I want to share some thoughts and observations with you.

The leadership of the country has passed to your generation. (I am really relieved that it didn’t pass up to my generation.) Since I still think of you as young (parents always do) this is an astonishing change, but it is also an exciting and important step forward into the future for our country. You are now in charge! This means we can really look forward to the future and get away from focusing so much on the past. But this is an awesome responsibility for Barack Obama and all of you in that generation. Your children’s future and the future of the world which are a matter of real interest to grandparents is in your hands. I have great confidence in Obama and in all of you to fulfill those responsibilities. For the remainder of our lives mom and I will watch the unfolding future of our family and all the world’s families with great interest.

Of course, this is has been a transformational election with the elevation of an African American to the Presidency. This is even more marvelous to my generation than it might be to yours. I grew up in the segregated South. I vividly remember my childhood movie theater in Clemson where all blacks had to sit in the “colored balcony.” I remember separate bathrooms and water coolers for whites and coloreds. The only black persons I knew as a child were a few women who worked in our home occasionally and for my grandparents. I never attended school with a black student until I was in graduate school at Duke Divinity School.

I lived, studied and began work during the Civil Rights days of the 1960s. Post 60s persons may have a hard time believing the tension and difficulty of those days–but then so do I! I will never forget the horror of the night that M. L. King was shot in 1968 (a year before Eric and Sara were born). As the operating head of Brevard College that year I was hosting the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, when someone came in the room with news of King’s death. The President of the board, a man I had always respected as a leader and generous benefactor to the college, actually clapped and said something like, “it’s about time!”

Now just 40 years later many millions of white men and women have helped to elect a man of African descent to become our President. As your mom and I said to each other this morning as we got up–”It’s a new day!” I am just grateful that I have had the opportunity of living through such a time as this and to be able to see the changes for the better that are occurring. Though I still know that in many quarters racism is still alive and I fear the nuts that are still out there somewhere hating Obama and all people not like themselves.

But enough about the past. As you can tell mom and I are excited about the future even at our age. We are proud of all of you and thankful for the wonderful children you have brought into the world and the positive direction you are giving them. Continue to let them learn about the world and life. Help them to have faith in the future and not to ignore the spiritual side of life. I cannot begin to comprehend the world they will live in when they are 68 years old.

In any case this is an historic week. I face the future with more confidence than before. I am proud of and love my family very much. Thank you for letting me share some of my reflections on the meaning of what has happened this week. AND REMEMBER YOUR GENERATION IS NOW IN CHARGE!!!

CindyW at Organicpicks

If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog

Copyright 2007 Organicpicks