the Way I See It - Election Day 11-4-2008 - 3:33pm

The Way I See It - I will probably post several election day thoughts so I'm time stamping them. I can't even begin to express the pride and incredulity I am feeling right now.

• Although I am not old enough to remember when paved roads abruptly ended at the edge of where white people resided and turning into dirt roads at the entrance to the black part of town [my mother is, that's how I know about these things]
• I am old enough [barely] to remember the southern hotel signs being switched from vacancy to no vacancy when my father entered to rent us a room on our vacation to see relatives in the south.
• I am old enough just barely to remember the signs with the "N" word held amidst screams of "kill Martin Luther Coon".
• I can remember the first time I had to explain to a frightened, angry, hurt twenty something white person what "affirmative action" was not [ I was an undergrad - if I tell you the year - you'll instantly disappear!]
• and I can certainly remember the most recent time -which unfortunately I do not believe it will be the last time - which was Sunday November 2, 2008.

I could go on but I won't. My point: while I can easily delineate how things have not changed, how things have not improved...today I won't. Because today is a day I thought I'd never live to see. Today there is a brother, an African American man, who is making me happy, making me proud. Today there is an African American man, who is married to an African American woman who together are making me happy and proud. Today I have an image of two happy, loved, safe and proud African American girls, instead of an image of the frightened little African American girl in the 1960's walking the gauntlet of angry white adults in Little Rock, Arkansas. TODAY there is an African American family who represents the best of all I know in my own family; who represents the best in families across this country - the best, not the perfect. TODAY this African American man and his family are anticipating their first walk in the front door of the first house to become the first family. The first, first African American family of these barely united, United States.

TODAY. This country has a chance to demonstrate that she is better than her past, better even than her most recent past. Today I hope, I pray she doesn't blow it.