I had to work most of voting day, so I was periodically checking online. Voted early and drove from the polls to work for a 12 hour day.
I'm an old enough geezer to have been a kid in the South when there were still water fountains and bathrooms marked "Coloreds Only" above them. There were sections in most of the small towns around where I grew up that were always called by the locals "N.....r town" where poor African-Americans lived in shacks--real tar-paper shacks most of you on this site don't believe existed in the states since the 1900's. Martin Luther King was controversial to the adults around me. George Wallace was, too.
The church we attended absolutely exploded in anger and ugliness when a black couple wanted to join. My parents quit going to church for years after that, not because they were activists, really, but because they didn't think a church should close its doors to anyone. That doesn't sound at all radical--unless you grew up in the Bible belt in a family that didn't attend church.
Only a few years ago, in a bar in Pennsylvania (not the south), I was having drinks with friends who were a mixed race couple. I hung out at that bar. It wasn't one of those "where everybody knows your name" things, but it was my hangout. The owner came over and told me, personally, that he didn't "go for that black-white shit in his bar and wanted us out of there." I told him to go fuck himself, and left and made a point to let as many people in the community as I could know about the racist owner of our local little bar.
I've despaired over whether or not there could ever truly be change in this country. Some of the behavior I've seen and some of the comments I've heard during the campaign from everyday people have caused me the same despair.
Dan Rather said this morning he didn't think he'd see an African American elected to such a high position in his lifetime nor did he originally think it would happen in his children's life times. I understood what he was saying.
I voted for Obama because he's smart, strong, tactful and I think he can heal some of the problems we have, especially with other countries, etc. I heard him speak five or six years ago and was blown away by him then. I didn't vote for him because he's black. I didn't vote against him because he's black. My belief in him has always had to do with his abilities and his possibilities.
Still, coming from the background i did, I'm glad, within my lifetime, to see the progress of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.
For anyone who would dare say, "how can you write all that? You're white. None of this affected you." No, of course I didn't experience the repression or bigotry personally and I wouldn't even begin to say I understand that experience. But I grew up surrounded by those who took bigotry for granted as acceptable. My parents didn't, and I'm thankful for that.
I'm celebrating this historical election. My choice in candidates won, and, hey, I like a victory as much as the next person. But I'm celebrating something else tonight. This isn't the end of bigotry, prejudice or hatred. I'm not naive. I think we're going to see some real ugly personalities coming out in the next couple years or so. But to go from seeing separate water fountains and bathrooms because of skin color to seeing this election, tonight.... I can believe in Dr. King's dream just a little more fully, and find some hope to counter the despair I've felt in the past.
Good. It's about damn time.
Daybreak in Alabama.............By Langston Hughes (written in 1947, I believe.)
When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.
Langston Hughes
I'm an old enough geezer to have been a kid in the South when there were still water fountains and bathrooms marked "Coloreds Only" above them. There were sections in most of the small towns around where I grew up that were always called by the locals "N.....r town" where poor African-Americans lived in shacks--real tar-paper shacks most of you on this site don't believe existed in the states since the 1900's. Martin Luther King was controversial to the adults around me. George Wallace was, too.
The church we attended absolutely exploded in anger and ugliness when a black couple wanted to join. My parents quit going to church for years after that, not because they were activists, really, but because they didn't think a church should close its doors to anyone. That doesn't sound at all radical--unless you grew up in the Bible belt in a family that didn't attend church.
Only a few years ago, in a bar in Pennsylvania (not the south), I was having drinks with friends who were a mixed race couple. I hung out at that bar. It wasn't one of those "where everybody knows your name" things, but it was my hangout. The owner came over and told me, personally, that he didn't "go for that black-white shit in his bar and wanted us out of there." I told him to go fuck himself, and left and made a point to let as many people in the community as I could know about the racist owner of our local little bar.
I've despaired over whether or not there could ever truly be change in this country. Some of the behavior I've seen and some of the comments I've heard during the campaign from everyday people have caused me the same despair.
Dan Rather said this morning he didn't think he'd see an African American elected to such a high position in his lifetime nor did he originally think it would happen in his children's life times. I understood what he was saying.
I voted for Obama because he's smart, strong, tactful and I think he can heal some of the problems we have, especially with other countries, etc. I heard him speak five or six years ago and was blown away by him then. I didn't vote for him because he's black. I didn't vote against him because he's black. My belief in him has always had to do with his abilities and his possibilities.
Still, coming from the background i did, I'm glad, within my lifetime, to see the progress of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.
For anyone who would dare say, "how can you write all that? You're white. None of this affected you." No, of course I didn't experience the repression or bigotry personally and I wouldn't even begin to say I understand that experience. But I grew up surrounded by those who took bigotry for granted as acceptable. My parents didn't, and I'm thankful for that.
I'm celebrating this historical election. My choice in candidates won, and, hey, I like a victory as much as the next person. But I'm celebrating something else tonight. This isn't the end of bigotry, prejudice or hatred. I'm not naive. I think we're going to see some real ugly personalities coming out in the next couple years or so. But to go from seeing separate water fountains and bathrooms because of skin color to seeing this election, tonight.... I can believe in Dr. King's dream just a little more fully, and find some hope to counter the despair I've felt in the past.
Good. It's about damn time.
Daybreak in Alabama.............By Langston Hughes (written in 1947, I believe.)
When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.
Langston Hughes
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
lilli:
Just wanted to come by and give you a cyber-hug. I don't think your question in Geezers was out of line and I was astonished by the vitriol in the responses... on both sides of the fence... and the melee that then ensued. Very disappointing. But then I usually expect people to make an attempt to do and say the right thing. Ha. More fool me. And I'm not saying I expect them to agree with me-- I welcome a difference of opinion if we can learn something from it or at least learn to live and let live. 
caffeinemonkey:
Here in California gays have lost the right to marry by only 2%. It is mind blowing to me that we can be progressive as a country to elect a Black man as President. But move backwards in my state. I honestly don't understand how people can justify discrimination and elitism based on their "faith" or 'religion."