In the summer of 1960, when I was 10, my parents, my brother Johnny, and I drove across country. Part of our trip took us through the still-segregated South. I will never forget the horror I felt as I saw the "Whites Only" signs on restaurants and drinking fountains, the bathrooms labeled "Men," "Women," and "Colored." The harshness of such visible, tangible inequality, bigotry, and hatred marked my view of the world from that time on. How could such a broken world ever be fixed? How could we ever get past such an immense divide between peoples sharing a common land?
Tonight, I am so moved by the momentous occasion in US history as we celebrate the election of Barack Obama as our 44th president. My hope for a healed nation no longer seems frail and naively optimistic. It seems strong and certain. How good it will be to wake up tomorrow in a new America!
2 comments:
I have some hope for a healed world as well. It was great to hear a US president elect take the time to assure the world that America was about more than armed might and overwhelming wealth.
hi Mary,
using Joel's gmail account i
just looked at your blog and enjoyed reading up on several entries i had not seen...
With yesterday's wonderful result after this long and tedious election process i feel more hopeful that change may indeed be possible - albeit i also feel a little washed out at this point after a sleepless night watching it all unfold.
There is so much that needs doing to revert or undo at least some of the damage of the past eight plus years... as the list is obviously overwhelming, one wonders with what Obama will start when he takes over.
Dreaming from my overseas perspective, doing away in one fell swoop with Guantanamo Bay would certainly give a signal to the wider world that the new administration is keen to start repairing the US' shredded reputation of respect for human rights.
moni
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