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OBAMA WINS!!!!!!!

Disclaimer:  political content…all of it!  Indulging for just a moment, then back to our regularly scheduled blogging ….

It is time for a change.

And the times HAVE changed.

A while back I wrote this story here, but it is time to repeat myself….  in 1975 I began college at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  I used to fly into Dulles Airport, which is some distance from  DC, so you had to take a shuttle bus into the city (and then a cab to the university). The old downtown core still had buildings burned out from the riots and fires of 1968, the year of so many race riots and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King’s assassinations.   It wasn’t long after I arrived that I realized I was — despite being in a relatively progressive city — two states south of the Mason-Dixon line (for my non-US readers, that is where the Northern and Southern states divided during our Civil War, 1861-65).

I think it was when I arrived for September…either in ’75 or ’76…the bus driver on the shuttle from Duller to DC (he was an African American) announced “now all you smokers, you gots to sit in the back o’ the bus, where I used to have to sit.”

I was dumbfounded.  I had grown up in California (and a sheltered middle-class white girl, at that).  There was very little discrimination there, and at least in the lamentably lily-white county where my family lived, few African Americans.  There were the Chinese (who were brought in to build the railroads in the mid 1800s during the Gold Rush), the Spaniards and Mexicans (Mission San Rafael was in the next town over, and the northernmost of the Spanish missions is in Sonoma, 32 miles north of our house), and of course the Anglos.  Even the Russians came to California, to Fort Ross, 62 miles north….the Mexicans and the Russians nearly met! So it was a shock for me to come face to face with someone who had grown up with the oppression of racial discrimination, and yet could joke about it (it’s that wonderful Freedom of Speech thing! and a good sense of humor on his part).

On November 4th, our nation elected Barack Obama as its next President…..   one of the joys is that his daughters don’t really yet understand that it is so remarkable for a man of  Caucasian and African parents to be moving into the White House.   A mere 44 years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act (if you haven’t read Johnson’s speech, it is really amazing…Wikipedia must have it), to protect the rights of ALL Americans, not just the white ones.  It was a law that was needed because discrimination was rampant….lynchings still happened, race was still a significant factor.  It is a factor still, but nowhere near what it was–and we’re doing better.  The Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in schools, public places, and employment; it protected all races, and before passage they added women, too, from discrimination …the impact was HUGE and remains so to this day.

I am SO PROUD of what our nation has done…on November 4th, 2008, and over the past 45 years.  I am just as proud that so many people registered, voted, that this was one of the most widely anticipated elections, that so many who had never voted before were moved to become part of our right and responsibility to vote.   I heard that in one of the Carolinas, more African Americans had voted….on MONDAY, the day before official election day (via absentee or early balloting) than in the entire 2004 election…way cool!

Perhaps because I’ve lived overseas and in the third world, I appreciate a bit more easily how astonishing it is to live in a democracy and be able to vote… that the culture of democracy is so ingrained that even kids on a playground will take a vote to see what game to play at recess.

I am proud.  And I am REALLY happy!  It is time for a new era, and it has begun…..

Anyone want to join me in a rousing chorus of God Bless America?!!!!

Addendum, Weds. morning,  Nov. 5th…. they are reporting a turnout of 64 percent of the population…that is the second highest in history (usually I think elections are in the 25-50 percent range)… apparently 100 years ago, in 1908, 66 percent voted.  With the larger population, tho, the turnout is by FAR the largest number of citizens who have voted.   WAY COOL!   I hope the enthusiasm for being part of the process holds…..

10 Responses to “OBAMA WINS!!!!!!!”

  1. Gerrie Says:

    I am so happy and proud, too! Our long national nightmare is over, again!!

  2. upnorthcottage Says:

    Count me in for a verse!

  3. Fitzy Says:

    I mentioned to my lunch buddy yesterday..,”We have no idea what it is to be impoverished nor descriminated against. Yet, look at what our country, as a whole, can do.”

    Damn! I am PROUD.

    Great post Sarah, I’ll hold your hand and sing loudly too, who’s next to join?

  4. Caron Mosey Says:

    Fantastic post!!! And I agree 100%, I am so happy at the outcome of this election. Makes me tear up. I used to teach elementary school in an inner city district in Flint, MI, where 95 percent of my students were poor and African American. Parents wanted so much better for their children than what they had. Having Barack as the perfect role model for these kids is awesome. I wish his Grandmother had lived to see him sworn in.

  5. Sandra Wyman Says:

    I’ll join in for a chorus – even though I’m from the UK. Congratulations.

  6. betty johnson Says:

    Sarah–I share your joy.

  7. Gretchen Says:

    I’m joining in with you!!!!! Living here in metro Atlanta where Dr. King and the Civil Rights leaders still feel so close, it is a glorious day. At a time of great need, there is hope in America once again.

  8. Jacquie Says:

    I followed the last weeks of the campaign from Germany, mainly via the BBC and CNN. Yes, they are available there! There was much interest among the Germans and all of those I talked to were rooting for Obama — as was I. It’s been a long time since Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics in Germany!

    I think much of the world is now hoping for change for the better as regards American foreign policy and actions. Here’s hoping for that as well as the much needed improvements here at home.

  9. Andee in Wisc Says:

    Do you hear me joining you on the chorus? I think you said it well..it is time that people are just people and skin color no more important than eye color…this is a HUGE step for us here in America and a long time a coming…I too am a middle class white gal and I could cry thinking about it…can’t imagine what people of color must feel! ..And I’m proud to be an American…

  10. Linda Dunn Says:

    I worked at Georgetown University as a library file clerk right after my college graduation: 77-78. The bookbinders were all Vietnamese refugees: surgeons, lawyers, and other professionals in their own country, now working for minimum wage so that their kids could get a university education.

    I remember the bombed out neighborhood around the train station. I grew up sheltered in suburbia too, and was shocked to realize that people still lived with the gutted aftershocks of violence that, for my family, was just something to read about in Life magazine….