I Voted for Selma and Obama
I did not vote in the past presidential election , not for me but I cast a vote in absentia for Selma Lane .Selma Lane was my grandmother who passed away ten years ago . I missed her much , she taught me a lot , among them a love for politics .
Often times as a young boy ,I would sit at her knee and she would tell me about the Depression . I learned about FDR and how he made it possible for rural southerners black and white to be able to eat again .
She talked about the Kennedy brothers like they were family members. I vividly recall watching the funeral of RFK and hearing my grandmother say that he should have been president. My grandmother pointed out to us often that LBJ's policies in regards to urban renewal made it possible for her to purchase her home.
Needless to say , I was raised a Democrat.
Most of all my conversations were the tragedies experienced of being an African American in this country. Selma Lane was a proud American , and she said that our greatness would be proven by how America deals with race issue. Often times she said that a black man would be elected president . I always doubted her , as I got older I cited to her the famous "Bradley effect" theory.She said that a black president would be elected not because he was black , or not elected in spite of being black,but elected because he was the best qualified.
I voted for Selma Lane last week because she couldn't cast her vote. I voted for Obama .My grandmother was right on two counts , she didn't live to see it , but America proved its greatness by burying the race issue and voting for what they believed was the best qualified.
posted by EdGray4America.com at
6:39 PM
4 Comments:
I have lived to see seven Presidents. I never thought that I would see the day that a man in my own image would be leading this country. I'm proud to be an American. I wish that my dad Joe Gray and my grand parents John & Hattie Richardson and Lawrence & Selma Lane could have seen this day. Now our children can now say "I AM OBAMA" and achieve thier own dreams.
Dawning of the Age of Obama
By George Will
Published: 11-10-08
Ironies abound. The election of an African-American discomfits the Democratic Party. It practices identity politics, stressing the relevance of "race-conscious" policies, defending racial preferences in public hiring, contracting and education. But the election of Barack Obama is an American majority's self-emancipation: We are free at last from the inexpressible tedium of the preoccupation with skin pigmentation.
George Will seldom gets it. The 'inexpressible tedium' comes from the burden of this country's failure to seek redemption from the sins associated with bigotry.
If race was a factor in anyone's vote for Obama, we needn't be ashamed. First of all, we need be no more ashamed than those who voted for the McCain/Palin ticket because, as they said, 'She's one of us'. There's nothing wrong with identifying with the candidate for whom you vote.
But Obama demonstrated far too much wisdom, political savvy and maturity to vote for him just because he is black. Obama is qualified indeed and he will make America a fine president.
What his election says to each of us, about each of us and what it says to the world is something remarkable and I hope that we savor it, nurture it and never forget it. Nor should we let our children forget, or their children. In so many ways, this is our finest hour.
Like your grandmother,it was my mother who instilled in us to be politically minded and "the duty to vote". Imagine my not to surprise but joy to learn that the age of 88 and from a rest home,she voted absentee.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home