A new day in America

When I was in kindergarten, the year was 1970.    In our school district, "bussing" was the hot issue.  This is the term used for the practice of bussing in children from black neighborhoods to suburban school districts, in order to de-segregate the schools.

My best buddy during the first half of the school year was a little boy named Gregory.  He was black.  We sat together at recess, I shared my lunch with him.  We shared a seat on school field trips & he was my self-appointed  "buddy" during those trips...everyone stared at the little black boy & little white girl holding hands.

My teacher took me aside right before Christmas break, and asked me not to sit with Gregory anymore or hold hands with him...said it was innapropriate but couldn't explain why when I cried & asked her what was wrong with being Gregory's friend.  The point was moot anyway...Gregory never came back after the break. 

Almost four decades have passed since then & there have been some changes...but not that many, I thought.  Not in people's hearts.   Until yesterday, when I joined America in electing Barack Obama our next president.  & the best part was, I didn't even think of him as a black man when I voted for him...I just thought of him as the best candidate.

I didn't think of him as a black man, but I saw Jesse Jackson & Oprah & even Colin Powell weeping openly at his acceptance speech, & then it hit me.  Race relations will never be the same in this country.  Black people now know without a shadow of a doubt the same thing every white child in this country knows; you can be anyone you want to be.  You can achieve anything you want to achieve.   The doors have been opened.

I'm so glad I got to share this with my daughter last night.  We sat on the couch and cried together.  On the stage in Chicago, after his acceptance speech, President Elect Obama was joined by his family & Joe Biden's family.  I saw the black & white people mingling & hugging onstage, & wondered what my kindergarten teacher would have said about that. 

It looked like America to me.