I suppose what makes me happiest about this election, and the amazing nomination and (hopefully) election of Barack Obama, are those who still remember the bad old days of segregation and, through oral history, slavery.
As a youngish white guy, it is sort of hard to imagine that there are so many people still around who were denied service in a restaruant, or kept from the polls due to the color of the skin. And there are still a very few who remember their grandparents or parents who were legally enslaved in America.
Amanda Jones, aged 109, is one such woman. She is the daughter of a slave in Texas.
From The Austin American Statesman:
Amanda Jones, a delicate, thin woman wearing golden-rimmed glasses, giggled as the family discussed this year's presidential election. She is too weak to go the polls, so two of her 10 children — Eloise Baker, 75, and Joyce Jones — helped her fill out a mail-in ballot for Barack Obama, Baker said. "I feel good about voting for him," Amanda Jones said.
....
Amanda Jones' father urged her to exercise her right to vote, despite discriminatory practices at the polls and poll taxes meant to keep black and poor people from voting. Those practices were outlawed for federal elections with the 24th Amendment in 1964, but not for state and local races in Texas until 1966.
...
Amanda Jones says she cast her first presidential vote for Franklin Roosevelt, but she doesn't recall which of his four terms that was. When she did vote, she paid a poll tax, her daughters said. That she is able, for the first time, to vote for a black presidential nominee for free fills her with joy, Jones said.
Amazing! What I shed a tear of joy for Ms. Jones and others like her. This makes me feel proud about where our country is today and where it will be on November 4th.