Many years ago, when I was about four or five years old, the television was on, it was the news (so of course I didn't care), and my father suddenly pointed to the television and told me, "Norman, they're about to show the President of the United States. He is the leader of our country and the free world!" I looked up and I saw an African American man. And for many, many years I have always remembered that the person I was in the t.v., who was talking into a microphone and into a camera, and looking really serious, out there, by himself, at night, in a brown suit jacket, was the first time I thought I saw the President of the United States.
Many years ago, when I was about four or five years old, the television was on, it was the news (so of course I didn't care), and my father suddenly pointed to the television and told me, "Norman, they're about to show the President of the United States. He is the leader of our country and the free world!" I looked up and I saw an African American man. And for many, many years I have always remembered that the person I was in the t.v., who was talking into a microphone and into a camera, and looking really serious, out there, by himself, at night, in a brown suit jacket, was the first time I thought I saw the President of the United States.
It did not seem odd to me. It did not seem out of place. He was the President for that moment and I looked at him at awe--I sort of understood that the President was a person that was elected by the people of the United States (remember, I was four and five, so have not learned or understood the electoral college as of yet), but I also saw him as the person that the people who lived in my country honestly and truly believed was suitable to lead the country. This man talking into the microphone, apparently back to the person who was interviewing him from the news studio, looked clearly calm, confident, and seriously at task to whatever the situation was going on at that time.
Eventually, the camera was cut away from the President, and this guy at this desk started talking (one I had seen before, and I never cared for that much so I stopped watching and focused back to whatever I was doing at that time--playing solitaire? Reading my favorite book (You're In Love, Charlie Brown) or more likely daydreaming as I liked to do back then, and thought about that person I just saw who actually was the leader of our country--who I only knew years later due to the education I got about our society, our history, etc. that in reality the person I saw was actually a news reporter--actually ground breaking at the time of the early 70's--imagine, an African American person who's there reporting the news to us masses, and we had really come such a long way since the days before I was born, before a Civil Rights Act, a Voting Rights Act, Brown Vs. the Board of Education, etc. And yet I never thought how silly it was to simply look up, and automatically assume (since my father told me he was the President, when he meant in a moment) that the African American in front of me was the President of the United States.
After all these years of being conditioned that never in my lifetime there would be an African American, or more specifically, he had to be a Republican first, just like the first woman, I am truly in tears tonight. We are at the cusp where someone out there, someone who was at my age of four or five, who loved to dream and could see possibilities and potential easily in anything, looked up and saw the future President of the United States. Yes, I'm not without concern, and I lived in California in 1982 when Tom Bradley was supposed to win and he didn't, and I'll always keep that in caution. But it's amazing that today many young children got to see what I saw in an earlier time, when it seemed impossible (no that was never the word. The word was "improbable"). And I was in tears. Right after the wide pan of the colliseum at large that clearly showed all the many people there, and I was in a crowd myself with a Democratic Club as today was our regular meeting, and I was in tears. And as Obama spoke, and continued on, I was in absolute joy. It was like something I saw years ago, that later seemed to be childish, imaginary, and preposterous was now happening. It's like suddenly I had what I hadn't for a while-- a true sense that enough people in this world had enough faith and belief to see a qualified and bright person be elevated where he or she should be, regardless of his or her race, gender, etc. It was truly amazing. Even the couple of parts I did not agree with (such as nuclear energy), I was still very moved and still proud that not only did he made it. But I was part of it (even later on, as Edwards was originally my candidate). And even more, that so many people, and so many people younger than me who hadn't gotten as disillusioned, or finally had to act, due to reaction when Bush got re-elected-- it was absolutely stunning.
The challenge now will be can it be possible? Who knows? This same year, here in California, for a moment, another thing I never thought would be possible during my lifetime happened. Gays and lesbians now have the right to get married. Because this was a movement (via the media) that was supposed to be younger than me (well, it's not--but as far as the patriarchal history books go, it all started out of nowhere with Stonewall), and now here at this moment it is happening, and though I'm still hard on myself, and too shy, and too much of a mess that I don't know if I'll ever be fortunate to find someone, I may actually get the rights as anyone else to have a lifetime commitment to someone in marriage that can be legally recognized and bound just like any other couple. Having lived in Colorado in 1992, I'm also remembered how once again, the polls said that Amendment 2, which legalized discrimination against a group of people (in the frame of "no special rights"), would not pass and it did, and I'm doing my best to psychologically prepare myself for what may happen with Proposition 8 . . .
and yet, in this same year, we in the Democratic Party, and those of us who are true progressives and want a people-powered candidate, took a risk and worked, showed up, participated in Democracy, gave money, knocked on doors and made phone calls, and put an African American on top of the Democratic ticket for President. After eight years of pessimism, and bizarre twists and removals of our civil liberties and of hints of fascism of the Bush Administration, we basically said that we are way above all this bullshit and really and truly believe in our potential and our capabilities to not simply say no, but say yes . . .
And that's what's amazing of this day. That wonderful slogan of the Obama campaign, Yes We Can, really does mean something. For all of the doubters, and all the pessimism of recent past experience, we can actually have the courage to change, to change minds, too, and finally say that it is time to recognize the equality, the dignity, and the potential of all of us. We do not need to shrink in fear and let what seems big and mighty out there whether it's Halliburton with Cheney at his desk with his sinister smile and Rove mesmerizing us with Doublespeak slogans, we can rise above it. And yes, there's that voice, what if we fail? What if the country is truly bigoted, etc. and they at least try "to put us in our place again?" It doesn't matter. We made history. We showed the potential. And hopefully what I automatically assumed when I was four years old and there was an African American on the t.v. that I believed was President, because I believed that was the world as it was (and it probably is!) is there, and we've moved another step closer to making our humanity, and the quality of who we are all in the world, and our true potential, just a bit better.
Thanks for reading this long sentiment as it falls into the ether of multiple diaries. I just had to get this out. :)