Today, my voting life came full circle. As I did in my first election, in 1968, I voted for an African-American for President.
In 1968, I knew Dick Gregory stood no chance of winning, but he stood for what I believed.
In 2008, I cast my ballot for Barack Obama, and forty years later, I think I have a winner.
I cast my vote this morning at my local polling place, a Persian carpet store on Ventura Boulevard, in Sherman Oaks, Ca.
Forty years ago, as a student in St Louis, I cast my absentee ballot for Dick Gregory.
Three years earlier, Gregory was the headline entertainer at our homecoming.
Three years ago, I stood behind him on the supermarket line here in Sherman Oaks. All these years later, life had brought us together at the grocery.
I told him I voted for him in '68, and that I'd seen him perform in St Louis. I began to tell him a joke he had told that I still remembered and he cut me off and finished it himself.
Dick hadn't been my first choice for the Presidency. That was Eugene McCarthy. Like thousands of others, I went 'clean for Gene,' and took off to campaign for him in the midwestern primaries.
I remember visiting Blue River, Wisconsin, a tiny place, whose 'downtown' consisted of a grain silo, post office, general store and cafe. It was in that cafe I was schooled by a handful of local farmers. They were all voting for Gene. The world was really starting to change.
On the return to St Louis, we found that Phil Ochs - another McCarty supporter - would be doing a free concert to thank all the Washington U students who'd hit the road for Gene.
A bunch of us took Phil out for dinner and found a place for him to crash at a friend's apartment. One of my buddies arrived late, he had just returned from campaigning in Indiana. Because my friend had missed the show, Phil took out his guitar and started singing again, to the ten or so of us gathered at his feet.
He sang his most beautiful song, 'Changes.'
"Moments of magic will glow in the night
All fears of the forest are gone
But when the morning breaks they're swept away by
Golden drops of dawn, of changes."
Thank you Phil Ochs.
Thank you Eugene McCarthy.
Thank you Bobby Kennedy.
Thank you Dick Gregory.
Thank you Barack Obama and the millions of voters who we hope will bring the changes we have longed for all these years.