Beacon On The Hill
As the election drew closer I became more and more prone to excessive outbursts. The thought of the right wing nincompoop from Alaska being one heartbeat from becoming my leader drove me to distraction. I don’t think that I truly believed Obama and the Democrats would pull off a victory. I also realized that from 1968 until today I have felt almost completely disenfranchised politically. I had come to the unfortunate conclusion that I lived in a country in which the majority of citizens held views totally incompatible to my own. On election night I sat glued to CNN (I hated that red/blue line nonsense) with my body clenched from furrowed forehead to curled toes. Then the results began to roll in. When PA went for Obama, I sobbed and emailed my gratitude to my many PA friends. Slowly the realization that Obama was going to be the next President of the US of A began to overwhelm me. When CNN showed the rainbow of people massed in Grant Park to hear Obama’s victory speech I was overwhelmed with joy and wept uncontrollably. I was born and raised in Chicago, the most segregated, racially divided major city in the US. The Chicago of my youth was a place where black was south side , white north side. The two met occasionally on the El somewhere around Washington. My Grant Park was the Grant Park of Mayor Daley’s police riot where I was gassed, chased and beaten for daring to be against the Viet Nam war and other LBJ/HHH policies. I stood at those barricades and saw former high school friends in uniform preparing to aim weapons at me for daring to be an American. I lost so much heart at that time. I came clean for Gene. I watched as Bobby and Dr. King lost their lives. I saw a country cleaved in ways that put a pall on my spirit. Then came November 2008, 40 years later, and my spirit was made whole again. This can be a great country. A country full of promise for all. A place where effort can be rewarded regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual preference. It has not been this place for many years. It has become a country of unbridled greed and insider double dealing with a continually diminishing regard for civil liberties and freedom for all. The pinnacle of this change was the last 8 years. A time during which: religion became king, torture became no big deal, spying on civilians became business as usual, invasion and occupaton of a sovereign nation that posed no credible threat to the US became acceptable foreign policy, and so on. THAT NIGHTMARE IS NOW OVER! A wildly intelligent and highly educated person of mixed racial origin is our new leader. I have never been prouder of being an American.
