Wednesday, November 5, 2008
To the Blessed 44th President of the United States
So we are supposed to record it. To remember, forever, that this thing happened. To remember that I was eating soup from a can and that I was really, really broke at the time. To remember the sound of cars honking and people beating pots and pans and blowing whistles. To remember how, when I wanted to cry, laughter came up instead. To remember stone-cold sobriety and uncontrollable laughter. To remember the look of so many black faces on the television crying because something so good had happened. To remember that his face reminded me of James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" because he looked "so touched, I think, that he could have cried, but neither hiding it nor showing it, riding it like a man" he gave his speech and kissed his family. To remember that people can claim dignity even after they've been led to believe they had none. To remember the moment it all changed. The motto remains, is not finished: Yes, we can!
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3 comments:
Hi Michelle!
A beautiful entry. I was moved by the outpouring of support and yet we look at history like, "first there was jesus, then there was Caesar, then there were the founding fathers. . ." and so on, when it was the massive amounts of people around those people that changed or didn't change.
Drastic change that the U.S. needs is beyond the scope of any presidential candidate.
I am living in Canada now and am slightly alarmed by an article I read about the U.S. military industrial complex. A place for where many inner city kids their best option to probably ending up in jail, having a low paying job where they are mistreated by their employer, is to enroll in the army and kill people.
The United States which is a republic in peril. A republic that is cannibalizing itself to stay alive.
Have a beautiful day!
To remember that night someone said, "I didn't know that I have been waiting for this, this is what I have been waiting for." Or that the stranger in my bed would be the last stranger, decidedly. To remember that I saw a few little american flags and that smile,s not nausea, arose. To remember that for once I thought, "I will miss this country when I'm gone." And to remember what Diane said at the Teachers and Leaders workshop. "Wherever we are hopeless it is because of distress" There was hope coming through the NPR station, driving into Denver for Lou's tatoo. Yes we have, yes we did.
finally proud to be an american.
the revolution is underway.
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