Mr. President, Mr. President.......WOW!!! Can you believe it? While sitting on the couch with the wife, kids, moms and sister, I was blown away by the enormity of what was taking place. We were watching everything unfold on local news (ABC 7) and my mind was racing with so many thoughts about the implication of having just elected THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT!!!! Truth of the matter is I have so many questions and thoughts scribbled on torn-off pieces of paper, back of receipts and even my kids homework all while my handy digital recorder lay on the console of the good ole '93 Jeep Cherokee. Since I always like to talk/discuss/debate/mind wrestle/pontificate/chew the fat/hold court/kick the willy bo bo's, I decided to kick off the first Freedom Ain't Free blog with a where were you and how did it go down when the THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT was elected?
Sound off......
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Life Event Rankings:
ReplyDelete1A & 1B Birth of My girls
2 Getting Married
3 Barack Hussein Obama Wins the Presidency!
I actually had to watch the tape of what happened after MSNBC called the election. I literally could not remember what happened for about ten minutes after that.
I wished for 1 minute I could be back at HU in the dorms when they announced him winning. Could you imagine how much fun those kids had.......
Yes. I had tears in my eyes...no diggity!
ReplyDeletei remember when he won virginia, and he was up to 220. i told my wife that, "it's over. california has 55 electoral votes." but then cnn posted like seconds later "CNN PROJECTS BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT." i knew it was about to happen, but when it really happened, i was just quiet. i was in a state of awe. i couldn't believe it was a reality.
ReplyDeletei have it on dvr. i've watched it every night since.
ReplyDeleteIt's intersesting you two have commented because I was thinking about you two the entire time. I was like Barack has to win to prove you guys wrong. Yall weren't believers early on (primaries) and I'm not talking about in the Iowa days because no one was on board that early.....what does that really say???
ReplyDeleteMy fiance called me when the annoucement was made and she was exuberant! I on the other hand was disappointed. I understood the historic value in having a black president. But it did not validate anything for me.(yes, I'm black and no my name is not Carlton) My morality trumps my ethnicity everytime. I could not support a candidate that feels abortion on demand is ok and even supports killing babies that survive abortions. My fiance could not understand and had to call someone else to celebrate with. That was sad but I understood. I was not put here to represent the black race. I was put here to represent Christ.
ReplyDeleteSani, thanks for kicking this off, I’ve been trying to codify the power of this election, always good to chop it up even in just the virtual world. This entry is crazy long, but as I felt myself writing, stuff just kept coming out.
ReplyDeleteAs I tried to grasp the enormity of President Obama, I found myself thinking of both our past and our future.
The Past – Seeing Jesse sob openly sent me looking for more perspective on what this meant to those that had felt much more of the injustice of our nation than its promise. To help me gain perspective, I called my surrogate grandfather, Gene Tarrant, who was born in Texas in 1919. As he began to speak, I was surprised by the strength, confidence and relief that the volume and tone of his voice suggested. His voice was that of a man who had just been promoted or a teenage that had just got the phone number of the best looking woman at a house party. I had heard strength from him before, but was surprised since it was late at night and he was still reeling from the death of his wife of over 60 years.
Gene told me about an incident when he was a child in Texas when he and his mother were walking home in the rain. A white family was standing on the sidewalk and refused to move aside forcing him and his mother to walk through the mud of the street. His mother remarked meekly “They really could’ve moved aside.” The father of the family, heard her comment and yelled “Don’t you sass me you big, dirty ape!”. Recalling this aching memory, the strength of Gene’s voice didn’t waiver: “I had to just take it, listen to a man call my mother an ape.” He went on to talk about his years in the Navy and remembering how happy he was to see a Black officer for the first time.
“And now a black man is president of the United States!, Eli I am Overwhelmed!”, somehow this man put aside nearly a century of injustice that he lived (not read about as our generation largely has), turning his eyes to the promise of nation that would elect President Obama.
The Future – Every parent I know remarks that their child seems oddly infatuated with President Obama. White, Latino, Asian and Black parents explain how children as young as two, either explode in jubilation or sit in rapt attention when President Obama crosses their TV screen. I find myself reacting similarly. It reminds a bit of how I watched baseball when Barry Bonds was still playing. Back then if I was watching a game and any other hitter was up, I’d be on the computer, watching out of the corner of my eye, elevating my attention level if the guy hit the ball hard. But when Barry was up, I stopped everything I was doing and watched, waiting for the spectacular. With President Obama, this effect is even more profound. If he’s talking, I’m listening. I’ve never experienced this with a politician before. It seems that so many of us want to listen to this man, and are willing to help when asked. Given all but a select few have been absent from politics for so long, the power of this strikes me as nothing short of world changing.
I don’t consider our new President Messianic, but I do wonder if he is better and more than we can anticipate, could he in fact be Tiger Woods. You will recall that pundits hyped Tiger as the best golfer in history before he even stepped on a PGA course. Despite the greatest expectations in history, Tiger still amazes, playing better than anyone ever thought, perhaps exceeding even his father’s greatest dreams. Could President Obama, similarly blow through our expectations, the expectations of our children and be a world leader that even the most ardent of his supporters didn’t see coming. I hope and I haven’t done much hoping for our nation in a little while.