I waited a while to post this. In part, because I didn't have time. In part, too because it choked me up.
Most of us watched the inauguration. Most of you who read this blog are good liberals. You know the liberal rhetoric and ways. Um, because clearly if you weren't, you wouldn't enjoy THIS blog.... There were lots of lovely blog posts about hope and change and how this man has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Many posts hinting to frustration with the Bush years and how its been a long 8 years of waiting.
But for some of us bloggers and citizens, its been generations of wait.
Many of you got the following message from me at noon on that Tuesday: Today was good day in Mama Err's class.
And Lord, was it ever.
My school doesn't have cable. We have limited TVs, only a few LCDs and the computer network (not to mention my old ass computer in my room) has firewalls the prevent me from looking up much school related stuff... no lie, it filters out anything that says art. I managed to snag an LCD, found a live feed that the filter would work on my network (because it filtered out CNN, fercryinoutloud). And I blew off my very serious schedule of Ancient Civilizations... for the rest of the week. I had Teaching Tolerance segregation and racism lessons for the week. And I had access to the inauguration.
My dear friend asked, in response to my text, if my students got it. And that was totally a fair question. My reading class is currently reading the Jim Crow era story The Gold Cadillac and we had to have a serious discussion about how slavery and Cadillac were not the same time frame. GAH.
For months, these kids have had pictures of Obama taped to their ID badges, their notebooks, and in their lockers. They've given up their GUnit sweat shirts for sweat shirts with Obama's face and words. They wear Obama hats when its cold. They stop talking and for once hear me when I tell them how not only have I waited my whole life, and my mom hers, but her dad his to vote for someone new. Their folks, grandfolks, aunts and uncles have waited too. They tell me how their dad cried on election day. And I've met their dad, with neck tattoos, braids, and Timberlands. They asked how long I waited to vote and slap me five when I tell them two hours, before sun up, in jiggly cold. Even though I never did tell them who I voted for.
That day we watched the inauguration and not only did they get the historical event they were seeing, they got how much trouble I went to so they could watch in live time. And with my voice a little choked up I told them, "there it is babies.... remember where you were when you saw it."
And on the way out, one of my boys looked at me and stood up tall and proud. "We did it big today, Mama."
Yes we did, baby. Yes we did.
*********one little turd did fall asleep****** but I totally made him call his dad just to let him know he fell asleep during President Obama's inauguration. Heh***********
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Wild Salmon With Cajun Spices
2 years ago
4 comments:
a. Glad you were able to watch with your kids
b. Still applying labels? What about those of us that defy labelization? In some areas, my beliefs tend to the liberal. In others, toward the conservative. Does that make me bad in some ways? (i.e. not a good liberal?)
Regardless of political ideology, OUR new president (no he does not belong just to those that voted for him or even to those that voted at all, but he is the president of the United States of America, all of us, black or white, red or blue) has his work cut out for him and I hope and pray that he leads this country in a positive direction.
all of us defy labels to some extent... we fit some, do not fit others. we claim them as a way to choose who we are and we reject others. labels are ways to empower as well as oppress. naming our world, naming ourselves, is a way to organize and think about our world. ignoring them, or denying their existence ignores what has been done with these labels historically. likewise, it can take away someone's right to name themselves in a meaningful way...thereby taking their agency in their world.
given this, how you choose to name yourself, liberal, conservative, good or bad is clearly up to you.
i could talk at length about the naming of one's world as its what i've done for a living (and still do academic work and publication around) for several years. however, this wasn't the point of this post.
of serious importance here, is that this is a black president. our first. and while he has serious challenges regardless of his ethnic background... to ignore his blackness, would be to ignore that the historical importance (not to mention the horrific atrocities for which I don't even have the words committed by this country and its people) of that moment in time.
When I was 5 or 6, I remember the Iran Hostage Crisis.
I knew that there were Iranians holding US people hostage. I knew that it was getting a lot of attention on TV. I knew that it was bad. But I didn't really get why it was happening, or the reasons, or the nuances. So it was just a lot of feeling sad for the people being held, and hope that they'd be released, and knowledge that it was going on in a country called Iran, but no real understanding of it in a broader historical context.
When I was 14, I saw the Berlin Wall torn down.
I got that. I'd grown up fearing and hating the Eastern Bloc. I knew that it meant a life of freedom for a lot of people who'd been oppressed up to that point. So when that happened, I got that it was changing the world, and it wouldn't be the same again.
Some things can be factually known and felt emotionally, without being understood in a larger historical context.
I'm sure that's all you're coffee-bringing friend was asking about your kids. ;)
It helps to have a teacher who is willing to explain that context to them, too...
Good on ya, Dr. Err.
I recognize the historic significance of this country electing a black man to its highest office. Truly, I do. I grew up in the 60's. I remember seeing "White" and "Colored" stenciled on restroom doors. In my lifetime. I lived through integration, through busing, through white flight. I've seen Klan marches in person. I saw my hometown locked down under curfew after MLK was killed. And I know that, even today, there are areas of my home state where President Obama got his butt whooped in the election because, "they call it the White House for a reason, dammit!"
So white as I am (especially this time of year), the importance of that facet of his election is not lost on me.
But that's not why I voted for him.
I voted for the man because for the first time in my life, I had a candidate I could believe, and believe in. For the first time in my life, there was someone running for the office of President that I could vote for, and not just because he wasn't The Other Guy. Or, as in the case of the 1980 and 1992 elections, not "The Other Guys".
I voted for "That One" because he's the most qualified applicant for the job I've ever seen. And had he been white, I still would have voted for him.
And in his first 8 days on the job, he's done nothing but confirm the faith I had in him when I penciled in my ballot on October 30th. He's gotten more done in his first 8 days than "W" did in his first 8 months. He won't get a blank check from the Congress -- I think there's still too much of the Old Boy Network intact for that. But he'll win more than he loses -- a lot more. And by extension, we will win. All of us. Not just the black or white or poor or rich or even just American. This is a President that can change the face of the entire world for the better.
He's got a lot to accomplish, but he's got the chops for the gig. And if he can maintain the momentum he's got going right now, I can actually look forward and see a better world on the horizon before he's done.
Hell, if he keeps this up we might want to rethink term limits.
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