Today is an extraordinary day in my eyes.

I am woman of nearly fifty. My impression of today is a product of those fifty years of experience; all that I have learned from cradle to classroom to work and all those people I met along the way.

I was raised in a northern college town here in Michigan. My life was spent with books, hard work and with the clear expectation that I would educate myself and take advantage of every chance I could find or create to live an interesting life.

The university brought people from all over the nation and world to my home town but my parents circle of friends were largely European. My experiences were that of a northern girl blithely unaware of the social upheaval beginning to erupt around me until we made a trip for the first time to the south.

My uncle, a chemical engineer, for NASA lived in Huntsville Alabama and worked at Red Stone Arsenal. I was excited when as a small girl I was told we would visit him. It meant new scenery, sampling new foods and another romp round to see rockets and airplanes.

We'd been there only a few days when my uncle, father and I were dispatched to the grocer to pick up some items for dinner. An every day trip that had a profound impact on me.

The men made their selections and we moved to the front of the store to find two check outs. One with a long line of people clutching their baskets. The other completely empty. My father being a practical man and one who did not like to wait moved towards the empty line. I followed.

Behind me I heard my uncle call my father back. My father paused and they exchanged words in low voices I could not hear. My uncle looked uneasy while my father looked just plain annoyed. My father began to put our items down on the counter.

The young lady behind the counter was frozen. Her eyes already cast downward locked on her shoes...she was trembling I observed. She was terrified. Then I became aware of other voices as well. My uncle's imploring my father to move...low mutters coming from those in the other line. I was a child, puzzled and wide eyed, trying to make sense of the obvious anger and discomfort of those around me.

"I'd like to check out now" my father declared in his strong deep and by now forceful voice. My father wasn't making a statement, he was no civil rights campaigner; he was just a logical practical man who had no wish to wait in line.

"Northern trouble maker!" I heard one man say.

"For God's sake Robert," my uncle said.

The woman behind the other counter fled and soon was back with the store manager. When he arrived he dismissed the young woman standing opposite my father and looked across the counter at my father with such a venomous look I thought he wished him dead. The faces of the people around us were aggressive and dangerous looking.

My uncle moved forward and physically pulled me back towards the door. I resisted. My father was in trouble, the raised voices around us were angry and I could hear what they were saying more clearly now. I looked around us and noticed for the first time in my life the labels "White's Only" Looking past the signs I saw the young clerk peering around an isle tears in her eyes.

The two men, my father and the store manager stood there staring at each other for another minute and then perhaps by virtue of my fathers size in part the store manager grudgingly checked out the groceries.

Once in the car my uncle and father exchanged some heated words. My uncle was afraid he said of what "they" would do to him and his family.

Taking it all in I asked my father why...why the whites only sign, why the clerk was so scared and why the people in the store were so angry?

My father's reply? Ignorance

I have carried that experience with me my entire life. It made me consider not just race but it also made me an interested observer of people.

I remember with clarity then 1968. I was only nine years old when all hell broke loose. Spawned by death, pain, political social and economic injustice, ignorance, segregation and a variety of other factors I watched as citizens in the country reacted in rage by destroying the very communities in which they lived.

Our present was in disarray and our futures looked grim indeed.

Again...I promised myself I would not be part of the problem but of the solution. I would not embrace ignorance and prejudice I promised myself.

Later on in my life I had the privileged to meet Mrs King on a couple occasions. She urged me to read, to revisit the words of great men and women who spoke and fought for freedom, education and justice for all.

A gracious and intelligent woman she confirmed in her kind way my commitment to that personal vow I made myself and my country as did other ordinary and extraordinary people by their presence, their words and their writing over these last fifty years.

That in mind yesterday I listened again to Dr. King's address at the Lincoln Memorial and I cried.

Are all our wounds healed? No

This is a hopeful day in the journey though.

It is possible now to say to any child you can grow up to be President of the United States (okay so still boys more than girls)

People of both sexes, people of all colors and creeds came together to vote whether it was for McCain or Obama. Young people became involved greater numbers. These are hopeful signs.

I never thought I would live to see this day.

This is a great nation and today it is a hopeful one as well. Still hope only get's one so far. American's must not just hope but must move forward and invest in each other and their communities. Nothing changed today but in a way everything changed.

After all change comes from within. It's up to each of us now not just President Obama, the captain of our ship of state but to all hands.

With that said, below I have included some powerful words. Martin Luther King at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963)

Be the dream. Be the future. Be an American

Remember....

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on

-The Tempest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my
friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I
still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression,
will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition
and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and
black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as
sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

Beautiful, Lynn!

excellent

nessuno commento !

Great story Lynann..

Very Good

That was a beautiful story, Lynann.

I've never been in a situation like that.

Very sad experience indeed.
Your father was right, just an ignorant and very stupid man can consider another man less than him just because that other man is black.
The good thing about where i live is that we are so mixed up among white-european people, black people, indigeneous people, arabic people, chinese people. Our race is hispanic, and the beauty of that race is that throug our blood runs a bunch of races run mixed up, thus we don't need to live with the stupidity of racism because we are all one.
God bless Latin America. We are poorer, but not ignorant.

Sad? No...It wasn't sad.

I don't wish to insult you TheLonelyWalker but I think I have to take issue with your post.

You say there is no racism in Latin America?

Be very honest...

Few societies are immune to racism and when that isn't present then other prejudices are present. Class, skin tone, education, accent...

Each of us is guilty of making assumptions about others...daily...I do it myself as do you along with nearly every poster on this board.

Knowing that and choosing to turn away from those assumptions even in small degrees makes for great change I think.

Prejudice is destructive but tied to our deepest animal instincts for survival. There is a reason nature taught us to fear strangers.

But we are more than a product of our instincts.

We are able to reason, to harness our animal instincts and to exercise free will. (You all remember free will right? God's greatest gift?)

There has been an extraordinary amount of attention devoted to American rasism during these last fifty years and this election brought it and the changes in the American landscape to the attention of not just Americans but the world. That's a damned fine thing.

Still it is unfair to point a finger at the United States and call foul and beyond that it is dishonest to say issues of prejudice do not exist in your own backyard.

We make fine targets here in the United States for finger pointing but in essences our struggles are not much different from the human struggles everywhere.

Rising above petty prejudices in ones personal or public life is an on-going process. It is a lesson that must be remembered and taught.

Okay Ladies…

Anyone ever heard the Soundgarden song Ty Cobb? ummm nm

*EDIT*

I am editing this post after receiving a nice mail from a fellow poster but do not mistake that for a concession to the crap that goes on here.

Who am I? Ask...or better yet...learn to read.