A lot of people don't know this about me but I have a deep love of politics. I double majored in history and political science with a concentration on the American Presidency. Any election year I am glued to CNN, MSNBC etc but this year is not like any election year. Tonight history will be made when Barack Hussein Obama accepts the Democrat Nomination. Tonight is so much more than what a lot of people realize especially the younger under 25 generation. I remember being in elementary and middle school and there was no holiday for Martin Luther King. I think the first year that I legally was out of school I was in 8th grade. From the time I was in kindergarten until 7th grade my mom would keep us out of school on MLK's birthday. She said if we can observe Washington and Lincoln we can observe MLK. She would wake us up just as we would be going to school, but instead she would have me read the entire "I have a dream" speech and watch "Eyes on the Prize." After we would discuss what it meant and how it made us feel. I'm so grateful that she was militant like that because everything I learned from her and my dad I would have never learned in school especially not growing up in a suburb south of Buffalo. I had a chance to ask my dad how he felt about this because he's 70 and grew up in rural Butler, Alabama. There were no street lights, he walked to school 2 miles and he saw his share of jacked up shyt happen(he actually saw with his own eyes a body of a black man hanging from a tree). So when he speaks to me about everything he went through as a child to me tonight is all the more important! I'm so happy that my daddy is alive to see this moment and take it all in and know that change is coming!
I don't know if anyone had a chance to see the set at Invesco field but it looks a lot like Lincoln Memorial. Today is the 45th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech and also the 40th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy predicting that in four decades the country might elect a black man as president. Pleae make sure to tune in tonite because this is history!!!
3 comments:
This is more than history today- on so many levels...
Thats a beautiful practice your mom started with you guys. I feel blessed to grow up in New York.. its one of those places that culture is always on the forefront and people will inform you of your history and help folk understand their purpose in the skin their in..
We're coming full circle in this country and i couldnt be prouder to bare witness to this event tonight. I feel like im with everybody watching you know.. Its exciting. This might be one of most historical days ever with all this history behind it! -Q.
I love Barack Obama. He was amazing tonight. I am still in awe of how the world is changing right before my eyes. And I can't wait to share this all with CJ now and when he is old enough to truly understand.
My mom use to keep us out of school on MLK's birthday before it was a holiday and in November for Black solidarity day. My mom also grew up in the south and she is very much in awe of this whole process right now.
Tonight speech also coincides with when Katrina hit New Orleans to the date. How crazy it that! LOVE IT!
i just witnessed history
damn...i feel good!!
Post a Comment