Very emotional tonight

[tpsbmam]

I was sitting outside tonight thinking about all of this. I'm not a believer in heaven, but I still talk to my deceased parents regardless. I talked to them tonight.

I grew up in a political family. Politics invaded every aspect of our lives. My white parents were at the 1963 March on Washington (Kings "I Have a Dream" speech) and marched with King and others. My father was at the forefront of the civil rights fights in the 60's. I grew up in New York CIty and have never experienced segregation because of the wonderfully diverse city I called home, but I constantly heard and read about it at home. I have to admit that I occasionally wished as a teenager we could talk something else at dinner, but it always came back to politics, the Vietnam war, and civil rights.

I started tearing up realizing that I'd voted for the first African-American president of the U.S. I started tearing up, sad that they were missing this. I started tearing up knowing that friends I love who've died and would be beside themselves with happiness are missing this. And I started tearing up thinking about all of the people of so many different races had voted for Obama. I started tearing up that the state I now call home, North Carolina, a a slave-holding state and, in the scheme of things, one that isn't historically that far away from slavery and Jim Crow, had voted so significantly for an African-American presidential candidate.

I remember watching people being hosed, beaten, attacked with dogs, turned away from schools simply because of the color of their skin. We were shown pictures of lynchings when we got older -- our parents wanted us to understand what they were fighting and those pictures certainly brought it home. I've done genealogy research and know that my ancestors not only owned slaves, they were large slave holders and were an integral part of the slave trade.

And then Obama spoke in NC and put me over the top. Do I think he's the perfect candidate? No, I don't. I wish he were more progressive on some issues. But I think he's a damn good candidate and a very good man. And I got to vote for him. Here's to all of those people I wish could be here right now -- my parents, my friends, Martin Luther King, W.E.B. du Bois, Medgar Evers, Paul Robison, and so many more.

I'm glad I'm here to witness this and be part of it.