Last week an old friend sent around a message which describes his experience of watching Barack Obama win the presidential election. It's a special message which offers a unique perspective on this historical moment. It's open-hearted, of course, and also authoritative. Whatever political differences we may have (cordial, spirited, or both) are set aside during this great moment in our nation's history.
The thing is, when we were very young teenagers, I don't remember Adam and I talking politics much. Mostly we showed up for classes, diligently handed in homework, and played lots of hallway handball. Our respective reflections on what this election brings to bear arrived in different ways, at different times.
With Adam's permission, I am posting portions of his message here.
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Dear friends and family,
I have been, and remain, overwhelmed by this election. A special thanks to those who joined us at our home that night, and many more who joined us by phone or in spirit....
[W]hen CNN put up the enormous picture of him with "Barack Obama projected winner and 44th President of the United States!" All of a sudden, it hit me: we have a black President and First Family!! Colleen found her soprano range, and our guests erupted in the loudest most raucous celebration we've ever had.
This made me think about my grandfather, elected into a segregated Capitol cafeteria with Congressmen who refused to sit next to him and supposed colleagues who insisted on sabotaging him. I thought of my grandmother, refused a concert at Constitution Hall, and then slammed by the IRS for telling off the House Un-American Activities Committee. (Her biography is now on Amazon, and an article in today's Washington Post mentions this experience: -- see page 2 "Fifty years later...")
I thought about the experience of my parents, a mixed-race couple in the late 60s and early 70s who faced many challenges with the support of some great friends. (They married in DC less than two years after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Loving case struck down Virginia's law against interracial marriage.) It's so comforting to think that when people see a similar couple today, they'll think of the parents of our new President.
I thought about the Adam Clayton Powell Academy which I visited in south side Chicago last week as Principal for a Day. Though located in a dangerous neighborhood (the cab driver who took me there told me I should fear for my safety in that area), most of the school was absolutely jubilant on the eve of the election of a President of the United States who is one of their own in several ways. However, one second grade class kept asking questions like "Why do black people and white people hate each other?" "Why do people shoot each other?" I wonder, what must they be thinking now, after seeing the election and the celebrations which followed?
I thought of the 13-year-old Haitian boy named Marc who joined my tutoring group in a Dorchester school seventeen years ago because a friend dragged him in. The atmosphere of violence was so pervasive back then, he asked me, "Why should I work hard and study in school, when I don't even know if I'm going to be around in six months?" I was so completely shocked, I don't even remember my reply. His story has a happy ending: he kept coming (saying he felt "addicted to this program -- I don't really like it, but I keep coming back"), and the attention and tutoring sent his attitude and grades rocketing upward. Most important, he started to think about the years ahead instead of merely days and weeks.
How many young boys like him, and for that matter how many young girls, will start off at a much better place when thinking about their future because of this election? This thought brought tears to my eyes....
It truly is a great time, for the nation, and for the world.
With love,
Adam
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