Speaking Of Everything…

Hey Mom! This one’s for you!

My Mom, who turned 81 last week, called me this evening to talk about the convention. Mom grew up on Long Island, NY and went to Lindenhurst schools. In the late 1930s, Lindenhurst was the scene of a massive march by the German American Bund, Nazi sympathizers.

(http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hs729a,0,7169.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation)

From kindergarten to high school, Mom was always the only black kid in her class. For her, school was one long, drawn out slice of hell.

But she called me tonight to talk about the Democratic Convention in Denver, CO., and seemed almost in tears. I could hear the wonderment and joy in her voice as she told me she never thought she would live to see what happened in Denver this evening; Senator Barack Obama’s name was placed in nomination. “In my lifetime, I never imagined I would see this day… a black man nominated as the candidate for President of the United States.”

Mom was a true believer in the political system and indoctrinated me at an early age. When I was a little kid, (4-5 yrs old), I remember walking petitions with her for county water on our street. I remember going to NAACP meetings to help stuff envelopes. I remember that cold, rainy morning in November 1964 when my Mom took me to the firehouse and brought me into the voting booth with her. She flipped the levers on the local candidates, then picked me up and said, “Push that lever, son,” and then, “Now pull that red handle hard!” I grabbed the grip handle with two hands and pulled the lever to the left and was amazed as the curtains on the booth opened.

She put me back on the floor, knelt down next to me and said, “You know what you did? You just voted for President Johnson!”

Mom, I knew this day was coming because you showed me the future.