Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As you may remember, I don't write political posts very often, and I am not sure this is exactly where this one is going, but since this historic inauguration is tomorrow, I'd thought I would throw in some of my thoughts today.

Tomorrow is a big day.

I am 50 years old. I grew up in the south. Or in that whole other world, Texas. But southern all the same. I remember black people being "negroes." My family wasn't racist - we never heard the "n" word in our house and we would have gotten a spanking for saying it, but we knew there was something different by how our neighbors or random people acted. Luckily for my siblings and I, our parents were young parents - they grew up in the 60s with us and we were expected to treat everyone with dignity and respect. A big portion of that thought pattern came from our religious/spiritual training as well.

I need to ask my mom and dad... don't know why I never did, but I remember us having African (yes, really from Africa) people stay with us, as well as Korean and Japanese. Perhaps it was some kind of church exchange or something of the sort. Okay, I digressed there....

But, where I intended to go is this. No matter who you voted for, tomorrow is a landmark day - this is momentous. And it shouldn't be. It's 2009 and we are acknowledging what a remarkable step it is that a black person has been elected president of the United States.

My coworker, Wendy, is a black woman. She's 60. I have never seen someone so excited to watch an inauguration. I wish I could tell you the respect I have for this woman - she is my work mentor. We were talking about this and she said she remembered when she was little that the old folks would tell them to never give up, do your best, you could be whatever you wanted - even the president of the United States! She said they didn't really believe that, but people said it anyway.

So, now it's true. It's happened and there's no turning back. I think it's a good thing. We are a country of immigrants and we have to stop deciding skin color determines who we are.

Who we ARE is who we are.

So prayers and wishes for Barak Obama as he starts this adventure. May his decisions benefit us all. May he represent our country with dignity. May this be a time of unity, not separation.

And may other little children of all colors see that their dreams are possible to reach.