Hi blog. I have missed you. This has been a busy week beyond busy weeks. Between 2 building owner events (one of which required 2 months of preparation), dealing with some horribly jerky people and a few other work related unmentionables, the week truly has been a blur. The important thing? It is over, everything went well and this is Labor Day weekend. Yeah!
I did pause for a few minutes last night to watch the final evening of the Democratic National Convention. Whatever you might think about Barack Obama, that man can give a serious speech. How could you not be inspired by the fact that his acceptance of the party's nomination came on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech*. As the wife of a black man and the mother of a biracial child, I am so thankful that we live in today's world of increasing acceptance. It is a slow process and we still have so far to go as a country (with sexism as well as racism which is the topic of another forthcoming post) but knowing that Obama has achieved what he has means that Milo can too. Specifically, I just mean that society's preconceptions are going to change because of this... there will be less of a barrier or maybe no barrier for him to overcome due to his skin color (aka perfect year-round summer tan).
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, McCain announced his running mate today. A woman! I am so very proud of our country right now. I think his choice is either the smartest thing he could have possibly done or the stupidest (as far as getting elected goes); however, this means that either a black man or a woman are going to be working in the White House. How cool is that? I am still a hard-core Obama supporter, but I am eager to see what Palin has to say and how this could possibly change the notions of women in high level positions. I am excited to see what happens over the course of the next two months as the election really ramps up. More than anything I am glad a change is coming. It is time.
*On a side note, when I was in graduate school a few years ago one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s close friends came to speak to us. He told us about the days of the civil rights movement when he worked closely with Rev. King as they fought for racial equality. Two things have always stuck with me from that incredibly interesting night. First, he said that he felt that Rev. King would be disappointed with the behavior of many black people living in the US today. He explained that he felt reverse racism and animosity on their part was undoing a lot of the good that had been done by Rev. King's generation.
Secondly, he told us that the "I Have a Dream" speech was actually written by a young Asian woman who worked and traveled with all of them during those years. He said that she was one of Rev. King's favorite speech writers. Interestingly, I mentioned that in a class some years later and a few of my classmates got very agitated with me that I could imply Rev. King had not written those words himself.
Both of these things make me reflect upon how sometimes we need to believe what we believe. For instance, for some of the angry black people it is easier to believe that the world is still against them. It gives them a cushion, an excuse, to fall back on. And my classmates wanted to believe that this one man possessed all of that inspiration inside of himself - that somehow that made him what he was. Doesn't it make it better in a way though that he was able to draw such inspiration from outside of himself, to accept it and to put it out into the world in such a moving way?
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