So did I

I was on the phone with my best friend back home though. We have spent a lot of historic moments on the phone together. I, too stood.
I wanted too. Then I also thought...my Dad may be watchin from up there so I better have stood!

I also gathered some personal momentos. I have a small laminated copy of my Father's discharge from the Navy. I also had my Grandfather on my Mom's side last Driver's license.
Just before he took the oath, I looked down and my "pawpaw's" ID was looking up at me. I had to pick it up and put it in my pocket because it dawned on me that he may have not been happy about this day.

When I was little, we would visit. One time, I met some kids playing next door so we played and such. My Mom made me come inside....because her Dad made her make me come inside. THIS is how I learned about racism. The kids next door...were Mexican. I grew up 2 miles from the border of Mexico (they were in Waco) Mexican...or purple..it didn't matter to me...they were kids! I was so happy to get out of that stuffy house and have someone to play with.

I asked my Mom about it a bit later in life. She said her Father had always been that way and that she knew she would NOT raise me that way. (Thank You Mom) Now, I don't really hold it totally against my Pawpaw....I cannot help how he was raised. He didn't know different. This was the early 70's and I think he was in his 80's or 90's. He wasn't around much longer.
That had to be sooo hard for my Mom to explain to a 6 yr. old. I'll always remember that day.

My favorite part of his speech?

"and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."

My best friend kept reminding me that this shouldn't be about race. I do agree, but this was the moment for me. I can't say "In your face, Pawpaw" because those were not the ideals he held to and I loved the man....but.

I was more than proud to see this day and see this wonderful man take his oath. Please don't let us down!

Obama is the right man on the right place . Even in Europe the people are happy for the change in the USA . I hope that he can do something abouth the recession thats also hits Europe now . For the moment i have work for only 2 weeks a month . Lets hope that the trust of people is coming back in the US and the rest of the world . I pray that his ideas are gonna work but its gonna take a lot of time to clean that mess that was left behind . I hope that we can work all together now for the future of our children , no matter what color or beliefe we have . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D9S48A81os

Stephanie, my father, who died in 1993 at the age of 67, probably would not have been happy to see Obama elected, for the same reason. While we can't hate our parents for the way they were raised, we can be damned glad that that way of raising is being done away with.

I didn't watch any of the inauguration, but I was so glad that Obama won; it means we have a fighting chance to turn things around in this country and the world, from the mess that has been dumped on us the last 8 years. And it will be a fight, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel now. It wouldn't have been there if McCain had been elected, because he was married to continuing the same old stuff as before, which got us down to this level and would have taken us out.

Change won't happen overnight and it won't be easy, because there are many people still entrenched in the old way of greed and separateness. But it's a beginning. Now, to just get that stimulus package through the Senate. Prayers and vibes are needed badly, as well as phone calls and votes.

My father whom we lost this past June, told me the story of his senior trip to Washington D.C. the year he was to graduate in 1953. He grew up in the same small New Jersey town that I'm in today, a mostly white middle class rural/suburban area. He went to a small high school with a graduting class I think of 60 or so students. One of his classmates was a black girl that lived only a few doors from him. The only black person in the class. When the class arrived in Washington D.C., the hotel that they had reserved would not admit her . This pissed dad off, even then.

[quote="LisaC"]Stephanie, my father, who died in 1993 at the age of 67, probably would not have been happy to see Obama elected, for the same reason. While we can't hate our parents for the way they were raised, we can be damned glad that that way of raising is being done away with.
quote]

Yes indeed!

Wow Larry..Your Dad saw it up close and personal! I grew up rubbing distance from Mexico and right before I started school they were segregated. A few of my older friends and even my Hubby recall the fighting when it was lifted.

Just awful periods all around!

By the way, that women's son and I were friends 15 or 20 years after the "incident". We both grew up in the same town, he being a couple of years younger than I. I still see him from time to time.

It's really a cool thing, but sad at the same time, that something like what happened to your father's classmate will often make people see issues like segregation as they really are and not as some kind of ideological thing. It's cool because the person then sees the other person behind the stereotype and says hey wait a minute here, and it's sad because it so often takes this happening for people to see other people as being as real as they themselves are. It should be hardwired into our brains, but apparently not. I am as guilty as anyone; I never really saw Muslims as anything other than their portrayal in most US media until I became friends with a Pakistani young woman who worked for us here for a couple of years. She taught me a lot, for which I am very grateful.

Would that we could evolve to the point of knowing these things without having to be hit over the head with them.

Sometimes getting hit in the head ain't such a bad thing.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2vn5VIdnBw

How many days left now?

How many days left now until the other percentage of those who think everything is still fine realize that we are getting hit on the head from above. Only ten % of the people 200 or more years ago would not have settled for England's rule. Though it does seem to me that we are doing much better than that 10 percent, how do we get 50 people an hour calling DC and singing that famous lyric of a Restaurant?