President Obama

President Obama-There is much to be excited and proud about in those words. As an American I have long awaited the time when we would have a black president, a woman president, a Hispanic president and a Jewish president, in fact in time I suspect we will eventually have a Muslim president.

I moved from the west to the south in the late 60's and was therefore thrown right into the middle of the desegregation of schools during my middle and high school years. My last year of middle school was the year they integrated teachers in the middle of the school year after Christmas break. Not the smartest of moves in my opinion both from a social aspect or an educational one, but it was what it was. A dear black friend of mine released me after I was shoved into my locker,I was much smaller then,during the riots that ensued the forced busing that followed the court orders. Having previously lived primarily in Air Force base housing and gone to base schools in the west where segregation not only was not practiced it was unknown, the entire experience was an eye opener for sure.

One summer we went home to Portland Oregon on vacation. I bought my little brother a confederate hat to wear on the trip across the country. I did not mean anything by it, it came with a little play musket and a confederate flag. When we pulled up to my grandparents house in Portland and piled out of our Volkswagen Bus, my little brother was wearing it and carrying the flag.

My Grandpa was the most spiritual and loving man I have ever known or ever will know. He was an electrician by trade to support his family but he was a minister by the Grace of God and calling. As he said, he could not take money for doing the Lord's work.

When he saw that flag he turned white and then red. When he found out that I had bought it for Randy, he lectured me for 15 minutes on what it represented and how it was the most despicable thing that had ever crossed his threshold. I being all of 15 or so tried to explain the significance of it, the tradition, the history of indentured servants in the New England states and any other history I could come up with to justify my crime, and it was a crime. This of course got me nowhere but further in trouble with the man I have always loved most in life.

After the hat, the flag and even the musket were safely deposited in Grandpa's garbage can, he lectured his daughter, my mom on her transgression. To be fair I do not even know if Mom realized that Randy had it or much paid attention, us being in the back of the bus. With five kids and a dog on a cross country trip, parents don't really get into specifics other than breathing and other natural functions.

That is where I come from, in my family the N word would have been and still is worse than any curse word you could use, that is my background on the whole race thing. My grandpa and my family raised us in a way that was so eloquently expressed by one of my greatest heroes when he talked about judging people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

My wife is a teacher, at a private school, run by an African American Church. All her students are either black, mostly, with a few immigrant Hispanics mixed in. She has taught there for a few years now so the students at the grades above hers, 4th, know her She was telling me how one of the older staff members, an older black bus driver was leading the student body in Obama cheers during lunch period. "Who's the President?" he would call out and all the students responded"OBAMA" the kids shout back. When she told me the story last night it brought tears to our eyes, and we both strongly supported McCain. But the most telling part of the story happened later in the day. A student came up to my wife and said, "You know Mrs. B... McCain is a real nice guy. Last night he said some nice things about President Obama, I like him too." And another student told her "I wish Mr. .... would stop the Obama cheer, we know who the next President is."

So now we have our first African-American President and I am so proud that despite what has been inferred for many years, something I have known for awhile is true, we really are not a racist country and the words President Obama prove it. Not that there are not racist, there are many, of all colors. The most publicized racist comments of the past campaign season have been from a black man, a minister no less, but the country as a whole is not racist.


I strongly disagree with many things that President Obama advocates. For example I have seen bottom up economics tried many times, it always fails and I suspect it will again. I hope that he governs somewhere close to the center as he says he will, though I'm skeptical and for my son's sake I hope he doesn't come after peoples guns. I will call him out on anything I feel he is doing that in my opinion is hurting our country, that is my right as his boss. But I am so proud of my country for being what I have always known it is, if not color blind, striving for color neutral.

Good Luck President Obama, I wish you well for our country's sake and especially for my wife's students sake but your color will not protect you from my criticism when I think it is justified, that is being color blind.