Hope and Joy !

I decided to wait to post to my personal blog until something really momentous happened.

The election of Barak Obama as President certainly fits the bill.

It may take a while for me to complete my thoughts on this as I will need several breaks for my eyes to dry...you see I have been crying almost every time I think about it. I just never in my wildest dreams thought an African American would be president. I firmly believed that America's racism would always rear its ugly head to eliminate that possibility. I stand happily corrected.

As I listened to Barak Obama deliver his acceptance speech last night, I watched intently as they scanned the crowd. Seeing Jesse Jackson with tears streaming down his face was almost more than I could handle. This man, who knelt beside Martin Luther King as he lay dying on that motel balcony, deserved to see this day. Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, the folks gathered at Ebeneezer Baptist Church (MLK's church) deserved to see this day. You and I did too but as African Americans I feel they deserved it more.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist wrote - "And so it came to pass that on November 4, 2008, shortly after 11 p.m. Eastern time, the American Civil War ended, as a black man -- Barack Hussein Obama -- won enough electoral votes to become president of the United States."

So this morning on my long bus ride into work I thought about my friend, my mentor, Pastor Zachary Bruce. He taught me more about racism in the short time that I worked with him then all the years that I have been a social activist working for racial equality. This educated, articulate, intelligent and always impeccably dressed man once asked me to carry a TV that we needed for a presentation down a city street for him. Pastor Bruce was always a gentleman so this took me by surprise. He would never think of asking a woman to carry something this heavy for him without a compelling reason and so I agreed but asked him why he couldn't carry it. The answer was both disheartening and educational. He was worried that people would assume that he had stolen it. Throughout the time I worked with Zac he shared many stories with me about facing racism first hand. Stories like how his mother always taught he and his siblings to not put their hands in their pockets in stores lest the clerks would think they stole something. And how nontheless the clerks would follow him around stores watching even though he followed his mother's advice.

Another time Zachary and I were returning from a conference in Oregon and while driving near Tenino, Washington traffic was diverted from I-5 onto small country roads. Zachary immediately grew tense and apprehensive, scared to be driving alone with a white woman in the car with him. I slid down into the seat, hiding until we were able to get back onto the main interstate.

This is the world we live in but it just got a little better.

So this is for Pastor Zachary Bruce and to all my brothers and sisters of color and for my children.

Hallelujah!!!

Here is to a brighter future for us all !!!