Today, I read an article by Marian Wright Edelman where she mentioned a cartoon published in the early 1960s. The cartoon was a drawing of a Black boy saying to a White boy: "I’ll sell you my chance to be President of the United States for a nickel." That powerful quote wraps up where our country was at one point crystallizing what many black-folks have thought for decades;
"When you're White, The Sky is the limit, When you're Black, The limit's the Sky".
I was a pretty bright kid. I excelled in English and Speech. My teachers used to tell my mom at her teacher conferences, "I think he's really got something". I remember my mom used to thank them, turn to me and say, "Tim you're so smart. You could grow up to be President one day". She didn't really mean it though. It's okay. She said it to be nice. She was doing what mothers do; protect their kids from pain.
My mom is a terrific person, but what my mom truly believed in was the "Reality of Limitations". Where you accept that you can't do, be, want, have everything you want out of life, to do otherwise is to be a silly fool walking around with your head in the clouds waiting on a rude awakening. My parents, bless their hearts, both thought I should take up a good trade, you know like a mechanic or plumber and be happy already. There's nothing wrong with working with your hands, it just wasn't for me. Some people have two left feet. I have two left hands. I didn't blame my parents for wanting me to be an electrician. Who could blame them? In the 50's and 60's when they grew up, there wasn't much room for big dreams. There was work and you should be happy about it and that's what most of them did. Work. Not a career and definitely not a dream.
Things have changed alot since that cartoon mentioned in the quote was published. There was a time when being doubtful about your chances of a bright future were a protection mechanism. Today, it's not about protecting people from life slamming them in the face, today people doubt America because they'd rather doubt than help out.
I'm just being serious.
I've bumped into cynical people, some on-line, some offline, who doubt an Obama Presidency will change anything. Note, these "unmoved" people usually don't face much adversity in their everyday lives, unless you think fighting for a parking space at the mall is adversity. It's pretty easy not to give a duck about poor people who can't afford heat, vets who receive crappy treatment or seniors eating dog food because they can't afford their meds, when you're eating a nice thick steak and watching reruns of 24.
The cynics mutter under their breaths how they aren't interested in politics and they don't support anyone, but if they did they wouldn't support Obama or McCain. When they see your optimism about the country getting onto a positive path. They say things like "Wooo-Hooo the great and mighty Obama is going to change the world...I'd better get my spaceship ready...Wooo-Hooo". I laugh, because 1, hey that's funny, and 2, because only an idiot actually believes one man alone can change the world. I sure don't.
I try to explain the same thing Obama himself has said; one person can change another person and if that's true, then a person can change a town, a city a state a country. Movements can and have started from a small group of people and ripple out. It's going to take many people bouncing off each other, spreading the wealth, lending a hand - you know being apart of society. Weshouldn't be counting on just Obama to change things. We need to count on each other. Us. We need to fix things. We need to get involved. Obama is only lighting the fire and leading the march, we all are expected to get a shoulder in and help push America forward
If you ask me, it's the cynics who don't love America very much. Sure they love their Wii and their ESPN and their IPODS and they're NASCAR, but if you love something shouldn't you be willing to work for it and if it needs improvement shouldn't you be willing to help?
I'm not stuck in fantasy-land. I know life is hard, people are pinheads and there are bigots amongst us, but I also know about the hopes of every little boy and girl, that if they work hard enough, study hard enough, and keep their noses clean, they can be whatever they dream to be. I'm happy to say, thanks inpart to this historical election, my sons big dreams are worth a lot more than a nickel and when I say to him he can grow up to be president, he'll know I really mean it.
