MLK/President Obama Day reflections

In honor of my homeboy Martin Luther the King, whose birthday is celebrated today -- and my other homeboy, Barack Obama the President, whose second term in office is ushered in today -- I spent some time this morning reflecting on my ancestors and elders, the people whose lives made it possible for me to live the privileged life I do today.

Living in a place like Baltimore, it's easy to forget that, in my grandparents' lifetimes, there were segregated schools and prohibitions on interracial marriage and discriminatory laws that kept black people from buying homes or seeking education in certain colleges or earning as much as their non-black peers. Black people were systematically held back, hazed, hated and even killed.

But so many good people recognized this injustice and instead of just tut-tutting about it with sympathetic others, they withstood hatred and danger and ostracizing to FIGHT to make sure that things would change. I thank those fighters with all my heart.

Some people helped the cause of equality by quietly going about the business of living their lives, with dignity and determination, shoulders squared for the hatred and the obstacles that thwarted them daily. They are the doers. I like to think that many in my own family -- grandparents and great-grandparents and Aunties and Uncles I never met -- are among that group. I hope somehow they know how much I thank, and love, them too.

It is amazing to think that we have come so far in such a relatively short period of time. What a poetic coincidence that President Obama will serve a second term in office, beginning on the day we observe the birthday of Dr. King. 

But today I want to thank all of the heroes (as I should every day). Not just the big names, and not just the fighters, but the everyday doers, too, for paving the way for me and my family. Their insistence (in both big and small ways) that the world recognize their humanity means that I don't have to fight quite as hard. I don't have to do quite as much.

I can just be.


Thank you to all those who lives and deaths provide me with that comfortable existence, that ability to just be. Considering what their lives were like, that feels to me like a supreme privilege. Thank God they knew that it was, in fact, a right.

Celebrate!

I am soooo happy about my President.

 I can't lie. It makes me incredibly happy not just that the country re-elected the man I believe is the best man for the job, but also -- ALSO -- that a black man earned the trust of the American people two times in a row!

Considering our nation's history (and sometimes its present), this makes me feel all kinds of overwhelming emotions about the possibilities for my boys.

I am so emotional about it, I can't even adequately convey all my thoughts.

But also, I am so happy that my state of Maryland finally has given the right to marry to people who are gay! (It's so awesome to really see in full color that my vote counts!)

The marriage equality vote chokes me up too. I'm a Christian and I love the Lord, but civil rights are civil rights, people. And it's a sad day when folks willfully choose to conflate religion with rights.

But today is NOT a sad day. Today is a happy day! And I am celebrating!! I am celebrating for all my friends who can now get married (shout-out to Jessica and Holly -- can't wait to go to ANOTHER wedding of yours!) And I am celebrating for myself, too. I love it when love wins over hate.

And I love it when Cary busts in on me in the bathroom first thing in the morning to say, "Mommy, Barack Obama wunt!"

Sweetest words ever!

As Kool and the Gang would say, "Celebrate good times come on!!! It's a celebration!!"

Why 2-year-olds should not be allowed to predict elections

Last night, while intensely studying his Lightning McQueen slipper (that boy is an observer, I tell you), Cary points to the tiny American flag you see here and says:

"Mommy, look! Barack Obama!"

I decided to take that as a sign. My child sees the teensiest symbol of this great country and immediately and unequivocally equates it with Barack Obama, the man who is fighting tooth and nail to hang on to the presidency. The man I would like to see win again.

From the mouths of babes, I thought. Dear Lord, let it be so.

I even posted my prediction on Facebook. (Dunh dunh dunhhhhh.)

Fast forward to this morning, election day.

Getting in the car, Cary spots my "I voted" sticker and claims it as his own.

I tell him he can't have it, because it belongs to Mommy. Mommy gets to have it because Mommy voted.

"I voted too," he says, nodding vigorously.

"Really?! That's great," I tell him. "Mommy voted for BARACK OBAMA!" (I say it with gusto, so he and Dean know that this is a good thing.)

And then Cary says, "I voted. I-I-I-I voted for MITT ROMNEY!" (He says it with gusto.)

And smiles at me. And takes my sticker.

Sigh.

Get out and vote, people!! A lot of folks died so we'd have this right. So get out and do it today!