I'm listening to Bill Richardson in the background - speaking in both English and Spanish, as he warms up the convention crowd in Mile High Stadium for Barack Obama's speech of acceptance of his party's nomination for president. Bill Richardson was born to a Mexican mother and an American father. Obama of course was born to a white mother from Kansas and and a Kenyan father. So much has changed for the better. Lyndon Johnson would be 100 years old today and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. are both forty years dead. I am thankful to have lived in the times I've lived and seen the changes I've seen.
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy
4 comments:
I too have been thinking so much lately of how much things have changed in my lifetime. The Olympics first as I marveled thinking how closed and drab China was all my growing up and young adult years.
This election has also been one I have been more excited about than I can remember being about an election. I am so proud that the Democratic Parly nominated Barack and that Hilary was such a close contender too. I have been thrilled by the speeches at the convention. We know two people who were there and I am anxious to hear how it was to be there in person. What an amazing time we live it!
My mother was born before women could vote in a South where African Americans could not be guaranteed the vote. I so wish she had seen this happen. She would have loved it and would have been so proud to be a Democrat--even in this crimson part of the country!
Things have changed for the better and I feel so lucky to live in this time!
I love that quote! thanks for sharing it.
great quote and good sentiment. One thing though--Obama's dad was not an African American. He's just plain African (from Kenya).
Thanks for the comments. Peggy, I wish your mother were alive to see this election too. And Ruth, I fixed the nationality of Obama's Dad. I must have been tired when I posted.
Post a Comment