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Show THE ZEPHYR] DECEMBER 2008-JANUARY 2009 ONE of SIXTY MILLION Dear Everyone, I am not all that old, but I’m old enough to say that I am very happy to have lived to see this day. My grandfather was in the Klu Klux Klan. My great great grandfather was a slave owner. I grew up in Birmingham Alabama during the 60’s when Bull Connor was hosing Negroes down the sidewalks and three little black girls were killed in a church bombing. I was sheltered from much of this and never learned the truth until I went off to college. What I remember are trips to the zoo where there were “colored” ad: ‘white” water fountains and restrooms. ! I was raised in part by a tall, rather fierce black woman who was a strong presence in my childhood. She seems to have imprinted me with an archetype of the wise black woman. My father is a southern version of Archie Bunker. A few years ago when I brought up Martin Luther King Jr.’s name, his response was, “That uppity, womanizing, commie-loving bastard!” My father is aman who believes that Muslims should not be allowed to fly on airplanes in the United States. Ironically, my father earned his living as an obstetric physician, delivering the “medicaid babies” of poor black women. He treated these women in a demeaning fashion, as if they were an unintelligent subspecies of humans. I know this because it was a running joke around our house about how stupid they were. In young adulthood I worked as a hospital admitting clerk and talked to many of his black patients. They may have spoken “Ebonics” but they were not stupid! This past May I was in Alabama visiting my parents. We attended a church supper in which the topic of conversation among a table of old, white, Christian southerners was,”Do you think that the nigger can actually win?” When I was in my 20’s I had a fling with a black man from a foreign country. When I found that I was pregnant I chose to have an abortion in large part out of fear. It was simply unthinkable that I would return to Alabama carrying a half black child! I did not expect to feel this emotional about Obama’s victory... I have often felt ashamed of where I come from and of who my ancestors are, but as I voted for Obama and listened last night to his victory speech, it was as if layers of old guilt were falling away. Of course it is not about race. I didn’t vote for him because he is black. I voted for him because he was obviously the better candidate. I voted for him because he is incandescent with hope for this country. Last night, as Jesse Jackson stood with tears streaming down his face, I felt as I’ve often felt during this campaign, the echoes of his “Keep Hope Alive” speech were in the air. I haven't heard this mentioned in the media, but barack is an Arabic word meaning “grace or bless- ings.” A person with great charisma is said to have baracka. Obama seems to me the human of embodiment of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and now we are all God’s children holding hands and singing in the words of the Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!” Of course one man cannot solve all our problems, but he can be a catalyst to inspire us. If it has taken eight years of Bush to bring us to this point, perhaps, just perhaps, it will prove to have been worth it. The reason I am sending out this lengthy e mail is to ask everyone of you to send wishes and prayers of protection to our President Elect, to imagine orbs of light, guardian angels, Jesus, Allah, Great Spirit or however it is you connect with divinity to surround and bless this man. He will need our prayers, lest, God forbid, we repeat the past tragedies of Lincoln, the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King Jr. Thanks so much for reading this! Cyndy Hodo November 4, 2008 |
