Thursday, November 6, 2008
A couple of videos today
I woke up this morning to greet the first full day in which Americans elected an African-American president.
So much hope. So much promise. Surely so much of it will go unfulfilled, but I didn't even think I could feel it anymore.
When I see those two little girls and think how their ancestors were kidnapped from Africa, hauled across the hideous middle passage and enslaved, how this country was built on the backs and blood of their ancestors, and how soon they will play in the Rose Garden and their father will be the leader of the free world...it's enormous.
Martin Luther King's last speech: "I Have Been to the Mountaintop"
Martin Luther King: "I Have a Dream"
We haven't gotten there yet, Rev. King. It's just another step. But I wish you were here to see it, to hear freedom ringing.
So much hope. So much promise. Surely so much of it will go unfulfilled, but I didn't even think I could feel it anymore.
When I see those two little girls and think how their ancestors were kidnapped from Africa, hauled across the hideous middle passage and enslaved, how this country was built on the backs and blood of their ancestors, and how soon they will play in the Rose Garden and their father will be the leader of the free world...it's enormous.
Martin Luther King's last speech: "I Have Been to the Mountaintop"
Martin Luther King: "I Have a Dream"
We haven't gotten there yet, Rev. King. It's just another step. But I wish you were here to see it, to hear freedom ringing.
// posted by Jennifer @ 10:36 AM 
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I'll call you this weekend! This week demands voice contact!
Also: Best. Word Verification. Ever.
*HUGE SMILE*
Also: Best. Word Verification. Ever.
*HUGE SMILE*
All that I could think about on Tuesday night was the following from Winston Churchill upon the U.S. entering WWII. Heart overriding head at least for now.
So we had won after all! ...after Dunkirk; after the fall of France; after the horrible episode of Oran; after the threat of invasion, when, apart from the Air and the Navy, we were an almost unarmed people; after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war... we had won the war. England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutiliated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals.
No doubt it would take a long time. I expected terrible forfeits...but all this would be merely a passing phase. United we could subdue everybody else in the world. Many disasters, immeasurable cost and tribulation lay ahead, but there was no more doubt about the end....
Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.
(And I did!)
So we had won after all! ...after Dunkirk; after the fall of France; after the horrible episode of Oran; after the threat of invasion, when, apart from the Air and the Navy, we were an almost unarmed people; after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war... we had won the war. England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutiliated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals.
No doubt it would take a long time. I expected terrible forfeits...but all this would be merely a passing phase. United we could subdue everybody else in the world. Many disasters, immeasurable cost and tribulation lay ahead, but there was no more doubt about the end....
Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.
(And I did!)
# posted by 
: November 8, 2008 at 3:39 AM
: November 8, 2008 at 3:39 AM
Wow--I never read that bit of Churchill before (from Paul, above), though I've read lots of Churchill quotes. BUt he's so quoteable, there's plenty I've missed.
Anyway, I'm a bit brain befuddled still too at the enormity of it.
Even if Obama does nothing much, he's done this--gotten here.
Anyway, I'm a bit brain befuddled still too at the enormity of it.
Even if Obama does nothing much, he's done this--gotten here.
Wow, Paul--thanks for the quote. I'm still giddy days later, which was...unexpected. My brain just never allowed itself to contemplate what it would mean. I never imagined dancing in the streets. I never imagined Jesse Jackson weeping. My mind couldn't go there.
It's going to be a hard four or eight years. But I never, never expected to see redemption as even a possibility so soon. America shocked and surprised me once more by proving it really could stop dead and say "No more." Maybe too late in some respects, certainly too late for tens of thousands of people, but I didn't think we could do it at all.
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It's going to be a hard four or eight years. But I never, never expected to see redemption as even a possibility so soon. America shocked and surprised me once more by proving it really could stop dead and say "No more." Maybe too late in some respects, certainly too late for tens of thousands of people, but I didn't think we could do it at all.
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