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about 70% for McCain. There are still Obama yard signs out, but McCain - not so much. A lady at my favorite convenience store asked me how I felt about the election outcome (I'm excited!) and why, and this letter is pretty much what I told her.
We have come to the end of a very contentious presidential campaign and inauguration. We have seen things come to pass that I did not think would happen in my lifetime, but we still have more ground to cover, more wounds to heal, more barriers to break down.
These are historic times, and we should embrace them with enthusiasm.
I graduated from an all-white Jacksonville high school in 1960. When I went to basic training a few days later, for the first time ever I talked to a black teenager.
I lived in Memphis, Tennessee when forced bussing began, with integration, fights, mayhem, riots and just plain meanness.
I remember the separate ticket booth and the balcony seating for “coloreds” in the Live Oak movie theater.
For all of the turmoil I was for the most part unaffected. I watched it on television, read it in the newspapers, listened to it on the radio - but that’s all I did, because it did not really affect me. For so many others, it was daily and personal.
But it did affect me. I don’t think that I realized it until my eyes teared up when the election results were announced. I have been excited about the possibilities ever since.
In the last scene of the movie “Shawshank Redemption” Morgan Freeman gives a voiceover as his character walks barefoot on the beach. The very last words one hears in the movie are “I hope.”
I hope I never again turn my back on another person in distress. I hope the mean-spiritedness that has surrounded, and continues to do so, the election of our new President fades into nothingness. I hope I never hear another racial slur or another example of verbal abuse toward a spouse or child - but I will. I hope that if I do I will have the strength of my convictions to say or do something instead of standing idly by.
I hope I get to see people come together as one with a common goal rather than spewing venom and hatred because the neighboring group is another race, or religion, or national origin, or even political party.
“I hope”
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