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Edited on Tue Nov-30-10 06:14 PM by Steely_Dan
I must have been about 10 or 11 years old. I was staying with my mom for the summer. She was getting remarried and I had a chance to meet my soon-to-be step dad in their new apartment in Tustin California.
I think it was around 11:00 or so when my mom woke me up from deep rim sleep. She kept tugging at my sleeve urging me to follow her into the living room. The flicker of the small black and white television could be seen from the end of the hall. I was following my sleeve, which was firmly grasped in my mom’s hand. She kept telling me to hurry, that she wanted me to see something.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes as she turned the volume up almost instinctively.
It was a news segment on the riots that were taking place in the South. She sat me down in the middle of the room as she stood near the television. The segment was complete with video and an on-site correspondent describing the events of the day.
There, in front of me, I saw police dressed in helmets swinging their batons in near frenzy against blacks in the streets of a small southern town. In addition, there were German Shepherds on short leashes inches away from frightened and cowering men, women and children. Fire hoses at full force were directed at unarmed protesters. Women wept while their children huddled consumed with terror as their world seemed to crumble around them. Proud black men were fighting to stay on their feet as the force of the hose knocked them down over and over again. But still, they rose.
“Those bastards,” I could hear my mother shout in a voice that I could only strain to hear. There was a tear on her cheek.
My mother sat down across from me on the floor and took my hand. I asked why the police were doing such horrible things to these people. She stated that, in our society, some people are not treated equally. She further explained that this segment of our country is fighting for the same rights that we had…and that there are people that do not want them to have these rights. Then she said in a very stern voice that we are obligated to fight for equal rights, for all people.
It took a long time to go back to sleep. The images I had just seen kept playing over and over again in my mind.
I didn’t know it then, but that was the night I became a liberal.
The years have passed much too quickly since those days. All this time I have held to my liberal beliefs without hesitation or compromise. I have always rejected any comments on how people admire my ability to hold to my convictions. You see, it doesn’t take any effort to just “be.” It is as much a part of who I am as the color of my eyes or how tall I am. I deserve no credit for my fight against injustice. It isn’t something I could help…it is simply who I am.
So, it shouldn’t be any surprise that I am somewhat confused on why our party would take the course it has taken. There was a time that I was simply known as a Democrat. Now, I’m considered a far left progressive when all I have done was maintain my lifelong commitment to what I believe is the right and just thing to do.
I am saddened that my party has left me…that they have put me out to pasture.
-P
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