Recently America has been indulging in a conversation. A conversation demanded by Obama in an effort to distract from the religious extremism of his church. A conversation that he hopes will divert attention from some very real facts.

 

I refuse to take this conversation back to Slavery and the Civil War. I was born in 1956 and that is where my conversation can start.

 

There are no solutions in this type of conversation, which lends itself to apologists and the validation of victimization. The true guilt lies in the soil and the blood of every nation.

There have been times in history where cultures clash and society breaks open to reveal the true injustices and class distinctions that separate us. The 1960’s in America was such a time. Black people rose up and demanded change. Jews stood side by side with them to organize and fight for rights. Women left their families and died in the frontlines of a battle that was fought in the South.

 

While idealistic college students were marching with Dr King LBJ was president. He lacked the charisma and the charm of the Kennedys . The camera did not love him and he spoke with a blunt Texas drawl. Nevertheless, LBJ used all his political capital and most of his personal energy to pass the Civil Rights Acts that were left as only a promise with no underpinning by the inspirational JFK. The short Camelot era was a time of hope. LBJ was not inspirational, but he got things done.

 

Men and women like Dr King, John Lewis, and Rosa Parks were the true heroes in this story. They organized and were beaten and arrested and sometimes murdered in small towns in Mississippi and Alabama.

The Martin Luther King branch of the Civil Rights movement embodied a dedication with true faith to the principles of peaceful resistance and Gandhi’s teachings.

 

LBJ’s legacy may always be Viet Nam, which was another inheritance from Kennedy that grew like a cancer on his Presidency. LBJ who was known to utter racial slurs leaves a stark contradiction. But without him the story could not have been written. He was a hero too.

Laws were hammered out and attitudes began to change. Sometimes when the people rise up, change happens.

 

 From lunch counters and buses to the streets of Washington DC people stood up and demanded change. With Affirmative Action and the Federal efforts and Supreme Court decisions to equalize education and opportunity a window was opened. Change actually began in the US before the 1960’s and 1970’s.

 

In 1968 I cried in the arms of a Black woman when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Actually I was in middle school and Stella Davis was my surrogate Mother. I lived in an America where Blacks were still struggling for Civil Rights, but White working women trusted them with their children. The irony does not escape me.

In 1973 during integration my high school was occupied by a SWAT team for months. A small number of Black students were bussed into Bryan Adams HS in Dallas. Signs carefully made in the art room after school (by some of the football team) demanded “Ni…r Go Home”. A race riot erupted the next morning. It was only the continued police presence,  that ended 3 days of sporadic fighting.

 

The worst of the conflict took place in the courtyard where the signs were and in the cafeteria where Black and White anger spilled into a food fight with butter knives and fists.

From the shelter of underneath a table I met my friend from English class. We ran hand-in-hand outside to the tennis court. We watched together. I was a white girl who was half stoned and she was a black girl who said she was “A lover not a fighter”.

 

I believe that my conversations with Stella and Deborah were not about words but about hearts. But there are times when words are important.

In my lifetime, I have encountered random good old boys, fading old men, my small town cousins, Black teenagers, and more recently a high school teacher of one of my daughters who have used racial slurs. I have stood to confront these attitudes and words that divide us. I do not have to accept the unacceptable words or slanders even in those that I love. I am doubtful that I have changed any minds or hearts. But I believe strongly in personal responsibility.

 

Has America done enough? I say no! But time is on our side.

 

When people shake off the bonds of slavery and discrimination it takes generations for any society to right itself. It takes the equal application of laws. It takes the constant vigilance of an electorate. It takes the political will and understanding of the people of this country. It takes people willing to dispel myths and insist on solutions within the circle of their friends and family. It takes the moral courage to reject separatism whether it be Black, White, Brown or Red.

In some cases, it may be argued that we have overcorrected. Others may demand that we tear down the government and start again.

 

Our society is not color-blind and growing up Black in America still limit’s your opportunities and increases your risks. If you are poor you may be denied equal protection in our justice system. Our society is not equal and growing up Brown in America often eliminates your chance to have your voice heard. Asians are the fastest growing minority in America and assimilation is generational not situational. Women are not represented proportionally in government or in industry. Gays and lesbians still do not have the simple right to marry and the protections of the law in both civil and law enforcement lapses. America has an uneven history of warehousing and control of minorities and the  poor. Usually these periods are followed by earnest attempts to right these deep and wounding wrongs.

 

Growing up White in America you may be the ancestor of abolitionists or slave owners.  Every immigrant has their story. Every story has its terrible chapters in American history.

 

My bi-racial grandson sees the world in shades not colors. I hope I can influence him to live with an open heart and an embracing spirit. I believe that we have an obligation to try and influence those closest to our hearts and spirits

 

Will I fear you for your color as we break bread? Will I hate you for your accent as I learn your language? Will I distrust the immigrant soul as I acknowledge it is my own?

Will you blame me for the sins of my grandfather? Should my skin define me? If I sense prejudice in myself is that equal to denouncing America?

I believe it takes the direct and personal mixing of the melting pot to make the truest changes. My responsibility is simple. I must speak out at the very level where I live my life. In my church or community or in my own home is where I have the most responsibility to “talk this talk and walk this walk”. America is built on a dream that must be nurtured and not damned.

 

Sometimes when you feel guilty you are…..sometimes when you feel guilty someone is manipulating you for political purposes.

 No one in their right mind can deny that we have big problems in America. The time for talk was decades ago the time for action continues.

 So why are we having this conversation?

It is my belief that this conversation is designed to distract. It is born of political desperation and pandering. This conversation that is demanded of America is one that Mr Obama did not think was important to have in his own church. It has within it the seeds of separtism and division and is designed to play on guilt and anger for political gain.

 

 

Never forget the devil is only one step behind you.

Remember that at the rainbow's end is a pot of gold to remind you.

No matter what  you and your true love should never ever part.

And most of all may God Bless your big old Irish Heart!    

 

 

 

 

For just a moment, I thought of the 2 college students, girls so violently murdered in such senseless crimes....

And I wondered if they would even be in the news if they had been a different color.

Or if they had been lesbians?

Our sons and daughters have names and faces, and far too many are dying violent deaths, in this second amendment loving, gun toting country. Every three hours in America a child is killed with a gun. And I would disarm all parents if it would get any one of these children back.

Everybody has a story and they should all be told.

 

 

Did you wait for me in the chatroom?

Did you beckon me from your blog?

Did you send me an email because I won’t take your calls?

 

There are reasons I should leave here.

There are truths that make me stay.

The same magnet that drew me can push me away.

So in the heart of the darkness my fingers come alive.

In this virtual world there is no place to hide.

 

I am a mirror of my words in a room with no walls.

Don’t forget to cover your head in case the glass falls.

 

I can feel it in the Texas wind. The air is cold and clear and the clouds look like angels dancing in the sky. Perhaps my past meets my future today. An overlap in time, an oversight in nature, a sin of omission has become a defining moment.

 

I have a theory that life is made up of “partings of the curtains”. We all have a series of moments that define us. Years of meditation and self analysis merge with the voices of my teachers.

 

Once I believed that I could change the world.  I never even  made a dent. It is a certainty that the world changed me.

 

 My time in the early eighties as a community organizer and my work with and for women is kind or a blur now. Some people didn’t make it out of the old ATRC alive. In the early eighties there was still no place to take a woman alcoholic in DT’s unless she had good insurance. I remember dancing with the German ambassador at a fundraiser and thinking that there were women on the street and I was warm and safe.

 

 I have seen Anne Richards up close. She was a woman that never gave up. She said once that as the Governor of Texas she made compromises every day. She also said that the most important thing was  how many people you helped. Right before she died she attended a benefit for the arts. She was worn and battered by her disease but her sense of humour was intact.

 

I know all about situational ethics. My life transformed in every way when I changed careers. I understand the “good old boy” system. During my telcom career we had to have lobbyists to make political contributions to campaigns in New York and California and Illinois.  That was how the system worked. That was how we got towers across America to give us seamless wireless coverage. Everyone wants the phones but no one wants the towers.

 

In Arkansas you usually just had to take someone to lunch or laugh at their jokes.

 

I read a lot of old articles to refresh my memory. I watched old speeches that Al Gore gave in 1992 that seemed like a call for a war in Iraq. I saw Hillary's meeting with the "Pink Ladies" before the war.  Hillary said then that she was hoping that George Bush would be able to build a coalition and that the weapons inspections were going forward.

 

Later when  Cyndy Sheehan made her way to Waco to stage her "sit in" at the Bush Ranch.  I pondered my coffee house conversations  with Marvin and tried to remember when he stopped believing we should be in Iraq. I was right about the war. From the start I never believed that there were WMD's. But I believe that Hillary and John Edwards and Kerry and a lot of good people with stacks of cherry picked intelligence were convinced that Saddam was a threat. I also saw Bill Clinton fairly early on say that he believed that Afganistan was where our time and resources should be spent.

 

 

 I have heard the stories of Bill and Hillary in the early days. George Stephenopolous said that Bill seemed soft but he was tough on the inside and Hillary seemed tough but she had a soft center. It makes sense to me. Clinton was an extraordinary president and a very flawed man.

  

For 4 years now I have gotten the Republican hate mail about Hillary. The Muslim attack emails on Obama started more recently. Either way these attacks take their toll.

 

Before the primary moved to Texas I read the Chicago papers. I mean I really read the Chicago papers. In my opinion Obama and his wife have a lot of similarities to Bill and his wife coming up. Of course JFK and RFK had clay feet both politically and personally. Everything is relative  None of them are evil and  none of them were Gods. Camelot was a media invention in the days before the media reported on President’s sex lives.

 

 

My friend/sometime lover/not-so-handyman is assuring me that he’s voting for Obama. This is another of his neverending efforts to convince me he is not a Republican.  If he's not careful I will put a Hillary bumper sticker on his car.

 

 

I have made a lot of calls for Hillary. I have tried to explain the system to lots of early voters. She has made a life of making a difference. I'm glad she decided not to stay home and bake cookies.

 

Last week a motorcycle officer died here in Dallas. He was a part of Hillary’s protection. Hillary cancelled her event and went to the hospital to be with his family. When the family held a news conference and talked about their Dad they said that Hillary had cried with the widow and been there for the family. The news report did not mention the video of the family and what they said.  

 

No cameras were present when Hillary cried. I’m guessing she was glad.

 

 I still believe I can change the world. I’m not certain that we will win this election. But we are having a lot of fun in Texas. My rules for the game are 1) always lie to pollsters 2)expect the unexpected and 3) always leave the dance with the ones you came with.

 

Win, lose or draw this one’s for the girls that brought me to this dance.