Veritable Vision 11/09/08

Look with favor upon a bold beginning.

Virgil
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In my life time I have known of black men being lynched or burned to death, of being denied housing, denied education, the right to vote or even register. I have seen the signs on public buildings reading "colored entrance." I have seen job, housing, social and cultural discrimination of the worst kind. I have seen the looks of despair and failure on the faces and in the eyes of black men and women in the cities.

But I have also witnessed the Civil Rights Movement, Selma, Alabama, Rosa Parks, the rise of the ACLU, the SPLC, CORE, The United Negro College Fund, The March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. for whom there are now high schools named and a national holiday. Lyndon Johnson and the signing of the Civil Rights Act, school desegregation, bussing, a frightened but courageous young girl being led to school by federal marshals, the rise of respect for black people in sports, the arts and government. And now, at last, a black President of the U.S. All of it in my lifetime.

I know there are people who are dissatisfied with the results of this latest election for the wrong reasons. But the fact is that the change my country needs has already begun and I give it my meager but honest support.


DB