This will be my last post about the election, tomorrow we will go back to caring for elderly parents, comedy classes, finding love in Portland, Dancing With The Stars, a little Amazing Race and soon to be on the horizon the next season of Top Chef.
Congratulations to Senator McCain and his supporters. You ran a good campaign. Thank you Senator McCain for starting the healing with a masterful and warm concession speech. You were a class act in defeat.
Congratulations to Senator Obama and his supporters. You brought change to the politcal process. Now President-Elect Obama bring it to all of us!
I've never been this emotional after an election in my life. This has been the most personal election to me. Never has an election meant so much to my views about discrimination as this one has. I know I talk to much about the car accident that I had as a young man. However, it has not only been instrumental in forming who I am but it has also been instrumental in how I believe.
I went to high school in a very red neck style town. We had one black family in a city with a population of over twenty thousand. I remember one time when I was at basketball practice the son in the African-American family had turned out for the team. He was the first one on the court to begin practice. I was the second. I went over and started shooting baskets with him. Within minutes five team members came to practice and went to the other end of the court to shoot baskets. Two of the five members pulled me aside and I was instructed not to shoot baskets with him if I wanted to be part of "their group." I wanted to be part of the group so I followed their instructions. I gave no consideration to how that young African-American man felt about being excluded because he was different. I would soon discover what it was like to be discriminated against.
As part of the recovery from the accident I spent two years in a wheelchair. I became different. The people talking about me like I wasn't there. The being turned down for jobs because: 1. We can't have someone out at the front desk in a wheelchair meeting the public, it wouldn't look good. 2. The refusal of prospective employers to give me a qualification test because someone in a wheelchair just couldn't be that smart. There was the college counselor that told me I couldn't live my dream and become a coach because "the profession just wouldn't accept someone in a wheelchair." I just had to change my major to an occupation that I could do not only sitting down but that I could do out of the public eye. The stares when I would shop by myself in stores, I would almost always be followed by a store employee until I was done shopping. They assumed I was there to shoplift. The first day I got out of the wheelchair and was walking with crutches. So proud I was of coming that far. I was walking (struggling really) down Main Street when the first person that spoke to me said "Hi, Cripple." I was crushed. I was still different. When I fully recovered from the accident I promised myself I would never discriminate against anyone again in my lifetime. To me it would no longer matter what sex you were, what your sexual orientation was, what your religion was, or what your skin color was. You were a human. That is all that mattered.
Another barrier broken. One less area where skin color no longer matters. The first African-American president. It is redemption for that young man that we couldn't shoot baskets with. It is a condemnation of the views of the college counselor. It is correction of the vision of the man on the street that saw a cripple instead of a human. It is a victory for all that are or were at one time excluded from the club.
President-elect Obama we have helped you break the barrier, now do us proud by not only bringing change to America but by including everyone even your opponents and those that are different than you in the process!
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8 comments:
Great post, Bill! Thanks.
I sat last night and the tears flowed! What a day! What a shame that it seems Prop 8 passed in CA.
Hi Mary
Thanks for the nice words.
It was just an emotional night for everyone.
I'm sorry that prop 8 passed. Stinks.
Bill
Echoing Mary Z again, great post, Bill! My rather brief sojourn in a wheelchair this last year was quite different. People seemed to go out of their way to help out, even at the DMV when I renewed my license. But of course, it was pretty clearly temporary and I wasn't looking for work. I'm so sorry to hear your experience was so different.
I'm sure Obama will really be the "uniter" that GWB promised but didn't deliver. After the euphoria of last night, I'm sobered today by the challenges he faces, but of all the people I can think of, he seems the most able to confront them.
The paper this morning was all about race and what a step this was, etc., etc. I got to thinking about it, and while philosophically I'm extremely pleased that we have an African American president at last, when I analyze my own feelings, it didn't really matter to me in my vote. I voted for him because I want someone calm, unflappable, reasonable, and most of all very, very smart in that office. That he's not "white" is just icing on the cake for me.
Yes, the vote for Prop 8 really sucks. I hope they tie it up in court forever and that it's ruled unconstitutional in the end.
Another excellent post, Bill. And your experiences certainly point to how foolish discrimination is. I see it with Mom. Sometimes, like Pat, I see people leaping to help -- the boy scout leader selling cookies, who loaded our groceries outside Walmart, the "card checker" at Costco, who insisted Mom take her scooter over out of the sun until I came around with the car, then helped bring my cart out. Conversely, I see the people who are impatient because we move slowly, because Mom's gorcery scooter is in their way, because she's elderly and crippled and slow. When will the day come, when we look at people as humans, maybe somene we can help, maybe someone we can encourage with just a smile. The other day, there was a lady in line behind me in a scooter. When I offered to empty her groceries onto the belt -- knowing what a challenge that is for Mom -- she was so relieved and her smile was like receiving a hundred dollar bill. It absolutely made my day. It's the little things we can do for one another, with a smile and understanding, that make a difference.
I hope we'll now see our nation come together, work together, talk together, help one another on a one-to-one basis, as well as a local and national basis. As you say, we've been divided too long. The results are evident. "We can," as Obama said, if we're all willing to work together, help each other, sacrifice a bit where necessary. But, I think, mostly it needs to be a grass roots effort, each individual helping others, in whatever small way possible. I guess it's called the ripple effect and it works whether the stone pitched in the pond is negative or positive. I'm hoping for positives.
I thought McCain made a good point of that, in his concession speech, and Obama followed through on it in his acceptance speech. I hope that people, regardless of whom they voted for, will listen to what these two men, both of whom want the best for the US, had to say.
Hi Pat
Remember my sojurn into the wheelchair was thirty years ago. Before the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Now things are much better. When I have Mom in a wheelchair we get primo service. Lots of help at restaurants and stores. Everyone is really kind. Not always the case though.
Obama is a uniter. Im betting on it.
Race didn't matter until the vote was counted. Obama didn't run on race he won on change. I voted for him because I thought he was the best man for the job. But once he won the race did matter. It matter is so many ways. All positive.
As to discrimination with 8 passing we still have a long ways to go!
Bill
Bill
Hi Dr
Like I said to Pat my experience was long ago I know it is better now but like you I do experience the impatience of people when it takes us to long to get to a door or to long to get Mom out of the car. Generally though people are very accomidating.
I've also done things like offered to put groceries on the belt for people and like you I get greatful comments and sometimes people are speachless. My standard response to the "you are so nice." is "I have to be nice, it is part of my parole." Everyone laughs and we go on with our day.
That is the secret to happiness, do something kind for someone and we are rewarded with a make our day kind of reaction.
I hope McCain will lead his party towards the middle and Obama will do the same with his party.
Bill
>> My standard response to the "you are so nice." is "I have to be nice, it is part of my parole." Everyone laughs and we go on with our day.
Gosh, I'll have to try that (g). I usually say, "Been there, done that," with a smile and gain another in return.
>> I hope McCain will lead his party towards the middle and Obama will do the same with his party.
Amen!
>>
Hi Dr
Been there done that works too!
Bill
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