|
I live in the south, and I have no illusions about attitudes toward race here. I have some very good and intelligent neighbors that refer to Obama as a N----. Sadly, that is what they were taught when they grew up in their society. The country is changing, Obama won strong support from white voters all over this country, but far less so in the old Confederate states of the deep south.
Fortunately, the poison of racial bigotry has not transferred well to the latest generation even in the south, but I hear it from earlier generations every day. It will continue to fade even here but only as the bigots die off. A successful Obama Presidency will go a long way in helping attitudes change for most Americans, but not for those deeply infected with racial hate.
Only forty years ago our president could not have stayed in a white hotel, or eaten in a white restaurant in this city. He could not have sat in the front of a bus, drunk from a White drinking fountain, used a white public restroom, and would have been required to sit in the upper balcony of a movie theater. The slightest social transgression would have landed him in jail, and probably beaten or worse.
These things I saw with my own eyes when I visited the south, so do not try to tell me that in the eyes of such bigots Obama is anything but a N----. I know a bigot when I see one, and I stand by my post above.
I see in Obama the chance to be one of our great Presidents. he possesses the intellect, attitude, and ability to do so. Like anyone I would respect as an American, I wish and hope for his success, because our county will prosper or fail as a result. No sane patriotic American would wish Obama to fail.
For the first decade of my life Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only President I had ever seen or heard, and he was one of our greatest. I'm thankful I have now lived long enough to perhaps have the chance to watch greatness once again.
|
