A New Perspective

It is another beautiful Fall day in Georgia. The sky is blue, the trees are a blaze of color and the air is crisp. The election is over and for the first time, the United States will have an African American president. I thought and thought, throughout the day yesterday, about how I feel regarding this turn of events and the promised "change." Will it be good or bad? No one can see into the future. Honestly, I do not care about the color of skin or national origin of the US president. But I do care very strongly about how this country is run. After yesterday's pondering of what has transpired, today has given me a new perspective. This morning while reading the newspaper, there was an entire section on the election and its impact. There were comments from a variety of people with varying opinions. The article that caught my attention was one illustrated with a picture of Juanita Abernathy (widow of Ralph David Abernathy) exuberantly jumping up and down at the news that Obama had won. My childhood years were marked with the separation of blacks and whites. I thought back to the early years of our marriage when we lived in Selma, Alabama during the most turbulent years of the civil rights movement. I remember driving across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in going to work every day. I recall standing at the fence that surrounded Craig AFB (where we lived) and watching the March to Montgomery pass along US Hwy 80. Most of the civil rights leaders were probably there, but I did not recognize any of them. I have no undestanding of what it must have been like for those who marched. But, here we are some 45 years later with a black president-elect, primarily because there were those back then that were willing to stand up for a cause. I am thankful that this country has come to this point even though I don't agree with the politics of it all. This proves to all, without a doubt, that this is the country of opportunity. Anyone has the potential to be whatever he is willing to work for and desires. We are so blessed to live in a country that offers opportunity to each and every one of us. With all our warts, is it any wonder there are so many people from other places in the world trying to get into this country!!