On this historic day I attended my web-designer class. I took my laptop with me to class so that I could keep updated on my misc projects. We had the inauguration streamed in on the computer in the lab and projected on the big screen. It was nice to be able to watch the events unfold. Meanwhile on my laptop I was connected to Twitter and several of my connections, including Zurui, webmaster of BlackTokyo.com, Someone in Europe and someone in Japan and other places in real time. It was very high tech. I dug it being somewhat of a geek. In the class we had elected to make a lunch time celebration of it and people brought in items for lunch.
It was a amazing historic event to watch this unfold in my lifetime. To give you some scope of this, when I was a very young boy, I stayed with my grandparents for a year in Virginia. I went to one of the last one room school houses around. It was the last year of it’s life and it was only for children of color. Years later I again stayed in Virginia and went to high school there for a year. That year was the last year of having a high school only for children of color. The white High school was just integrated, in the town of Saluda, Middlesex, Co., Virginia, about 2 to 3 hours southeast of Richmond.
I recall seeing the police set dogs on people in the south who marched for equal rights. I remember the race riots in Philly and elsewhere. I recall the assassination of Rev Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcom X, lynchings in the news, the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, Laws that said “Coloreds” could not marry outside their race. They were radical turbulent years. Now I can add to that I saw live via computer the swearing in of the first man of color to the Presidency of the United States. It is indeed the 21st Century.
In keeping with the principal of Yin and Yang, noting is all black and white, good or bad even in joy there is sadness, in this joyous time there was sadness. The illness of two Senators cast a shadow over the proceedings. Also a statement, a rhyme that was a common insult to people of color back in the day, was reworded and said as a positive statement at the event, and understood by those of the generation that were faced with the history of discrimination in this country. This statement was taken by some as a insult and given airplay to divide people. Yes we American people have come a long way, but we’re still not “there” yet. Let us continue to pray, meditate and work toward peace, and understanding. May the Christ consciousness fill our hearts.
Year of the Ox brings the seed of hope for a new vision of America and the world. We the people can make a change, and bring hope. Yes We Can.
Vaya Con Dios Presidente Obama,
Ganbatte!
and a little something for the whoa file… I am on Twitter, and the President ( yeah I know it is most likely his staff but still the idea of it) is also… following me and my post, whoa!
Gong Shi Fa Chai – A Happy Chinese New Year!
Zen's Sekai I - by Land... 
I agree. What a day. I too would not have expected it to happen in my lifetime. I can’t get the site of him and Michelle in the limo surrounded by the secret service and thinking, wow, this is for a black man!
I love your connecting the timeline of all the other things that have happened in your (and my) lifetime leading up to this. It does make it all even more surreal doesn’t it?
It was a wonderful day to behold. Even in the UK everyone was talking about the events and their reaction to it. You couldnt help but notice that everyone had a calm and happy smile on their faces during the conversations and discussions. And their hopes for the future. I enjoyed the phrase that Whoopi Goldberg used in a BBC documentary on his life – she said something about how he has picked up the baton of hope from all people of colour in the past in the US – and how it was picked up elegantly. It cant be trivialised, his background and young working life in Chicago. I am proud of America for voting as it did. A country has really grown up to be a good civilisation! (dont want to sound patronising though, honestl)
Thanks for sharing your story – I found it really interesting. Especially having seen some recent documentaries on Virginia today. I’d like hear some more about those memories one day, Zen.
Hi Val,
Yes you are right! America has finally grown up. Ah yes Virginia actually was good times for me. My family as mixed, fairly comfortable and well respected by all in the area. So life was good for me there, I kind of lived in a bubble. Life outside the bubble was not all that pleasant and life in Philly in the inner city where my Parents lived, was the danger zone. However the times themselves was like living with a time bomb. Of course there were “incidents” everywhere.
Si Se Puede!