Something Special

I try to make a point of not talking politics in public — either at my church or on this blog. However, I am reluctantly making an exception today. Today I want to use this space to share something that I jotted down last night as I was sitting in my LA-Z-BOY watching television. Here it is.

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Sitting in the guest room at a friend’s house in January I heard a Senator from Illinois say optimistically, “Something special is happening in America.” Last night, as Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, my spine tingled because something is indeed happening in America.

As a child my father was a band director and American History teacher and shared much of his knowledge with his two sons. Having grown up in segregated Mississippi, my father regaled my brother and me with stories about the murder of Medgar Evars and the Freedom Riders. We learned about our story listening to Sam Cooke sing “A Change is Gonna Come” and other protest music of the 1950’s and 60’s. He told us stories about slavery, segregation, marches, beatings and boycotts. We learned about the Buffalo Soldiers who defended America even though they were treated as second – and often third – class citizens. I also heard about my uncle Forrest, my father’s eldest brother and his service in the U.S Military while his brothers were mistreated in the streets of Jackson, Mississippi.

Yet last night, the moment I thought would never come came. It was a moment for Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, Martin, Medgar, Malcolm and me. For the country that brought black men and woman here from Africa against their will to work as slaves to create white wealth to finally arrive at the moment when they would nominate a man with black skin to run for the presidency is nothing short of heart-warming and tear inducing. For all of her grandness and failings, this is America at her best.

Just a few months ago I did something Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth might never believe; I voted in the Texas primary for a black man to become President of the United States. Of course, other people have had that opportunity in the past. African Americans like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Carol Moseley Braun have waged campaigns before, but this is different. For one, I’ve never lived in a state that hosted it’s primary before previous candidates efforts became a warm dish of something melted, and second, there is something different; different about the times and this candidate.

Our family – all four of us – me, my wife, Rochelle, and daughters Malia and Katharine, went to the polls together – we wanted our girls to know how special it is to vote and be a part of the process that chooses the leader of the free world. At one point, Rochelle lifted Malia above the horizon of the electronic ballot to read the name of a man running for President whose skin tone matches hers and whose daughter shares her name. It was simply beautiful!

Leaving we took pictures in the parking lot as we proudly held our stamped I.D. cards. The girls knew it was a special day. As Rochelle was strapping Malia into her car seat, an African-American man who stood behind us in line and voted in the Democratic primary glanced over at them and with a subtle yet distinct since of pride behind his eyes, gave her a smile. He, like me I suppose, had just done something he never thought possible. Indeed, “something special is happening in America.”

As part of our electoral involvement this year, Rochelle made calls for the Obama campaign and I served as a Precinct Captian. The script we used when making phone calls read, “Senator Obama has a history of bring Democrats and Republicans together.” I think that’s true. I don’t think Obama can bring people together because of the way he went about securing health care for children in Illinois, but because I’ve personally lived him bringing people together.

For instance, my father and I aren’t particularly close. Over the past five years we’ve likely only spoken ten times. Oddly, it took the campaign of Barack Obama to open the lines of communication. Throughout this campaign, we’ve been brought together by our own hopes for the future of this country, our shared pride and excitement about Barack and Michelle, and the possibilities of ushering in a new way of thinking and doing politics in Washington. We talk every few weeks now and he and his wife are even coming to visit us in October – his first trip to see me since I graduated college. Certainly, a father and a son sharing hopes and dreams across fiber optics is more easily done than dealing with Iran and Iraq, but if a candidate for President can get people talking and listening to one another, what more can we ask of them?

Something special is happening.

In addition, last February, I went to the initial organizing meeting for Barack’s Houston efforts. I pushed my way through the thick, overflow crowd to see an audience of blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, gays, lesbians, young and old. With one voice they were shouting, “Yes, we can!” I’ve been in full-time, professional ministry for over a decade now, and never have I been in a room with such rich diversity and deep unity. Standing in the stuffy, overfilled room I thought to myself, “Why can’t my church be more like this?” I was reminded in that moment that we are all God’s children, that the kiss of heaven has touched each of us and that regardless of what are color, gender, and even political leanings we hold, we are “more than we think and we hope and we dream.” And regardless of where Obama’s campaign goes from here, the unity we share as humans who love our faiths and families and friends bring us together more than the tear us apart. And maybe it takes a person with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, a man whose very identity reflects unity in diversity, to remind us that the vision of Dr. King’s “Beloved Community” is possible? A possibility that many people never wanted and maybe more of us had forgotten or forsaken.