By GottaLaff
Things are moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years. There’s no question about it, in the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has. Prejudice exists and probably will continue to, but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.More from the same post, via the author's (Ronald Goldfarb, former RFK employee) daughter:
Tears.“Rosa sat down so Martin could march. Martin marched so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly.”
There is something in the air — about this incredible campaign, this unlikely candidate, our country’s apparent willingness to write a new chapter in our history.
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9 comments:
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That may become one of my all time favorite quotes. Thanks.
I have a friend who has taught in some of the toughest inner-city schools in the country, in DC, in Detroit, in Memphis. For years, he was on an idealistic crusade to prove to these (mostly Black) poor kids that someone cared enough to teach them, with the hope that he could help turn their lives around. It didn't work, and he became dejected and contemplated leaving teaching all together. Instead, he now teaches at an exclusive private school in the Boston area.
He once told me that more than anything, these kids needed to feel like they not only had a future, but that they were an integral part of the larger cultural and society. That they weren't outsiders. He told me over the summer, that he thought Obama might just be what these kids and their families needed: a role model who was not fighting the system, he would be someone that was emblematic of the system. He felt that Obama's election might finally integrate African Americans within the broader American political framework, bonding us all together in a way that up until this point simply didn't seem possible.
I'm not sure if he's right. But I certainly believe that Obama's election will be one of the greatest moments in American history, and will only help race relations in this country. . . and I don't think there's an ounce of hyperbole in that assessment.
I'm with your friend.
When Obama got the nomination, he almost decided to stick it out for a little longer in Memphis, that's how much he thought Obama would change things. He finally decided that the money from the Massachusetts school was just too good for the continued short-term (hopefully) aggravation.
Also, he missed hockey too much.
more great rfk i stumbled across this a.m.:
“Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things.
Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we judge the United States of America by that — counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.
It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
— Robert F. Kennedy
I'm stealing this quote:
“Rosa sat down so Martin could march. Martin marched so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly.”
The excitement is building here in Toronto.
This is one event being staged:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=165598
and as far as i know, if Obama and Biden win, we're off to the square downtown where many plan to whoop it up. I believe this is a plan that hopes to play out in every city and town and village worldwide.
Are we excited?
Clancy.... This made me cry. HE IS SOOOO RIGHT!!! Your friend
I do not speak for all blacks but I can speak for the many I have come across in my life including myself.
Blacks may not admit it to non-blacks but a lot of them feel like outsiders even though they love this country to pieces. We try all our lives to fit in, and feel equal but it is never quite enough.
We do all that we are told is what should be done to be a true patriotic american and to have life liberty and the persuit of happiness but everywhere around us T.V. Magazines, Neighbors, School, Work, News, Books tell us that we still just don't cut it.
We must overachieve just to be seen as adequate. When you grow up with this type of environment it adds an extra burden to those who are born into poverty, those who have broken families.
So yes a lot of us feel like outsiders, the others, not quite equal, test subjects.
Even those who are succesfull, rich, Movie stars, Business owners. They still feel like outsiders.
Because from birth we are told, we are shown, we are taught, that we are not the same and by not being the same we are somehow not equal.
But we continue to seek that acceptance.
Maybe your friend hit the nail on the head.
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