AL-HUDA
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 6/89
Newsletter for January 2009
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
Finding New Pride In America
I believe in the American people.
I’m writing this on November 5, 2008. Yesterday I wouldn’t have
made this statement.
As the election cycle progressed this year, I supported Barack
Obama. I put up my yard signs and I made my small, on-line
contributions to the campaign, but in my heart I couldn’t bring
myself to truly believe “yes we can!”
As a 38-year-old, I missed the overt and institutional racism
which would have outlawed my interracial marriage. And while we
have come a long way, I’d never have dared to dream I would live
to see a black man elected president. I could be part of a
changing tide, but I was resigned to the reality that changes
like this take a long time. As Martin Luther King said, “I might
not get there with you.”
I have been guilty of perpetuating the American myth that
children can be anything they want if they just try hard enough,
but the presidential pictures in social studies books clearly
show the reality.
My brown-skinned children surely don’t match the presidential
pictures. And names like Maya, Malik and Marcus don’t sound
presidential. In family discussions of black history, my
children discovered that being any shade of brown in America has
always meant being excluded from things as profound as freedom
or as simple as drinking water from a public fountain. When
reading picture books about the civil rights movement my
children have asked, “Even me, daddy?”
“Even you, baby.”
And then it happened: Barack Hussein Obama was elected as
President of the United States. My wife and I wept. The first
lady will look like my wife. Brown children like mine will play
on the White House lawn. We woke up our sleeping children to
share the moment and to toast to a new day. I was able to say to
them, confidently now, that this is America where they can
be anything that they put their minds to. It’s not just rhetoric
any more; the proof was on the TV screen right in front of them.
Michelle Obama was heavily criticized for her comments about
being really proud to be an American for the first time. Perhaps
these words from a person in her position weren’t prudent. But I
understand where she’s coming from. A day after the election, I
am more proud to be an American than at any other point in my
life.
I believe in my fellow Americans who went into confidential
voter booths and made the decision to vote on the content of a
man’s character over the color of his skin.
I underestimated the American people.
I was wrong.
Michael Gabby lives with his family in San Diego, Calif. He
teaches in elementary school, is active in the state teachers’
association and serves as a union official for his school
district. Gabby is involved in social justice issues and
woodworking.
courtesy: This I Believe!
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