In Living Memory

I was just watching a report on who will be attending the Inauguration. Along with the various dignitaries, attendees include:

-- Seven of the nine children who walked to school in Little Rock, Arkansas accompanied by the 101st Airborne, while the "God-Fearing white folk" screamed curses at them and the Governor of a neighboring state brought people to their feet, cheering, as he declared "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

-- Most of the remaining Tuskeegee Airmen, who went to war in an army that wouldn't let them eat in the same building as their fellow pilots, and performed with such "exemplary intrepidity and superior airmanship" that all-white bomber squadrons fought to get them as fighter escorts. They came home to Jim Crow laws and communities that lynched several of their number for speaking with white folks as if they were equals.

When I was very young (I'm 61, BTW) I remember seeing newsreels of the children walking to the Little Rock schools. I remember seeing newsreels of James Meridith being escorted to his classes at "ol' Miss" ..... the same university where Barack Obama participated in a President Debate. As a Basic Trainee at Amarillo Air Base (1966), I remember the Coromantee Brotherhood taking over the chow hall as a protest against limited career opportunities. When I was assigned to Germany the next year, they were still giving people briefings about not getting upset when you saw "mixed couples" in public. I have friends whose fathers served as mess stewards and cabin attendants in the U.S. Navy, knowing they would never get any better assignment, but still willing to serve.

A few days back, I heard someone talking about the changes "within living memory" that resulted in African American candidates being taken seriously during the past couple decades. The whole process ends tomorrow at noon. Well, not the whole process. As far as an African American candidate making it to the White House it ends. We still have a lot of ground to cover.

I heard Chappie James say one time: " The two kinds of people we don't need are the first and the only." It took a long time to get past people being called "the first Black four-star General" or "the first Female General" or the "first Hispanic General". While you can count the total number of African-American U.S. Senators on one hand, we have a ways to go. While we still find it necessary to qualify descriptions with gender or ethnicity, we have a ways to go.

But when we talk about the changes "within living memory" we are talking about MY memory ..... and that doesn't stretch that far back. The pace of change is accelerating, folks. We have gotten farther in the first 24 years of my son's life than we did in the first 30 years of mine. I find that encouraging.

And here we go......

Tonight, I'm watching the crowds in Washington D.C. as they celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

It's 20 degrees on the Mall, and these people, most of whom won't get to watch the parade or the ceremonies in person, are determined to have some part in the process. It's like the people who go to American football games and set up "Tailgate Parties" in the parking lot. They can't afford tickets, they will watch the game on portable TVs, but they are there.

I can't think of the Welsh singer/comedian who used to use "At least I was there" as a catchphrase, but it works. Hundreds of people across the United States, and, indeed, around the world, are going to be up for hours watching the celebrations tonight and tomorrow. From miles away, they will be there. It's a spiritual gathering, in some sense.

My son, who is in Japan, actually got the day off from work to watch the Inauguration. This is a major thing if you consider the reluctance with which people in Japan ask for time off and the even greater reluctance with which employers give people time off.

So here in Paramount California, where my wife and I are taking care of my mother, we who almost never rise much before 10:00 will be up around 07:00, watching the television and, in that same spiritual sense, being there.

THE PAYOFF:
As it turned out, we all watched the ceremony together. Ian connected with us via Skype, and we go to share the day as a family. Technology is not ALL bad. IT gave us an extremely good day.