Living the Dream

From my earliest memories I remember my mom working the polls at the election. She was born red, white and blue. And she was one of those democrats that liked to share her political views. She put signs in the yard, collected all of the political buttons and wore them too. She loved adding to her donkey collection and showing them off to her republican friends. Her political views were passed to each of her children. We passed this down to our children and to her honor the tradition is continuing. My four year old great niece even pretends that she is Michelle Obama. How adorable to see Nyla put her hand on her hip, flip her two big old foofy hair poofs and say with quite a diva attitude "Hello, my name is Michelle Obama and you should vote for my husband, so... we can start calling him President Obama!" This was spoken so eloquently from the pretend podium. My mom would have eaten up every precious moment with her grands and great grands. That brings me to the real meat of this message. WE ARE LIVING THE DREAM! I have not been able to pull myself from CNN with the coverage of Martin Luther King Jr Day and the inauguration of Barack Obama. We are living out the dream! The dream of equal rights of all Americans. The backs of the buses are not reserved for anyone anymore. We all drink out of the same water faucet. Public education is exactly that. It is for everyone. And the list goes on. Unfortunately, I take alot of these rights and issues for granted. You see, I am blessed to say that I have great nieces and nephews on both sides of our family that are African American. We have been privileged to have several African American children in our home for day care. One day, my oldest great niece asked "what color is my new baby sister going to be?" That knocked me back a few steps, not really knowing the answer that her parents would approve of. We talked a while and she and I came up with cinnamon toast. My mom passed away twenty years ago. She never knew how her political views would transcend into the future. She did not get to live out her dream. Frequently we feel her presence and I smirk or get a tear in my eye. Now I remember why she loved cinnamon toast. We will continue celebrating this historic time and hope everyone is living their dream.