Dreams are the beginning

Aug. 28, 1963. The summer of my 14th year. I had just returned from an extended summer vacation with my grandparents in central Alabama. My grandfather owned a general store and gas station. Sort of a “if we don’t have it you don’t need it” kind of place. It was also a gathering spot for coffee, cokes and sometimes cold-hearted conversations.

My teenaged ears heard a lot. Racist terms that still send shivers up my spine. Thoughts from the darkness of humankind that never quite made sense to me.

So, on that hot August afternoon, I watched on my parents black-and-white television set the image of a quarter-million blacks and whites gathered at the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I was stunned to see so many blacks and whites together – and in what appeared to be harmony. Then Peter, Paul and Mary. In our small den in small-town, Tennessee I found myself singing along.

That night, my older sister, who had worked in the Kennedy campaign, my mom and my dad discussed the events of the day. Did we ever. Lots of discussion. Lots of disagreements. Not much harmony.

All of this was new to the old South.

45 years ago today.

My parents are gone. I can’t talk about that day in 1963 with them. My sister and I often talk about how far we’ve come and how damned far we have to go. All of us.

Tonight, Barack Obama passionately reminded us of the past, the present and what the future can be. No doubt he opened eyes and hearts. No doubt he tightened the vision and hardened the hearts of others.

Racism is so very difficult to deal with because it’s often deeply veiled. The veil exists because often times we don’t realize the thoughts, the words, the actions we live into are racist. It takes someone holding a mirror to our faces before we can ever begin to confront serious problems.

A major mirror was held in front of each of us tonight. Some of us will turn away from the image in the mirror. Some will cringe at what they see. Others will be thankful.

Dreams stay with us. Dreams can even return to haunt us years later. Dreams can also set us on a course of freedom from whatever binds us, until it is totally and finally released.

Content of hearts. Character of actions. Treating each other the way we want to be treated.

No matter who the next president may be, may he be a dreamer. For all of us.