A New Day

My home town was Catharpin, Virginia. You could always tell a local from a stranger by the way the pronounced Catharpin. If they said Ca-thar-pin then they were from out of town. If they said Cat-har-pin, then they were from the area. Catharpin is a small town right on a National Civil War Battlefield. The battle of Bull Run/Manassas was fought there. If you were from the North it was the battle of Bull Run, if you were from the South then it was the Battle of Manassas. My childhood was full of divisions like this. North/ South, local/stranger were the subtle ones. The division between black and white was pretty extreme in my community.
I can remember in the 5th grade meeting my new teacher. Mr. Bullock. He was new to the school and I had never had a male teacher before, so I was curious as to what was going to happen. The year before I had Ms. Tyler, not Mrs. or Miss, but Ms. I am pretty sure looking back that she was a former dead head. We spent the year building book shelves, making terrariums and singing folk songs. She was fired, only made it a year. Mr. Bullock was the extreme opposite. He wore boots and a belt buckle with CSA on it. For those of you who do not know, that stands for Confederate States of America. We said the pledge of allegiance, then he taught us the song "Dixie" which we were told we had to sing, hand over heart and looking at the Confederate Flag. I remembering looking at my African American friends and thinking even at age ten that this was not only strange but so wrong. I told my folks about what was going on and got transferred to Mrs. Wilson's class, along with every African American student (by the way Mrs. Wilson and Mr. Bullock ended up having an affair and Mrs. Wilson ended up divorced and Mr. Bullock fired).
I then went to Stonewall Jackson Senior High School. Stonewall was a general for the South. He was accidently killed by one of his own men. His arm is buried near Fredericksburg and the rest of his body in Lexington, Virginia. Anyway, on my way to Stonewall Jackson Senior High School home of the Raiders, I had to drive through the Battlefield. I would often think about the men who died on both sides but mostly the men who died to set others free. I moved from my small town to Washington DC. I remember walking with my dad at to the Lincoln Memorial and him telling me how he heard Dr. ML King speak on the steps. I wondered if his dream would ever come true. I wondered how it would ever come true if it rested on my generation’s shoulders after we had been poisoned by the adults in our lives.
This week marks a huge step toward racial harmony in our world. On Tuesday Night Barak Obama said, "I can stand here and say, that I will be the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States of America." It does not matter if you are a Sen. Clinton supporter or Sen. McCain supporter, Tuesday night was a great step forward for our country. I am proud to be part of this great country. I am proud of my fellow citizens that chose Sen. Obama because they thought he would make a good president. We looked past the world of our parents, past the teachings of the adults who judge a person based on the color of their skin. We voted or did not vote for Sen. Obama based on what kind of president we hope that he will be.

Jesus showed us what love is: He loved the Roman Centurion, He loved the Samaritan woman, He loved the rich young ruler, He loves me. The Gospel of Christ says that there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female in Christ. I felt Tuesday night I was seeing evidences of the Kingdom of God.


Pray!