the J-M 3 this morning,watching a re-run of Obama’s historic victory speech in Grant Park last night
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The boys slept together last night in Owen’s bed. They were sleeping soundly in there as Braydon and I watched the television, astounded and teary, as Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election fair and square. My thoughts were all over the map, but kept coming back to my boys. Words cannot describe what it means to a black boy’s mother as we watch this unfold. The significance that Barack Obama’s mother was white is also not lost on us here in the J-M household. After nursing Meera around 2:30am, I checked in on my boys. They were both lying on their backs, fully outstretched, with their arms wrapped around each other’s. I stared and tried to pour the message into their little minds through the universe in the night: ‘He won my babies, he won. You will wake up to a new day.’ This morning Kyle was quick to ask, “Who winned Papi?! Who winned?!” ‘Guess what guys?!!! Barack Obama is our president!! PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!” They (Kyle especially) literally jumped for joy. They were concerned about McCain. They were worried he was sad. We talked about what it means to win –and lose– fair and square. And what it means to concede. Then they ran to tell Meera, just waking up in her crib. “BarackO winned Meera! He winned as president!!!” We turned on the t.v. in the kitchen for the second day in a row. This time to watch BarackO as President Elect, and to get glimpses of the next First Lady and two little girls with “beautiful brown skin just like us.” These images are so powerful. To say that this is profound is an understatement. At three different moments this morning I held each of my children in my arms and whispered to them, for the first time ever, what I now actually do believe to be true: “My baby, you can be anything. The sky’s the limit now. You can be anything you want to be.” The barrier has been broken. It is not all peaches and cream. There is struggle to come. There is a long road ahead. But we have turned a corner. Today is a new day.