I drove to the dentist today considering this subject of what the election of a Black or a woman means to my generation, understanding it is different for the younger generation and appreciating what that means that it is different for them, less dramatic in some way, more expected, as, of course the best candidate wins.
I shared my thoughts with my dentist. She shared something with me from a friend of hers who is in a biracial marriage. It shows the progress that has been made. She ended up in tears and I was hugging her and telling her how much I love her and this is the modern world where you can share so much with your dentist.
I am tired tonight. I woke up one night in Italy with great pain in a tooth. Uh, oh, I thought. I have had a root canal so know the symptoms. I have been babying that side of my mouth, hoping it would go away, and, things like this don't go away, so I'll go tomorrow to a root canal person and hopefully it is just the one tooth and in and out she will go, and that will be it, right? Well, I stopped at the store and bought comfort foods, including my indulgence for times like this, Kozy Shack pudding, almost like homemade, almost. There I saw that Christmas egg nog is in the stores, already. I have heard a few Christmas tunes and seen some decorations, but egg nog. I thought it came out the week before Thanksgiving.
I wonder if anyone remembers the old joke which I can't quite remember how it goes, but to answer it you need to consider that the doctor in the case is a female. People of my generation struggled to figure it out because the assumption in those times was that a doctor would be male. My daughter-in-law Jan is a doctor. Times have changed.
I think I wanted to convey today what this victory means to me. I was holding my dentist today and she was crying and saying what it meant to her to see Jesse Jackson with his face all wet. I think this is bringing up years and years of memories for some of us. Someone sent me what the suffragettes went through to get the vote for women. They were beaten and went to jail. Sometimes we forget. I think we won't forget now though what this Tuesday means.
I read in The Nation that "a flyer of unknown origin was circulated in Hampton Roads, Virginia bearing the seal of the state Board of Elections and instructing Democrats that, because of an emergency order of the state General Assembly, they were to vote on November 5 ... the day after election day." I thought of the energy it must have taken to conceive of and put out such a notice. Why not just run a decent campaign and choose a viable candidate? Why all the subterfuge and lies? It makes no sense to me and it failed. It failed.
We are starting to see more of the sad state of the economy. Obama inherits a great deal.
The Nation points out that Bush can not legally pardon Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. It seems that if Bush tries to "pardon crimes which were advised by himself," he must be impeached.
I'm not sure if the country has the energy for that, and we'll see. For tonight, I am very tired. Bella is here with me, and we are considering an early bedtime. It has been an exciting week. I am grateful to be alive for it, and I will be grateful to be in a wee bit less pain.
Sleep tight!!
Sweet dreams!!