| I know I wrote of this in another recent
| |
| | He recalled with a stark poignancy how
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| post (and NO, I do not have a slow form
| |
| | farm boys and men lined up to enlist for
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| of dementia, thank you!) You know how
| |
| | the military in bare feet. You see, many
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| some parts of a conversation come back to
| |
| | of the farm boys and men were mainly
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| you? You were listening but the really
| |
| | sharecroppers, and had NO shoes, except
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| important point essentially 'snagged'
| |
| | one pair, their 'Sunday best' shoes which
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| itself cognitively...for digestion later.
| |
| | were brogans! My Father said there were
|
| I was talking to my Father on October
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| | lines and lines of Black men, standing in
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| 16th, I had not talked to him practically
| |
| | the hot Georgia sun,waiting and willing
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| all summer and really...all my life, not
| |
| | to serve this country in their bare feet
|
| like that day.
| |
| | and farm clothing. It did not matter that
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| I had not spoke with my Father all summer
| |
| | unconscionable atrocities of racism
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| because I was 'birthing' my book. Did I
| |
| | (lynchings, stark injustice, they could
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| mention my forthcoming book? It is:
| |
| | not vote, and Jim Crowism) were realities
|
| 'Notes From the Mothership The Naked
| |
| | that these MEN and my Father (as a young
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| Invisibles' due out December 2007.
| |
| | boy) lived with and under in 'that'
|
| I called my Father to finally check on
| |
| | America. Those men chose to defend and
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| him after speaking with one of my
| |
| | believe in even that America!
|
| brothers (I would get updates on how he
| |
| | What my Father said of his growing up in
|
| was doing throughout the summer!) My
| |
| | an America where HE could not vote for a
|
| Father had this to say about me and the
| |
| | period of time, where HE could not drink
|
| book, "Now, I know my life had a
| |
| | from any water fountain he pleased, or go
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| purpose!" I was astounded when I thought
| |
| | wherever HE wanted to go as an American
|
| of those words in retrospect. He
| |
| | is this, he wants to see a great Black
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| seriously meant that! I am the oldest of
| |
| | President in his lifetime! My Father
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| nine children of Louis and Mable. My
| |
| | believes in the greatness of Obama.
|
| Mother died from breast cancer in 1989.
| |
| | Without hesitation he is voting for
|
| And my Father, a survivor, an inventor,
| |
| | Obama. My Father a wise man told me that
|
| and a visionary, stated that my
| |
| | there is NO WAY any Black person in his
|
| accomplishments have given his life
| |
| | generation would not vote for Obama.
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| purpose. I am blessed.
| |
| | I mention all this because this is truly
|
| My Father is Louis Samuels. He was born
| |
| | the demographic that will support
|
| in Albany, Georgia in 1933 on a 330 acre
| |
| | Mr.Obama to no end. These older Black
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| pecan farm which my great Grandparents
| |
| | folks, the survivors of an America that
|
| and his Mother and Father and a village
| |
| | no one in their right mind can ever
|
| of extended family sharecropped on. As he
| |
| | imagine are the unheralded (?) well of
|
| reminisced he talked of the plentitude of
| |
| | support and love for the promise of
|
| food, and everything that he and the
| |
| | America and America's future. I did not
|
| families consumed was raised direct from
| |
| | realize this fact fully until I listened
|
| the soil and the animals on the farm.
| |
| | to the stories of my father, one of many
|
| There was always plenty of food, the
| |
| | survivors of the recent past of Jim
|
| comforts of familial bonding, and of
| |
| | Crow,lynchings, and stomped out human and
|
| course plenty of work.
| |
| | civil rights. As his memory softens many
|
| Presently, my Father is sinking slowly,
| |
| | bits deferred pain leak out. Right now I
|
| very slowly into a mild form of dementia.
| |
| | am grateful that I am listening.
|
| He forgets or maybe there is not much he
| |
| | I think this story is one that we as
|
| wants to remember. Yet, his memory for
| |
| | supporters of Obama can take inspiration
|
| 'those days' is like it happened
| |
| | from. My Father from that sharecropping
|
| yesterday. He talked of the time when the
| |
| | farm in rural Albany, Georgia is one of
|
| Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and all the
| |
| | Obama's strongest and staunchest
|
| Black men on the farm and the surrounding
| |
| | supporters. We are winners!
|
| farms heeded the military call to action.
| |
| |
|
