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Now, I Know My Life Had a Purpose

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



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