| I know I wrote of this in another recent | | | | military call to action. He recalled |
| post (and NO, I do not have a slow form | | | | with a stark poignancy how farm boys and |
| of dementia, thank you!) You know how | | | | men lined up to enlist for the military |
| some parts of a conversation come back | | | | in bare feet. You see, many of the farm |
| to you? You were listening but the | | | | boys and men were mainly sharecroppers, |
| really important point essentially | | | | and had NO shoes, except one pair, their |
| 'snagged' itself cognitively...for | | | | 'Sunday best' shoes which were brogans! |
| digestion later. I was talking to my | | | | My Father said there were lines and |
| Father on October 16th, I had not talked | | | | lines of Black men, standing in the hot |
| to him practically all summer and | | | | Georgia 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 all | | | | clothing. 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 Naked | | | | not 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 he | | | | defend and believe in even that America! |
| was doing throughout the summer!) My | | | | What my Father said of his growing up in |
| Father had this to say about me and the | | | | an America where HE could not vote for a |
| book, "Now, I know my life had a | | | | period of time, where HE could not drink |
| purpose!" I was astounded when I thought | | | | from any water fountain he pleased, or |
| of those words in retrospect. He | | | | go wherever HE wanted to go as an |
| seriously meant that! I am the oldest of | | | | American is this, he wants to see a |
| nine children of Louis and Mable. My | | | | great 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 my | | | | for Obama. My Father a wise man told me |
| accomplishments have given his life | | | | that 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 born | | | | I mention all this because this is truly |
| in Albany, Georgia in 1933 on a 330 acre | | | | the demographic that will support |
| pecan farm which my great Grandparents | | | | Mr.Obama to no end. These older Black |
| and his Mother and Father and a village | | | | folks, the survivors of an America that |
| of extended family sharecropped on. As | | | | no one in their right mind can ever |
| he reminisced he talked of the | | | | imagine are the unheralded (?) well of |
| plentitude of food, and everything that | | | | support and love for the promise of |
| he and the families consumed was raised | | | | America and America's future. I did not |
| direct from the soil and the animals on | | | | realize this fact fully until I listened |
| the farm. There was always plenty of | | | | to 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 of | | | | many bits deferred pain leak out. Right |
| dementia. He forgets or maybe there is | | | | now I am grateful that I am listening. |
| not much he wants to remember. Yet, his | | | | I think this story is one that we as |
| memory for 'those days' is like it | | | | supporters of Obama can take inspiration |
| happened yesterday. He talked of the | | | | from. My Father from that sharecropping |
| time when the Japanese bombed Pearl | | | | farm in rural Albany, Georgia is one of |
| Harbor and all the Black men on the farm | | | | Obama's strongest and staunchest |
| and the surrounding farms heeded the | | | | supporters. We are winners! |