Barack Obama becomes first Black American President

Boomer Chick would like to make a statement. It gives me goose bumps to see how America has changed in the last 200 years and that it doesn't make a difference what color you are, you can become whoever you want to be. But, more importantly, how America, the land of the free, has come together to vote for someone who they believe will do this country more good, no matter the color.

Before I finish my blog post, please watch as Barack Obama thanks the people who voted for him last night:



Does that give you chills or what?

I was brought up by both my mother and grandmother. My mother instilled in me that it doesn't matter what color your skin is on the outside; it's what's on the inside that counts. Rosie Zimmerman was my first initiation into the African American heritage. Rosie was one of my mother's best friends; and at the time, the country was divided on the color issue. It didn't matter to her, she knew that Rosie would always be there for her as she was for Rosie. It didn't matter that she would be ostracized by her fellow white counterparts, she only knew that Rosie lit up her life.

I remembered visiting Rosie at her house in Burbank, California. We had been stationed at Fort Ord, California, back in the early '60s. Keep in mind this was a very violent time. Racial riots were happening, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Blacks were finally stepping up to the plate and wondering why they could not be equal and much violence ensued because of it.

From a white standpoint, I'm thinking the good old boys were afraid of the blacks overcoming the whites. This is the way their parents taught them and their grandparents before them. Not all whites thought this, but there was still a lot of bigotry and prejudice among white peoples.

The moment I stepped into Rosie's house (keep in mind this is the first time I'd ever stepped into a black person's house), being eight years old at the time, I was fascinated by the pictures she had hung on the wall and the African artifacts on the tables. I remember thinking of Rosie as "one of us" and it really made me stand back and realize that Rosie was an African American with an African American family and relics from the nation her parents and the parents before them made me also realize that despite my impression of Rosie, she was still linked to a group of people that many of my own race considered inferior.

But, that didn't change my feelings toward Rosie in the least.

Upon arriving on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in my tenth year, I saw prejudice for the first time. Blacks were sitting at the back of the bus and lived in the poor section of town. Integration happened in the early 70's and it was mandatory that all schools had an even amount of blacks and whites. Violence erupted among whites and blacks even on the school ground.

But we all had to grow and that was part of the growing process. In order to understand each other, both peoples have got to get rid of the bigotry and find out what it is you can learn about one another so we can all grow as a nation and in the right direction to make sure that this wonderful country can become a better place for our children and grandchildren. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is. What matters is finding a way to join together to make this country the most powerful country in the world.

I never knew what happened to Rosie, but I thank her for helping a child learn more about peoples of other countries and that even peoples of other countries - while they may be different - can find a place in your life to help mold it into a person whose goals are to bring out the best in themselves and in so doing bring out the best of everyone.

I congratulate Barack Obama for winning the highest office in this country and I pray that his intentions to help the peoples of the United States of America will not falter and that everyone stands behind him and lets him carve the way to make this great country of ours a place that is safe, free from greed and poverty as well, and helps unify the country in a way that's never been accomplished before.