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Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 13:42:39 PM MST
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| Back on August 9, 1974, when President Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, I was nine years old. I knew it was a momentous occasion. For months my parents and older brothers had been glued to the television set watching the Watergate hearings.
So I took pencil to paper and wrote, at least partly because I knew someday I'd be famous enough that someone would care what I wrote when I was nine years old. (I know better now.) In flowery language I described what an historic day it was and that in this country, nobody, not even the president was above the law, and that in this country, democracy triumphs. Many years later when I found that piece of paper, I winced at the baroque style of what I wrote, but I still believe in the essence.
It's hard not to wax flowery today. Last night, as three generations of my family watched the election returns together in our basement, I wondered what, if anything, my four-year-old son will remember about this election. He's heard so much about it in recent months; he went with us to the polls to vote; and he saw Obama accept the Democratic nomination this summer at Invesco. But he's so young who knows what will be painted in his memory. It could be how there was a nice dog at the church where we voted. Or how we honked the car horn in the car when we saw people waving signs. Or how he got an American flag to wave when we went to see Obama last summer.
The truth is my son is unlikely to remember much and his little sister even less. And that may end up being what is most profound. They will grow up thinking that it's no big deal for an African American man named Barack Hussein Obama to be elected president. Instead it will be part of the fabric of their lives. Last night my 82-year-old father, who fought in World War II and cheered President Harry Truman back in 1948 when he desegregated the troops, said "I feel fortunate to be able to see this day." Me too. As for my kids, I'm so happy that when they grow up, the fact that this country elected its first African American president will seem like ancient history, the kind of stuff you have to learn about from books. |
| Nancy Watzman :: Ancient History |
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