Different

When I was young, I think eleven or twelve, my Nana, my mother's mother, a person who it is unlikely our children will meet, told me "T, I just don't want you to marry a person of a different "color" than us. I don't see anything wrong with it, I just worry about the children. They won't fit in with the whites, and they won't fit in with their daddy's culture either. I just don't think that bi-racial children will ever really be accepted anywhere."
Well, it's beside the point, but my Nana got her request, I'm living my "married" life with a white.... Woman (not Married; that's not allowed here). We *still* have no idea what our children will look like; they may be any race, or any mixture of races.
Tonight though, we, as a nation, proved Nana wrong.
Tonight, we elected an african-american as president. A man born from a white woman, married to a black man, litterally an african - from Kenya.
Our culture, our country, has not only "accepted," but exhalted a "mixed-race child" in a position as our leader. To me, this is almost a bigger deal than having an african-american as president. historically, he "shouldn't" fit in. He "should" be an outcast from every culture because his skin is the wrong shade, his bone structure is the wrong shape... he is similar to "them" but is NOT one of them. He's different.
In so many ways, the man who will take the reigns of our country on January 20, 2009, is different. He's young. Untested. He isn't greatly experienced in the world of politics. He's charismatic and seams like a person who wants to bring about change, instead of a person who wants to bring about more of the same.
This is great and terrifying at the same time. I don't like change; it scares the crap out of me. However, I am aware of direction we are currently headed and the dire need to detour from that destination. Therefore, I believe it is TIME for that change and I will follow this "different" man, into the future, hoping against hope that he can pull a new, brighter, albatross from the ashes of what used to be.
I look forward and hope that this is the begining of a more accepting, loving, peaceful time. I hope that our children, regardless of heritage, will be accepted and honoured for who they are, instead of the color of their skin, or their family composition.
I hoped, but I didn't think it really could happen. But it did.
And I helped.

-T