Thoughts from the other side of the hill

I have lived so long that I remember when Eisenhower federalized the National Guard in Arkansas so that 9 black kids could go to the vaunted Central High School. I heard both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. speak--in person. Heck, I even attended an officially segregated school in what purports to be a northern state.

I remember thinking when we were wearing big Afros and shouting BLACK POWER in the late 60s that soon we would be free. Obviously, that was a naive overestimation, but even then I didn't expect that in my lifetime I might get to vote for a black man as U.S. president, and especially not one named Barack Obama.

Don't misunderstand, I supported Jesse both times he ran, but we all knew he was running to put some issues on the table that otherwise would not have been there. Jesse couldn't get any white folks anywhere to take him seriously, but Barack may actually win.

Yeah I know, the media pundits say Barack got upset in New Hampshire after they had raised everybody's expectations (including their own) saying he would beat Hillary by double digits. They forgot that what white folks say about voting for a black man is not always what they do. And then, of course, we got nonstop coverage of Hillary's tears which apparently swayed some female voters. I wasn't moved by the tears, but I will be moved if Hillary stops taking money from corporate lobbyists and apologizes for helping Bush get into a deadly and useless, wasteful war.

Actually, Bill & Hillary could be Republicans, and that's what she was before she fell in love with Bill. We thought he converted her to a Democrat when actually they compromised--"We'll call ourselves Democrats, but act like Republicans." I consider them to be Republican lite.