I almost never read our local paper
because the content is poor and the publisher is a blatant
homophobic right-wing nutcase; however, this story caught my eye while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store:
It took a lifetime for Lucy Davidson to finally make peace with the polls.
The 97-year-old voted for the first time Saturday at the Rockton Community Center.
"I was scared at first because I never had done it before," Davidson said, adding that her very first vote went to Sen. Barack Obama for president.
I know exactly what people will say. The first real possibility of a
Black president is what really motivated Ms. Lucy to cast her very first vote. And so what if that's the real reason? Imagine how many more Lucy Davidsons
are voting for the very first time because the Democratic frontrunner is a Black man. Like this guy
and these people:
The number of black men registering for the first time in Georgia increased by 33 percent from 2004.
The number of black women registering increased by 22 percent.
I had a great conversation with my good friend Barry (a Republican and my former boss) about the effects of an Obama win on the Black American population. We both agreed that an Obama win
will change the politics of victimization amongst Blacks. We'll no longer be able to say, "White people will always run the country and keep the Black man down." That shift in mindset will take
some time, but an Obama win will be the beginning of real change. I think we can all agree - conservatives and liberals -
that anything that will motivate minorities
to attend college and captain their own ship is a good thing.
I almost never read our