On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, I woke up around 6:30am nervous. I had so much anxiety concerning the election, and I decided to pray. I prayed that God would bless our nation with a leader who cared about us and our struggles. I prayed that God would guide us to make the best decision for our country at the polls and that people would not be blinded by lies. And lastly I prayed that God would keep a hedge of protection around my family no matter the outcome of the election.
I was on pins and needles the entire day and night while waiting for the outcome of the local and national elections. While I was waiting, I realized that never in my history of voting, since I turned 18 in 2004, had I ever been so concerned about the outcome of the election.
In 2004, the presidential candidate I voted for lost. I was a college freshman and I was excited about voting in my first election, but the outcome didn't seem like such a big deal to me back then.
Fast forward to 2008 when Barack Obama first ran for president, then I was in a different place. I had just graduated from college and moved to a new city where I hardly knew anyone. I was working full-time and struggling to put gas in my car and eat twice a day. I believed that Mr. Obama was the change we needed and that he would help me stop being so broke. I was thrilled to tears that he won. I cried so hard that night because I knew history had been made. I honestly never thought I would see a black family in the White House during my lifetime.
I will make a very important point here, I would have voted for Mr. Obama no matter what color his skin was. Four years prior I had no problems voting for a white man. To me it wasn't about his skin color. If Barack Obama was the Republican candidate he would have never earned my vote in 2008 or 2012.
As you can probably gather by the way this post is going, I was excited about Tuesday's election results nationally. I was pissed about how things ended up in North Carolina, but I guess you can't win them all. What mattered most to me is that the entire country wasn't trying to stay in the dark ages. It blessed my soul to witness such progress. Not only did President Obama get re-elected, but many of the Republicans who made the most idiotic comments about rape and women's rights were ousted, the first openly gay senator was elected to the Senate, the first Hindu was elected to the House, and the first Buddhist was elected to the Senate. How awesome is all of that?!?!!?
This election meant so much to me because I could be proud to raise my daughter in a country that is growing in tolerance by leaps and bounds. I never want her to go to school and experience some of the things I experienced in Shelby, NC, when I was growing up.
Olivia should never have to hear a white person use the term "nigger" when describing a certain black person they don't like while sitting in a high school math class. She should never have to share a seat on a school bus with a white boy who crafts a noose out of a tiny piece of rope who proceeds to tell her that his uncle has a tree he can hang her from in the backyard. She should never have to see more Confederate flags than American flags displayed on her classmate's attire, notebooks, backpacks, cars, and homes. She should never have the school officials tell everyone that solid colored bandanas are not allowed, but rebel flag ones are okay. She should never have to see a fight between a white boy and black boy because the white boy called a black girl a "nigger." She should never have to read on the front page of the newspaper about the KKK marching in downtown.
See growing up I experienced all of this and more. So I shouldn't have been surprised when the Facebook posts started popping up from individuals from in and around my hometown talking about the world coming to an end and Jesus coming back because Barack Obama was re-elected. I shouldn't have been surprised when people on Twitter talked about that "nigger" going back to the White House. I shouldn't have been surprised that people I consider friends, classmates, and customers have such hatred in their hearts towards a president who wants the good for everyone in America. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.
Most of all I was hurt because I don't want Olivia growing up in this type of America. I don't want her to be judged by her skin color. I refuse to teach her to mistreat anyone because they are different than she is. I don't care if a person is black, white, blue, red, orange, purple, or green; I don't care if a person is gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, or trisexual; I don't care what religion a person agrees with of if they have no religion at all; I will raise my daughter to respect and accept every person as an individual. I will teach her to appreciate the beauty of the diversity that is around her. And I will teach her that the best thing about America is that it's a melting pot of cultures, people, and ideas.
With all of these thoughts running through my head, I came to the realization that I'm a mommy now. As a mommy, I want the absolute best for my daughter. I'm convinced that the best is yet to come, despite the ignorance of some and I thank God that most Americans are not like the people in my hometown and many other southern towns.
