Presidential Election

So, it's over and McCain didn't win, which I kind-of knew would happen but I had hoped it wouldn't. But I just got to move on and start using my quote from an earlier post...."Oh Crap! A Democrat!!"

Now that I've said that I want to say something in contrast to it.

I want to say that I am really really sad that Obama isn't a conservative. I would have loved nothing more than to be a part of this historic election and be able to say that I voted for the first Black President, but I can't, which makes me sad :( I am so grateful that this time has come, I just wish Obama didn't support Abortion!

Now for those of you who are in Utah thinking..."What are you talking about? Racism is long gone and in the past! Who cares what color a person is? Aren't we past that yet?" All I can say is that NO we are not but we, as a nation, are obviously moving in the right direction. Here in Utah, we live in a bubble and not just a religious bubble. We also live in a "no one is racist anymore" bubble because people here in Utah usually aren't racist but the hard truth is that there are many places, especially down south, that are still VERY VERY racist. The KKK is very much still functioning and still teaching their children that the white race is superior. They still put ads in the papers about their meetings and they even "adopt a highway" which then states that the highway is being taken care of by the KKK. Yeah, it's still going strong!

When we lived in Texas, Greg quickly learned where he could take us when he went out of town (sometimes we'd go with him on his business trips) and where he couldn't. Even though Hannah is a lighter skinned African-American, it wouldn't have mattered. There are idiots out there and they are filled with hatred!

For the past few years I have been slowly introducing the subject of racism to Hannah because it is going to be something that she has to deal with. There are many really good books that help in this area. My favorite is "The Other Side", which teaches kids that "someday someone's gonna come along and tear down this fence" which separated the blacks and the whites. It's a really cute story and Hannah absolutely loves it! Now along with those kind of books I've been encouraging her to read about Black History and the brave individuals that have affected this country. She never seemed too interested in them until just recently. It began with Rosa Parks. I read her the story and I could see the pain in her eyes. It hit her! She finally understood that just because Rosa was darker skinned she was treated very unfairly. Something just clicked and it registered that that could have been her. We have talked a lot about it since then. She continues to bring home African American books from the school library. In fact the other day, she was saying something about "the white people" when she stopped quickly and turned to me and said, "No offense mom cuz I know you're kind-of white". To which I replied, "I'm not kind-of white, I'm extremely white!" It was a good moment to talk about the fact that many white people were fighting for the rights of black people and that not all white people feel the same way. We talked about the Civil War and I helped her understand that it's not a whole race that are haters, it's a group on individuals who are choosing to be haters and they happen to all be white. Hannah decided that if the black people would have just treated the white people the same way the white people were treating them, then the white people would've realized how much sadness and pain they were in and would then realize that they shouldn't make others feel that way. They would realize they were wrong. I thought to myself about how wonderful that would've been if that's all it would've taken but we know that some blacks did return the violence and it just created a bigger separation between the two colors. If only everyone could see each other through our Savior's eyes then we'd just see each other as brothers and sisters!

So anyway, to make a long story short, when Obama won, Hannah was sad because she was rooting for McCain (she came home from school rooting for McCain. I asked her why she chose McCain and she said that she supports his view on the war. She then brought out two fliers that the kids had been given with the views of both presidential nominees. She came to the decision by herself. I was proud of her). Anyway, I tried to smooth the loss over by explaining to her how historic this election was and even though Obama doesn't share our views, he would still keep in mind what he feels will be best for our nation and that he was still a great man, even though we disagree on the topics. It seemed to help her move on.

So then the next day, I brought in the newspaper and sat it on the coffee table in the entry room. When Hannah came home she started freaking out. I asked her why and she said, "I thought McCain didn't win?" Confused, I walked over to her to see what she was looking at. On the front of the newspaper was a picture of Obama. I clarified with her that McCain didn't win and that Obama did, then I pointed at his photo. She thought for a second and then said, "This is Obama?" and I said yes. She went on to say, "Oh, I thought this was McCain!" She thought that the white haired guy was Obama and that she liked the brown haired guy because he was brown like her. But then she said that she liked the guy who wanted to keep people safe in Iraq and not leave them. So, I'm not sure if she really like Obama all along or if she just got there photos mixed up but whatever it was, I'm glad that she had her first experience with voting and that she's realizing that she will have a say when she's old enough. When I was 8 yrs old, the only thing I knew about the President was the Oscar Meyer Wiener song that included the line, "Jimmy Carter has a way of screwing up the USA." Pathetic, I know!

So to bring this all together, I'm happy that we will soon have a black president but I'll be happier if our next black president is a conservative!!