When I was a little girl my family lived in Kentucky. My parents were involved in the civil rights movement. Our house was stoned. I really did not understand much of what was going on but I do remember the day we went to the amusement park. We got together with another family - a black family. I just thought it was great - a fun day at the park - and I'd get to meet and play with new kids. At the time I did not realize that I was involved in a protest - the park did not allow black families to enter and we were protesting that. Later, we lived in Western Massachusetts and my parents were supporting a black candidate for local office and faced down members of their community. When Martin Luther King was assasinated I felt a deep sense of loss and despair that I did not completely understand. But my parents continued the good fight - my mother ran as a delegate for Shirley Chisholm. I've had good role models who showed me that these were crucial battles. So, for me, yes, this election is personal - I want to believe that I, my children and my grand-children can live in a "post-racial" nation. The day I went to that amusement park in Kentucky I was a child and did not get that the other family was not welcome because of their race. I understand that now. I support Senator Obama for many reasons - I truly believe that he has the wisdom, intelligence, and ability to lead this country away from the devastation of the Bush years and from the divisiveness of the past 16 years. But - Okay I'll say it - I also believe that IT IS "time" for Barack Obama - a black man. The Founding Fathers bailed on the issue of slavery, we fought a civil war over it, and, yet, even after that terrible war black men and women were not equal citizens of this country - Jim Crow, lynchings, anti-miscegenation laws, the insult of "separate but equal," dis-enfranchisement, etc., etc. So, it is only just yesterday that we began to fulfill our promise as a nation of justice and equality for all. Now is the time to go the distance, fulfill the promise and make the UNITED States of America stand as a beacon of hope and inspiration.

When I was a little girl my family lived in Kentucky. My parents were involved in the civil rights movement. Our house was stoned. I really did not understand much of what was going on but I do remember the day we went to the amusement park. We got together with another family - a black family. I just thought it was great - a fun day at the park - and I'd get to meet and play with new kids. At the time I did not realize that I was involved in a protest - the park did not allow black families to enter and we were protesting that. Later, we lived in Western Massachusetts and my parents were supporting a black candidate for local office and faced down members of their community. When Martin Luther King was assasinated I felt a deep sense of loss and despair that I did not completely understand. But my parents continued the good fight - my mother ran as a delegate for Shirley Chisholm. I've had good role models who showed me that these were crucial battles. So, for me, yes, this election is personal - I want to believe that I, my children and my grand-children can live in a "post-racial" nation. The day I went to that amusement park in Kentucky I was a child and did not get that the other family was not welcome because of their race. I understand that now. I support Senator Obama for many reasons - I truly believe that he has the wisdom, intelligence, and ability to lead this country away from the devastation of the Bush years and from the divisiveness of the past 16 years. But - Okay I'll say it - I also believe that IT IS "time" for Barack Obama - a black man. The Founding Fathers bailed on the issue of slavery, we fought a civil war over it, and, yet, even after that terrible war black men and women were not equal citizens of this country - Jim Crow, lynchings, anti-miscegenation laws, the insult of "separate but equal," dis-enfranchisement, etc., etc. So, it is only just yesterday that we began to fulfill our promise as a nation of justice and equality for all. Now is the time to go the distance, fulfill the promise and make the UNITED States of America stand as a beacon of hope and inspiration.