President Obama has done something amazing

Yesterday was a monumental day in the USA – and perhaps for the world. A Black Man sat with a White Man at the President of the USA’s table to discuss the difficulties that their initial relationship had encountered.

Imagine! The President had initiated a kind of peace talk between two people that had met under a very adverse setting.

And they did it over a cold beer… ahem… my tee-totaler friends might object to that part… but it happened.

President Obama accomplished something amazing… and in doing so orchestrated a possible new future.

It all started as some know – as the story goes – with Professor Henry Louis Gates returning from a trip to his home in Cambridge. He and his chauffeur struggled to get the door open. A person passing saw this and assumed that two (black) people were breaking into the home – and called the police. The Policeman, Sgt. James Crowley, confronted an angry black man that would not cooperate when asked questions… and that black man was the professor. So the Sgt. arrested the man – the professor.

President Obama made a statement publicly that will go down in history as well “…the Police (in this case) acted ‘stupidly’.

The media had a hay day with the fall out – so did the comedians.

So President Obama invited the two men for a cold beer at the Whitehouse.

Now over the years can you imagine what would have happened if other Presidents would have invited potential revivals to talk to each other at his table?

During the Martin Luther King days… and the March to Montgomery, AL etc – can you imagine what might have happened if the President at that time would have intervened?

What would have happened if a Governor in any state back then would have intervened and asked a Black Man and White Man to sit with him and talk it out?

I lived through those times and it was not liable to have ever happened.

You see we all were conditioned to hate each other…. Deeply. And sitting together was not something that a person like you did with a person like “one of them” – whether you were Black or White.

When I left home and moved to Ontario the first time I was thrust into a culture very different from my home days. The new culture had many more Black People than my home area ever did.

Up to High School I had never seen a Black Person – ever. There was one family in the city that I knew of that was Black. Their son was in our youth group at the church we attended.

Living in Toronto I came to know a guy that lived in Windsor. So on long weekends and time off I would travel with him to his home.

While there he took me to Detroit – across the river. It was there that I first saw Black People – thousands of them.

I thought it was great.

In a washroom in a large park I greeted a Black Man that was standing at the next sink washing his hands. He said nothing to me nor did he respond to my friendly greeting. He just glared at me as if I was venom of some sort… then he grunted in disgust.

I asked my friend what I had done wrong.

He suggested quite plainly that I had pulled a real booboo… and was lucky to get out of there alive. We were in a minority and there were no other Whites around. I shouldn’t have said anything at all… and he suggested that we leave right away.

I was truly puzzled and did not understand. It was my first real racial hatred experience.

When you are from Saskatchewan in 1966 – no matter how “country” you look – you needed to remember that you keep your white mouth shut in a large Black Detroit neighborhood.

I have had the opportunity to spend some time in Cambridge, Mass. and New Haven, Connecticut. Much of both communities are filled with under privileged Black People. Many crimes are committed by the under-privileged of these communities. The reason I was there was to work with them in any way possible to simply see their lives bettered.
Now 43 years later a Black President invited and met two people of opposite colours – had a beer with them and enjoyed their fellowship together.

I see that as amazing… simply amazing. What a difference time has made.

Today as I mull over these thoughts I am impressed with what Mr. Obama ash accomplished.

Now back in Canada… oh boy… we have a kind of “Racial” hatred – between the Conservative Race and the Liberal Race. Talk about wild. Each stands to do whatever to destroy what the other group has tried, are trying or may try to do… just because they hate each other.

Then you can add one or more of the other opposing political parties to the mix and they hate the first two with a passion.

Would you invite say… Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff to your home for a Cold Beer??? – or maybe a Cold Pop?

I don’t think I would try that one out in my home.

How about our local MP and his rival group of Liberal Leadership – to your table? No again. They seem to hate each other’s innards… at least the defeated Liberals do…

So you can see why I think that Mr. Obama has done something amazing… WOW!

Over the years of serving as a Minister I have witnessed that kind of weirdness in Church too. Now with their knowledge that they were to love each other – the way that God loved them… they still forgot what it was all about… way too often.

I am going to try to make it happen where I live… “T-R-Y”.

How about you?

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/what-a-white-house-beer-says-about-race-and-politics/?hp