What President Obama Means to me.

I often tell the story of the time I disappointed my dad the most. It was back in 1980's when Rev. Jesse Jackson was running for president. I was on my way out the door to hang out with my friends when my dad stopped me and asked if I wanted to wanted to watch some of the news coverage of Rev. Jackson's campaign. I replied "why would I want to do that he is just wasting every ones time and money anyway. They are never going to elect him or any other black man". My father immediately set me straight. He told me that without men like Jesse that we(black people) wouldn't have the rights that we have now. He said that win or lose we have to try to do more and be more and not settle. I was amazed that this man who grew up in the 50's, went to segregated schools and lived through the civil rights movement could have such a positive attitude about this. Seeing everything that he had seen in his life surely he didn't really think that a black man could be President.

That attitude is why yesterdays events are some important. An African American becoming President seemed unattainable then. As black children growing up in the 70's and 80's becoming President of the United States wasn't something that we aspired to be. I saw the KKK ride through town on their way to a rally. I remember seeing pictures of that rally the next day in the newspaper. I also remember seeing the Klan march in a neighboring town in protest of interracial relationships. I remember black children being cut from sports teams or being benched in order to make room for white children. I could go on and on. We were always told that we could be anything that we wanted to be but why would we believe that when our day to day lives told us something different

Those days are now gone. Children of all races now not only think that they could be President they really can be. I am happy for my children, my nieces and my nephews. They get to grow up in a world where they can really aspire to be anything. My father believed it was possible all those years ago and my father was right.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! and I'm Married

Well, it’s been a while since I have posted here and a lot has happened. First and foremost Kim and I got married on September 29th. The whole day was a blur. I got up and took my daughters to get their done around 8am and the day didn’t stop until about 2 or 3 the next morning when Kim and I finally went to bed. We were so tired we didn’t even have sex. Although there were some bumps in the road the wedding went pretty well. First, a friend of mine that was supposed to sing during our sand ceremony cancelled that morning. He called another guy to fill in but this guy didn’t work out either. So, we had the dj play music during that portion of the wedding. Speaking of the dj, he had some problems as well. First of all he was running late and didn’t place the speakers in the correct location. So some of the guest heard us some of them didn’t. He also started playing the wrong music once and the minister’s microphone kept cutting in and out. It was one of those voice activated mics. It didn’t work well. I could go on and on about the things that went wrong (including my still photographer being an idiot) but most people didn’t notice and at the end of the day we were married. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We came back down to Rocky Top with everyone shaking orange and white shakers. It was a cool sight. The part of the night that was the most fun was the first dance. Kim wanted to do a choreographed routine which seemed like a good idea until she stepped on a sewing needle and had to have foot surgery 3 weeks before the wedding. However, we pulled it off anyway. I edited the music so that it would start off slow with “Have I told you Lately” by Rod Stewart. Then about a minute in I made it sound like the cd was skipping and the music change to Heavy D’s “Now that we found love”. It caught the whole audience off guard and they were eating it up. I'll post it here when I can.

Later that night we hit the town for a couple of hours then went to bed because we had an 8am flight to New Orleans to start our honeymoon. (Where we finally took care of the consummation part) We spent the night in the Big Easy then boarded a cruise bound for the Caribbean. We had a fantastic time and met some really cool people. A few of which we have kept in touch with. We climbed the Mayan ruins in Progresso and went snuba diving (it’s like scuba but the air tanks float on a raft) in Cozumel, Mexico. If you ever make it down there I highly recommend a bar/restaurant called Carlos n Charles. It is a beer drinking, nipple pinching, butt smacking and table dancing good time. Other than getting sea sick the first morning, I don’t have any complaints. Since then we have been enjoying our lives together and trying to get our house ready for the market. We want to move by summer hopefully to either Wilson or Williamson counties.