A Letter To The Unborn

Dear Grandchild

You are not yet born. But as I move joyously through my autumn years and I watch my babies grow into full adults, I know your time is near. Something wonderful will happen on November 4, 2008. A struggle will complete itself. The shackles of mental slavery that have persisted in each one of your ancestors including me will melt away. A journey will be complete.

This moment will not mean as much to you, as you will view it from the filter of a history book. It will be an historical event for you. An important event never the less that will be taught besides the Civil War, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. But know this event is the reason why you will walk down any city street in the world with an air of confidence unburdened by the self-doubt that comes with being less than the whole.

This event will have been made possible by family that has been lost to us through the passage of time. There are no photographs, no streets names or any indication that they ever came this way. Other than being recorded in a ships manifest, or a court house record, we will never know who they were. Yet, their spirit hangs over me in this moment as if they had taken my hand and walked me through the hills of north Louisiana yesterday.

Your great grandfather is still alive. He is 87. He is small man, with a large soul. He only made it to the seventh grade. He went back to night school and got his GED. He drove a meat truck for 30 years. This was back breaking work. He would leave early in the morning and I would not see him until it was almost time to go to bed. The fact that he is still with us to witness this event is a blessing.

Your great grandmother has been dead for 10 years now. I carry her loss with the deep wound of a child that has buried his parent. I also carry anger about her life. A woman of fierce intellect, unnerving courage and unlimited character. She was the rock of our family. But she was born a generation too early. If born in this time, she would have been a lawyer or doctor, or politician, a leader. Everything that I am, I owe to her and your grandfather. The excitement of the coming event is limited only by my sorrow that she did not live to see it.

On November 4, 2008, this country America will elect Barack Obama President. To you he will be a legend. You will hear of his feats in your first years of life. Babies will be named after him, streets and schools will bear his name, and great statues will stand in our nation’s capital to honor him.

But know to us, that he is no legend. He was a man no different from any of us. Like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, he knew fear and doubt. But he had in him the ability to find the courage in us to make black people and the nation great. With his guidance, I hope we will change the world and in doing so your future.

I pray that you and your generation will have the courage to find the greatness in you to change yours for the better too.

Grand pa