Race and Politics

The elections are 9 days away and most people have made up their minds as what candidate they will vote for. History has been made. Americans are going to the polls in numbers that have not been seen in a long time. Some are doing it to be a part of history while others are doing it out of fear of the unknown.

Either way, the McCain / Palin ticket will be historic in that it will be the 1st time in US history that a woman is Vice President. Should the Obama / Biden ticket win it will be the first time that a man that is of mixed race will ascend to the highest office in the land.

My personal experience of the last few days has shown me some things that I had only read about in the news.

Last Monday we had our Knights of Columbus business meeting. I was discussing General Powell's endorsement of Obama and the comments he made about Muslims. One of my fraternal brothers made a comment that Obama was a fundamentalist Muslim. I asked why he believed that and he said that it was on the Internet. I said to him that I had read on the Internet that he was gay and a child molester. I said you can't believe every thing you read. The next day the guy sent me two picture messages. One was a young black child in a trash can labelled ghetto play pen with jungle music playing in the background. The other was a picture of Obama with the caption Obama 08 that flips to a monkey with the caption Obama 08. I found who sent me the message and offered to pray for him and hope he stops being a bigot. He said he sent it as revenge for comment I made on a blog and that he was not bigoted since he had more black and Hispanic friends than I did.

The second incident happened on Friday. It was another fraternity brother who was born with cerebral palsy and is mentally and a bit physically handicapped. He is the first to volunteer for any duties. He will lead the food drive, will work Bingo, will do the fund drive and shows up to usher in church.

Every one wants to have the compassion and love this man has for his fellow man. This brother always gets a ride from people who see him in town. I saw him and offered him a ride. As we drove along main street we saw some political posters and he says "I hope Obama does not win".

I asked him why and he said I don't know. I said how can't you know. And he said I guess his color. I was floored. He was the last one I expected to say such.

My question is " what role will race play in this election'?