Tuesday was an incredibly busy day for me. Incredibly. We had speech therapy at 10am, dentist appointments at 12 and 12:30 and karate at 1:40. I left the house at 9:20 for the 10 am speech therapy appointment (we now live that far away). Then, we left there at 10:34 (I looked), and I turned on the radio to see if "Inauguration coverage" was on. It was. We started listening to it as I drove toward home. At 11:00, or near there, I was almost home and they were minutes from the swearing in of Obama. Do I stop at home? Or do I keep driving? 1 hour until we had to be at the dentist, which meant I had to leave the house in 15 minutes anyway. Hmmm. "Lunch OUT!" was my choice, we continued to listen to the inaugeration.
Every time someone would be announced and people would clap, Katie would insist, "clap hands Mommy." EVERY TIME. She even did so if it felt to her to be a place one should clap. She clapped. I should clap.
Samuel played a video game.
JM listened with me. He told me, "Why do we have to listen to this? It's just another man becoming president." It hit me then, to him, Obama becoming president was NOT a big deal. He didn't see him as African-American, biracial, or anything. To JM, Obama was just another man. I tried to explain it, but after I stumbled around a little bit I realized, I had just introduced my son to seeing the color of someone's skin. We talked a little bit more about what our history holds. JM thought it was stupid how people were treated 60 years ago. While we've studied the civil rights movement, and he knows who Rosa Parks is, I realized that he didn't UNDERSTAND it because he didn't see the skin color as being a big deal. I agreed with him that it was stupid how people were treated, and we needed to remember that so it NEVER EVER happens again.
That's when I teared up. Our country has really come a very long way!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Too cute!
My boys are the same way. Especially my older son. He doesn't understand it at all (me to actually) why people were treated to badly (and sometimes still are) for the color of their skin.
Yes. Yes it has. I love that the Tongginator will just consider Obama another President. I really love that. Oh... and one more thing...
Clap hands, Momma.
(Did you do it? Is it automatic yet?)
You're doing a good job sweetie.
Clap your hands for yourself!!
That is such a sweet perspective. See, my boys (sadly) got that it was a big deal. Our city is so divided and so they got it.
That's sad to me.
My boys think the same way, and I am glad. Especially since we live in the South, and DH has an uncle (and that man's family) who are so color-oriented (they belong to a group with three letters in the name--you shoulda heard what they called Luci before we got her home, and I vowed to kick the elderly man in the shins if he ever said that around L.) Thank Goodness we don't live near them! Can't spread the poison here.
Post a Comment