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October 29, 2008

Whatever the result, we have overcome

<a href="mailto:llilja17@hotmail.com">By LORRAINE LILJA, Innocent Bystander</a>

This is the last column I will write before the election. What an exciting campaign it has been! By this time next week, the last ballot will have been counted, and our new president will be named.

If your selection wins, congratulations! And if he loses, it's only four years until another election. I think we all will win this time around because one of the candidates has an African heritage, and women were within a whisker of making it.

The world has been watching to see what the Yankees would do this time around. The pollsters are calling Obama the winner as I write this on a Sunday morning. But it is so close, that may not carry through to the voting tally.

RED-LETTER DAY

We can all take pride in the fact that for the first time, a black candidate came as close as possible to winning the highest office in the land. It underscores the fact that any American has the opportunity to be all he or she can be in the United States.

It slams the door on the time when a black citizen had to drink from a separate water fountain, use a different door, sit in the back of the bus and follow all the other demeaning rules visited upon him or her in the South.

It's a red-letter day when we all have equal opportunity in housing, education, employment -- in all facets of being an American citizen: man or woman, black or white.

The changes in attitude have been gradual. Those of you who have been around for six or seven decades with me are sharing the feeling of wonder at what has been achieved.

COLOR BLIND

My children attended school with two brothers with a black mother. One day, I asked my kids if the boys had to deal with a lot of prejudice.

"About what?" they asked.

They looked at me with disbelief when I explained that some people looked down on people who were darker than they.

Later that day, Sammy Davis Jr. was on a variety show, and my son asked if he was black.

My daughter solemnly marched with me in a tribute to Martin Luther King shortly after his death.

It would be a good time to place a wreath of flowers at a monument to Civil War soldiers who gave their lives so that we could overcome, this day.

Lorraine Lilja is a retired Press-Republican reporter. A collection of her columns, "Lilja's World," is for sale at local bookstores. Lilja can be reached at llilja17(at)hotmail.com.

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