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| January 2009 |
| Billie Silvey |
| A New Era |
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| The young girl was rescued by Joseph Schindler and taken to his factory. Her feared captor was executed by the Nazis for appropriating money taken from the Jews that was supposed to be sent to Berlin. The documentary incorporated the original film of his hanging--three times before his neck finally broke and he was dead. His wife eventually poisoned herself, leaving their orphaned daughter to face the horror of what her parents had done. The young Jewish girl had married a fellow survivor of the Holocaust, but he, too, eventually killed himself as well. The legacy of hatred, of seeing people as “other,” as somehow less, had damaged both the Jewish and the German woman. Both had a lot of healing to do. The legacy of slavery has done the same to our nation. We, too, need to heal from the wounds of hatred, of seeing people as “other,” as somehow less. It has damaged all of us, and it has damaged our nation. |
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| This month we will inaugurate a new president. In a sense, it’s a natural thing. We’ve already inaugurated 42 (Grover Cleveland served twice), and each one has had an impact on who we are as a people. However, this president, the first African- American to serve as president, marks the beginning of a new era for all of us. |
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| When I was a child on the flat West Texas plains, you could see so many stars. I would lie on my back in the front yard and look up to the heavens and think about my unfolding life. All that sky somehow seemed to release my spirit to soar beyond my small-town surroundings. I felt boundless. Anything was possible. I determined to reach for the stars. I might not make it, but I would have gone as far as I could.
This inauguration is significant for African-Americans because it means that they, too, can aspire to anything. Their children can reach for the stars. It was touching, watching Obama’s victory speech in Chicago, to see the tear-stained faces of veterans of the Civil Rights struggle. These descendants of slaves had gone from marching and suffering to gain basic rights as citizens of this country to watching one of their own becoming the leader of the land. What indescribable joy! |
| It can mean a lot for the rest of us as well. I woke up on the couch one night just before Christmas to a televised documentary about a young Jewish girl who had lived in the house of the captain of one of the Nazi camps. She had returned to the site of the camp, now a memorial, with the German daughter of her captor. It was at once a victorious and a very sad story. |
| Perhaps this inauguration can allow us finally to see all our people as equal and valuable. Perhaps it can help us understand how far we’ve come, and how far we still need to go to reach total honesty, equality, and love.
The theme of Obama’s candidacy was Hope. Hope is what this inauguration can mean for all of us as well. • Hope that we can live in peace—with our neighbors in this country and around the world--after too many years of war. • Hope that we can distinguish between our needs and our desires, reaslizing that, while |
| one can be satisfied, the other is a void that can never be filled. • Hope that we can rescue our planet from the ravages of too many years of untrammeled greed and selfishness without thought of the future. • Hope that our government can truly be of, for and by the people, and not just some power elite. Let’s all pray for our nation and its new president, for wisdom, strength and safety. And let’s roll up our sleeves and pitch in, helping to realize the hope his inauguration represents. Let’s relearn the lessons of peace within ourselves and with those around us, whoever they may be. Let’s relearn self-sacrifice, doing without so much so others may have more. And let’s learn stewardship, taking care of our environment, the only one we’ll have in this life. |