As we watched Barack Obama's Inauguration today on television, I was moved by the event and by his speech. I wished my mother could have lived to see it! She believed so strongly in equal opportunity; she would have been so pleased. For that matter, so would my dad.
In 1958 and 59, my parents were among the many Virginia parents who successfully lobbied to keep the state's public schools open when the governor tried to close them to avoid integration. They would have been proud of the American People today. I was.
I, too, thought of our mother and how pleased she would be at Obama's inauguration.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, our parents successfully worked to keep Fairfax County's schools open in the face of integration. All of Virginia's schools were not so lucky, and my guy Bill's elementary school education down in the Tidewater region was adversely affected by the fact that his mother sent him for a couple of years on a very long bus ride to a substandard white private school instead of to the local public school, which had been completely abandonned by the (white) county school board and left to the black students without funds or support..
How lucky we were to have the parents we did, and to grow up in the excellent school system of Fairfax county..
How lucky that our kids, and the generation in school today have such different opportunities.