Dear friends, colleagues and potential voters,
I decided to write and publish a letter of support for Barack Obama. If you find yourself still uninspired by the election, or undecided about a candidate, I hope my story interests you.
I have always felt that the history a person carries with them gives rise to how they look at the world and ultimately how they vote. I hope my story adds understanding of my reasons behind my decision to support Barak Obama enough to not just vote for him, but to ask you as my friend or colleague to make the effort to do the same. With all of the remaining members of my extended family having long since passed away, all I have from them is my memories of stories they would tell me... even those stories from my childhood are foggy. This has not only been a great reason to write some of them down, but through all of this, I get to fulfill a dream my family could only have wished for.
My Mother met my Father sometime in 1967. My Father worked in Jersey City, his mother had come to the US a teenage girl by herself on one of the now infamous boats that brought Italian immigrants to the US. My mother was the daughter of Ethel, the oldest of two brothers and two other sisters. The brothers had fallen victim to the mad rioting in Newark in the mid 60's. I'm uncertain of any details surrounding this. The whole family, having made the journey from Atlanta GA after WW1, settled first at Cutler St. in Newark, then on to Hinsdale place, where I now live.
They fell in love at a time when racism was so rampant in the Jersey city and Newark vicinity, their situation was considered unacceptable through both families. My childhood stories of my parents life together included the painful story of my mother not being allowed in the church with me and my father during my baptism. My Fathers' mother lied that my mother was sick after giving birth to me and went to the church in place of my mother because she was white.
My father would tell me the stories of how racism played a part in their everyday lives in the areas of religion, politics and even neighbors. Their plan was to move away from the Jersey City, Newark, and Passaic areas, and raise me in the countryside hills of northern New Jersey. Racism was still an enormous part of our everyday lives. I watched as a child called me 'Nigger' at my bus stop where I was waiting in first grade. I had not yet heard the word spoken, and called the kid nigger back in a first-grade style of verbal self defense and ran back to the car where my father was waiting. Unknown to me, he waited for this day, knowing patiently what was coming. He made me watch my classmate at the bus stop as *his* father told him what a nigger was, why I was one, and how I was to be treated and why. My dad explained to me that someday he would like me to live in a world where this never happens.
As a country, we still have many miles to go on the road to end racism. Colin Powell and Coldelezza Rice, although they made it to great positions of power, didn't embody the need to embrace peace. In the great words of Keith Ellison, D-MN, in congress, Martin Luther didn't die so you could own a Lexus and have a nice house... Our struggle continues - we must always embrace peace and justice in spite of oppression.
Barak Obama is not a perfect candidate, and there are some things that I wish he would stand stronger for, and I know that the political game must be played, but I must make the effort to follow my heart. Barak Obama has satisfied my voters' conscience intellectually, in spite of all of the issues I have learned about after five years engineering the greatest newscast in the US. I usually don't even have political discussions anymore: much less write open letters like this. I spent FAR too many years too close to the real stories, I've even lost a great friend to the throws of the post-NAFTA Mexico. I am too tired of others telling me that they know the issues. My daily life was spent feeling the hopelessness of the world each day with each 10 minute shock treatment of literally heart-wrenching headlines delivered by one of the most admirable journalists I know - Amy Goodman.
No one from either side of my parent's families could have imagined a world without racism. Their only moments of solace were talks of times where the oppressed went on to do great things. Both my mother and father would have truly enjoyed the day where the choice of president were between a woman and black man. I know for Obama, it is about change and coming together - great... For me and my life, and on behalf of my family, it is *ALSO* about race.
Its is a privelege to know that I can fulfill their desires in a hopeful vote for Barrack Obama, while satisfying my own criteria for a peaceful future and world.
I hope you join me with a vote for Barack Obama. To paraphrase a message from one of his speeches, I would love to have my vote be a part of saying to the whole world, " America is Back!"
Even if this is not for you, Please vote. It just means so much.
Yours,
Michael Di Filippo
aka
Flipster
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