Ann Nixon Cooper, at 106 years old, the oldest voter on record, went to the poles to cast her vote.  She reached out to the touch screen machine and voted for Barack Obama.

Born January 9, 1902 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Ann was born just one generation after slavery, a time when neither women nor Black people had the right to vote.  In 1920, with the passage of the 19th Amendment,  women gained the right to vote. White women could now vote but Ann was Black. It was not until Ann Nixon Cooper was 63 years old did she, as a black person, get to vote.  Even though, Blacks, by law, had the right to vote, segregation laws in the South and the powerful KKK culture kept Black people from voting.  Blacks who dared to stand up for their rights, including the right to vote saw their homes, their businesses and their churches burned down.  They received beatings, often by the very police who were suppose to protect them.  Many blacks and even some whites who tried to help them were beaten so badly that they died. Others were outright killed.

“Liberal” is not a “dirty” word. For some time now, a certain segment of our population has tried to convince the rest of us that “liberal” is a dirty word and that those of us who think liberal are some how defective.

Yet the last line in our Pledge of Allegiance is ….  with Liberty and Justice for All.  It is this liberty and justice for all that they see as a problem.  They are fear based and out of their fear, they are paranoid about controlling everything and every one, especially those who think different or who act different or do things differently.  How boring this world would be if everyone looked the same, acted the same and thought the same.

The Webster dictionary defines the word liberal as: generous, tolerant, respectful of others, favoring a democracy and social progress.  Isn’t that what our nation is about, democracy, being of the people, by the people, for the people.   Social progress is the American dream, study hard, work hard and be successful.  Make a better, safer, healthy life for our children and grandchildren and their children and grandchildren.

A letter of congratulations to Barack Obama from Nelson Mandela.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place”.

On Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008, a new page in history was made.  We, the American people, elected Barack Obama, a black man as our president.  We stood together, black, white, rich, poor, old, young, gay, straight, male, female, and voted.  We voted, not for a black man to be president, but for a man to be president,  who happened to be black.  Today, I stand tall and proud to say that Barack Obama is my president.

Ms Jo