In memory of my parents in this election year.

[JeffR]

I'm a Southerner, the scion of classic Eastern liberals; my dad was a musician from Georgia who spent his young adulthood in New York, New Orleans and Miami, before embarking on his third marriage (in the Fifties) and siring me. My mom was a Finn who got more and more outspokenly, profanely leftist as she got older. I spent the first seven years of my life on the road, up and down 25 or so states every year, learning to love Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee... learning that the country extended far beyond South Florida.

I live abroad now, and my biggest concern beyond my beloved wife is - heaven help me - my poor old country. Mom died last year; dad died in 1967. I miss them both terribly, and maintain a tenuous faith that they're both watching this election closely, and delighting in the idea that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.

[VolcanoJen]

1. What a lovely post.

I was struck the other day reading the local obituaries and finding one that read "in lieu of flowers, please send donations to BarackObama.com."

:cry:

May your parents rest in peace, and may we all experience this for them. Memory Eternal!

:hug: JeffR :hug:

[JeffR]

6. Thank you. My parents didn't go gentle into that good night

but the light of what's right guides their feet still. (That sounds suspiciously like the stuff I absorbed at Southern Baptist bible school. Ironically, neither I nor my parents were or are Baptists.)

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

11. We had one of those here in the New Haven CT paper this

past week.

[saltpoint]

2. Ok, dammit to hell, JeffR, this one came at me pretty hard.

I had seen the 'Georgia' in your post fields and thought you were there. Turns out I got that all wrong.

Early travel. The wide landscape. The accomplished adult.

That third marriage of your father's to that increasingly leftist Finn sure gave the rest of us something of resolute value.

Your prediction on our next president is the right call.

[JeffR]

8. The landscapes in my head still revolve around palm trees, OC.

My parents taught me to be a leftist and showed me it doesn't make sense to be anything else. They didn't strain or pander; they taught by example.

Though I'm looking forward to another beautiful autumn on the lower Great Lakes. I love it up here. It's especially cool north of the border, where things are durn near civilized, but we expats do like to turn out in numbers in front of the local US Consulate or wherever for a good protest march, in concert with our Canuckisocialist brothers and sisters, God bless them. Some pics here:

http://www.photoblog.com/echoinghills/2008/03/16/world-against-war-protest.html

http://www.photoblog.com/echoinghills/2008/03/17/more-pics-from-saturdays-rally.html

[saltpoint]

14. Thanks for your patience while I rebooted my notion of where you

hung out. Canada. Well, who could blame you?

I have made limited forays up there to Montreal and Toronto and it felt great. One trip was in autumn, and I hear you loud and clear on this time of year. Put on a jacket and go out walking in those blazing maples for me.

As for politics, I pity the fool who tries to question yours.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Thank you for giving us some insight on yourself.....

and I pray that your wish will be done! :patriot:

[regnaD kciN]

4. Whereas I'm hoping...

...that my mother lives long enough to see the end of the Reagan/Bush/Bush era. Since she's 89 now, I'm really not all that keen on having to wait until 2012 for that to happen.

[PBS Poll-435]

5. I can relate.

K/R

Change is coming.

[ClayZ]

7. What a great post. Thank you!

K and R


We are working it!

[No Elephants]

9. Thanks! I sure hope that you are voting from abroad! Donating, too, if you can.

[JeffR]

10. Yup and yup

to paraphrase Governor Palin.

:crazy:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. My dear JeffR...

What a beautiful tribute to your parents...

They did bring you up very well!

Your thinking is so good, and you communicate it so very well...

I am proud to know you!

I hope they're watching too...:hug:

K&R

[blondeatlast]

13. I wish my mom and dad could see what's happening. I'm a fourth generation yellow dog

even though my grandparents and above were rather racist. Still, my parents, especially my dad, were as active in the Civil Rights Movement as it was possible to be living in Colorado.

My father never got a chance to know Barack Obama, but I know he'd sense in him the same qualities that made my father what he was (which, at times, was detrimental to his career in public service). Integrity above all, painful honesty, and the sense to know what's right.

My mixed race son has no idea that having a woman or a mixed race presidential candidate is at all unusual. I think that his ignorance about the importance of this is a WONDERFUL thing but I have to struggle not to make it a bigger deal.

Barack Obama is just a what a president should be. Period. What a time and a place to be witness to; I wish my parents could see; this would be a culmination of everything they were active in politics for.

Amazing, it really is. But I want my son to think it's as natural as air so I try to keep my astonishment to myslef--and it's difficult!