My Right and Responsibility!

Ya'll know I am a proud child of the 60's and 70's.  Yep!  Afro Sheen, bellbottoms, Deuce-and-a-quarter, Soul Train, Good Times, Flip Wilson and The Jackson 5 on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The 60's and 70's were not just a time, it was almost a lifestyle.

One more significant thing about The 70's, especially if you lived in the Midwest, were trips down south in the summer.  My father's family lived in Memphis, Tennessee while my mother's family lived in Decatur Alabama.  Going to Memphis was hot, hot, hot and a little historically educational; Beal St., The Teresa Hotel and of course, no trip to Memphis was complete without driving past GRACELAND.  Trips to Memphis were pretty fun, even though the trip included a 12 hour drive in Daddy's Deuce with my feet resting on a cooler filled with fried chicken and all kinds of goodies Mama prepared the night before we left.  We always thought Mama and Daddy were too cheap to stop at some of the trendy restaurants along the way.  We had no clue at the time that our black faces would not have been welcomed at most of them once we crossed the Kentucky state line.  Memphis was a huge city filled with exciting places to visit, kids to play with down the street from Grandma's house and our half brother and sisters.

On the other hand, our trips to Alabama were a completely different story.  Mama made certain that we didn't stop anywhere in the state of Mississippi.  She would calmly say, "My feet have never touched Mississippi soil and they never will".  The firmness in her voice forced Daddy to plan our bathroom rest-stop visits before we entered the state or immediately upon our departure from this place we knew very little about at the time.  Unlike our family in Memphis who lived in highly populated nice neighborhoods, our Alabama cousins lived on a farm.  Every time we went down there, I could hear the theme from "Green Acres" playing in my head.  More disturbing than the smell of the hogs, cows, taking a bath in a huge tub in their kitchen and the outhouse in back was the sight of my tall, strong Uncle Edward looking at the ground, barely mumbling "Yessa" to the white store owner when we went into town to buy feed.   It was amazing and very hard for me to understand why this man had to morph into a completely different person around whites than he was around his family.   It was my brother who figured out why our uncle had to take his sister with him because between the two of them, she was the only one who could read and write.    Our fun times visiting places in the city of Memphis did not exist in the more rural areas of Alabama and it was a long, long time before we really understood why.

Those trips to Alabama in the late 60's and early 70's were like traveling into a completely different universe.  Definitely an eye opening experience that we would not fully understand for years to come.   I was able to see, touch and feel a time and place that helped to shape my understanding of how important it is to appreciate the B.S., hatred and nonsense our elders had to endure in order to survive.  Many of our people lived an entire lifetime tolerating crap that most of us couldn't put up with for 5 minutes.  Yet, they kept their pride, raised their families, owned businesses and fought for freedom in their own special way.  Many never lived long enough to understand the joy of being able to openly go to a polling place and cast a vote.  Most could not ever imagine the joy of participating in an election to put a black man in the white house and keep him there.  True, we will probably never be called upon to make the kind of sacrifices our ancestors made, but, Yes, I keep my memories and experiences of Alabama fresh in my memory banks so I never, ever forget!!

"Stormy the rode we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died; yet with a steady beat, hath not our weary feet, come to the place for which our FATHERS DIED".

The reason why I vote has much, much more to do with my ancestors, my children and children's children than it does me.  No matter what your political or religious beliefs are, don't forget the responsibility that goes hand in hand with your right!

HOTEP!!