BLOGS BY BOB

This morning, Election Day 2008, my eighteen month old great-granddaughter came to visit.  As we looked at “Cat in the Hat” pictures and identified each object it occurred to me that today marks the beginning of an era in which the “norms” of old will have been turned upside down and little Lilly will live in a world far different from the one in which I grew up.

News is often defined as the unusual, the extraordinary and/or the unexpected.  Until this presidential election it was unusual to see a minority or a woman on the Presidential ticket.   While the “unusual” standard for news will remain the same, the situation has forever changed.  Great-granddaughter Lilly will think it is unusual not to see a woman or minority running for major office or holding leadership positions in everyday American life. 

Lilly can certainly thank Barack Obama and Sarah Palin for their contributions but it is because of their predecessors that today is even possible.  Lilly can really thank Martin Luther King, Shirley Chisholm, Ralph Abernathy, Hubert Humphrey, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinham and Geraldine Ferraro to name a few.  As a reporter I covered these protestors, marchers and activists.  I am a witness to the incredible sacrifices they made for all the Lillys of the world.  They made the American dream possible.   

So, even before I know who won the election I just want to say thank you to them.  I hope Lilly’s generation produces people of the same courage, character and compassion.  Future generations depend on it.