Women Wired In

Posted by digitalsista on November 5th, 2008 in Blogging, Diversity, Economics, Feminism, Media Justice, Social Media, eGovernment, elections 2008, politics, poverty, race

Sadly Senator Barack Obama’s grandmother died one day before his name was announced as the next President of the United States. He traveled to Hawaii to visit her. Many had speculated about his reasons for going to see her. He didn’t have to tell the world he might have known her battle with cancer was coming to an end. It was a private moment for him and her.

I know this moment very intimately. My grandfather was also diagnosed with cancer. A very aggressive sacoma. Once he broke his hip, in the hospital, similar to Obama’s grandmother, it was clear that the cancer would win the battle.

As I watched him begin to get thinner and thinner from his tall 280lb frame, I would show him the television and in magazines that there was a black man running to be President. Soon I was saying he might be the next democratic nominee. His eyes would light up mostly because he couldn’t always speak. The cancer had reached his lungs, breathing and eating was not so easy for him to do on his own.

As I think of Obama’s grandmother not living to see this day, I realized I really wished my grandfather could have seen it through his own eyes. Living through a time in America when voting was a crime for him, fighting in a war that segregated the soldiers to electing the next President of African descent.

Obama your dear grandma Dunham died at age 86 and my grandfather died at age 84 in 2008. I am crying with you for both our grandparents but I know they are here in spirit. Congratulations!, they are both celebrating for us.