“Yesterday is gone,
Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today.
Let us begin” – Mother Teresa
I write this at the close of
this amazing day for our country.
I was in Dallas
In our collaborative studio
we have a Super Hi Definition big screen which we kept down low until the main
parts of the inauguration began. In that room we all gathered round.
Right before the start we
had a special surprise guest. Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker, a civil rights
veteran, was wheeled in with some family and close friends.
While Rev. Walker is
somewhat wheelchair bound due to ill health, he had been in Dallas
Rev. Walker was a close
colleague of Dr. King and served as the first Executive Director of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). [Dr. Joseph Lowery, a later
Director of the SCLC gave the benediction during today’s ceremonies.]
Walker is also credited with being the master tactician for the Civil Rights Movement’s
Birmingham activities in the 1960s which put increased pressure on the Congress to pass
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
After those years he
pastured the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem
Yes we have some African
American staff, and Latino, Asian, Texans, Southerners, Yankees, Democrats,
Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Christians. But today we pulled
together to applaud and honor the departing and incoming president as one
saluted the next to lead our land.
Let me speak as an old man
for one moment of reflection. I think it is rather remarkable that as a child
of the South, Atlanta-bred, a person who remembers the times of assignation and
the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and its effects on my beloved city;
as a man who remembers his grandparent’s expressed attitudes and words, to sit
and watch the events today with a many twice my age, who not only lived
through, but participated fully in the long march to freedom, to observe the
emotions on his face, his family’s faces as well as my friends and colleagues
gathered in the room.
We live in a truly blessed
place and society. One that continues to amaze.
It ain’t perfect. It needs work. But today let us celebrate the progress that has been made.
And Let us begin.
Well said boss. It was a truly moving sight to watch the Kleenex box being passed around during the Inauguration ceremony today. What a day!
Posted by: Linda Stanley | January 20, 2009 at 07:16 PM