Dear Readers:
Three months ago I had major surgery, a total knee replacement, and have just now returned to my BLOG. My apologies for my absence. I'm feeling much better though have not fully regained my stamina.

What an exciting week we've just lived through. I thought you might enjoy the following communiation I've had with a friend of mine from England regarding Obama's election.

-Brownin




I wrote my friend that this week because of this presidential election I have felt prouder of being an American than I can ever remember feeling. Following is her reply:


> Dearest Bronwin,
>
> And you should feel proud - it is absolutely
> fantastic and brought tears to
> my eyes all day yesterday.
> I was working at home so had the TV on in the
> background - everyone in the
> UK is absolutely thrilled.
>
> One of the things that touched me most was seeing
> people queuing up to vote
> with pictures of their dead relatives (Mothers,
> Fathers), in order to take
> them to vote on this historic day.
>
> America has not had good press in the last few
> years, but it must be a truly
> great country to have achieved this. I read somewhere
> that in a generation
> its changed - in Virginia when Obama was little it
> was illegal for his parents
> of mixed race to marry - to being the President of
> the USA. That is
> something. You should rightly be proud.
>
> I was up and up all day yesterday and footage on the
> telly showed that
> everyone was so happy in the States and almost a
> wave of euphoria. We stayed up
> till about 11.45 pm on Tuesday night, but results
> not really in here till
> early Wednesday morning.
>
> What's the reaction in your neighbourhood?
>
> Anyway, will stay in touch
> All my love
> Kathy xx

I'm isolated on a fifty acre horse farm so don't know
my neighbors. At the Senior Center I have made friends
with a couple from Ramallah. They are thrilled. My
housemate voted for Obama, but the only emotion he
ever shows is anger, so I don't know how he feels. I
belong to the Arab American Institute and worked with
them to encourage people to vote. I was invited to a
big victory party held at a local Hilton hotel but I
still lack stamina because of the knee surgery so I
didn't go. It was held late.

My first cousin back in Alabama told me months ago
that she didn't trust Obama. I know it is because of
the color of his skin. She has two biracial great
grandchildren and she told her granddaughter, the
mother, that she must never return to that town with
"those children".

I loved my father but he was a rabid racist,
absolutely hated blacks for no cause. One of his
grandmothers grew up on a 3,000 acre plantation in
Alabama where the family owned many slaves. I never knew that
until about five years ago.

I can remember as a child in Alabama walking on a
sidewalk toward a black man. When he saw me he
immediately stepped off the sidewalk and bowed his
head until I had passed. Behavior like that was
typical then. To save their hides blacks always
groveled before whites. Even as a child it made me
very uncomfortable. Once when a car of blacks passed
us on the road the black children and I waved at each
other. My father became livid and told me if he ever
saw me wave at a black again he would beat me until I
couldn't sit for a week. Actually he used the "N" word.

When Sami and I married my father flew home from
California where he lived to hire an attorney to annul
the marriage. The law in Alabama at that time forbade
whites from marrying Asians as well as blacks. The
attorney talked him out of it.

What has occurred encourages me about the Israeli
Palestinian issue. There are now more Arabs in the US
than Jews. The young ones are organizing. If the
blacks achieved this, the Palestinians can turn things
around also.

Stay in touch.

-Bronwin