On Tuesday, January 20th, we were all brothers and sisters together as Barack Obama became our president. Everywhere, the tears of joy and liberation flowed--from the Washington Mall to the Mall of America, on faces of every color, from young eyes and old. When elderly African-Americans spoke on TV cameras of their memories of racial segregation and hatred, their voices choking with the overwhelming emotion of what this moment meant to them, I, a white middle-aged woman, cried with them. When the people of Kenya danced and celebrated, we danced with them in our American living rooms. We were all priveleged to share this moment, a powerful empathetic bond rarely experienced simultaneously by such a large mass of humanity.
I remember being at the Xcel Center in St. Paul in June 2008, when Barck Obama claimed the Democratic nomination for the presidency. We waited for hours, in lines that snaked around block after block of downtown St. Paul--and the camaraderie was joyous, fantastic. Then, my husband, myself and our 18-year-old son made it into the Xcel Center just as Obama took the stage, to wild cheering. What I remember most is looking around at the crowd we were sitting with way up in the rafters, surrounded by mostly black families, and so many of them crying with joy, justice finally coming for them. I felt so privileged to be able to share this profoundly emotional moment with them.
Barack Obama has ushered in the true new century, finally. We have hope now, that the 21st Century will be marked by the flowering of empathy and respect for all of our brothers and sisters around this planet.
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- Deb Ellsworth
- I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was the oldest of 4. My dad, Dewaine, was a Lutheran minister. That made me a PK. My mom, Lois, was a homemaker. My dad was active in the Civil Rights Movement and was chaplain to Indoor Sports, a group for handicapped people. I was raised on the music of Pete Seeger. I grew up near Lake Minnetonka, which is a large lake maybe 10 miles west of Minneapolis. I am of half-Norwegian, half-German heritage, like most of the people who lived in my town. I attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. While in college, I was active in the anti-Vietnam war movement. One day, the idea for the empathy symbol popped, full-blown, into my head. I felt as if I had been given this, and was spiritually charged to spread it throughout the world. My husband, Mike, does the tech support for the empathy symbol website, for which I am most grateful. I am a teacher, a writer, a reader, a mother, a wife, a sister, an aunt, and a Destination ImagiNation Challenge Master.