My father, Sam, and friends and mentors, Jack Rosenberg and Seymour Lefco, who never lost their faith that this nation could do better and their commitment to making it live up to its promise. They would have reveled in casting their vote for Barack Obama today;
My Uncle Jimmy Ginsburg, with an 8th grade education but life-long appetite for knowledge, and his wife, Gert, who helped organized the American Federation of Teachers in Baltimore Maryland. They fought against Jim Crow in Baltimore, their segregated home town and in Madison, Wisconsin when it was unpopular. They would be first in the voting lines today;
Aunt Evelyn, who worked for more than 30 years at Briggs and Stratton and never forgot her southside roots. She was a union maid who never missed an election until today;
Aunt Ida who photographed Rosa Parks at the Highlander House when they were young woman training to challenge southern segregation in the early 1950s. Their dream of a world that is fair and just is a little closer today;
And my mom, who raised her children to listen to and be generous with their hearts and speak with their voice;
All would have cast their ballots for Barack Obama!
And to all the men and women of the greatest generation who lived through the Great Depression, defeated fascism, created the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare and the blue collar middle class, ended legal racial segregation and have despaired as their efforts to build a decent and inclusive society for working men and women have been undermined by the reckless policies of privatization, deregulation and financial liberalization.
Today is for all of them.
Today is for all of them.
