I'm beginning to become intrigued with Barack for this very reason ...

Thanks, Rob; I agree - Barack Obama is certainly a strong possibility to fill that special role. 

I have never encountered any gender, ethnic or race restrictions on leadership; a leader can be male or female, black, white, brown, yellow, red or green. 

I am an indiscriminate searcher for that one special leader around whom we can all rally.

"Lookin' for a leader . . ."

Steve

I was only 2 in 1963. I remember asking my Mom one day why she was crying, and she said, "a great man was killed today."  And I don't even remember which man it was: John, Martin, or Bobby. Neither does she. There was a lot of crying in those 5 years.

. . . were shed in this country between my eighth grade year in junior high school when John F. Kennedy was assassinated through the year of my high school graduation; 1968 - another very tough year. 

It sounds as though your mother may have been crying over the JFK assassination in 1963, but it just as easily could have been the expression of her remorse over the deaths of either Martin Luther King, Jr. or Bobby Kennedy in 1968 that you remember.  There was a lot of that going around back then.

Years later, I visited Dallas on several occasions, toured the school book depository building and its small museum dedicated to the JFK assassination, walked along a portion of the altered November 22, 1963 presidential parade route and sat for awhile on the infamous "grassy knoll", reflecting on the events of that day and how they had so changed my life and the lives of millions and millions of others.

I'm one of those "conspiracy" types and don't believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in JFK's assassination.  I do believe that we will eventually know the full story and that, when finally disclosed, it will be simultaneously alarmng, sensational and sad.

To this day in Germany, the mention of John F. Kennedy's name and his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech will bring a hushed, reverent response from older Germans, and the simple gift of a Kennedy half dollar is quite well received there.

Quite obviously, one person can make a monumental difference in this world as we continue . . . lookin' for a leader.

Thanks.

Steve

Mom is one of the good ones. A Rockefeller Republican (she would say "Lindsay Republican" from New York. She was always progressive on social issues, especially civil rights.  She fought for school desegregation down here as a PTA member. The Grand Dragon of the KKK who lived near our town at the time came out and burned a cross on our lawn. Definitely a tumultuous time. Now she has no time for Republicans.

Andrea, I know you must be very proud of your mother, as well you should be.  She took a morally correct but socially unpopular position at a time when doing so was not only controversial but also potentially dangerous for her and your family. 

Some day, I'll post the complete story here about how my father, a Roanoke City bus driver at one time in his (primarily truck driving) career, refused to ask an elderly black lady to move to the back of his bus - as was required by law - when challenged to do so by a white male passenger . . . in 1956.

The lady must have been in bad health because it was all she could do to climb the stairs of the bus and settle heavily and painfully into a seat at the very front of the vehicle, directly across from where my father sat in the driver's seat.

At age 6, I was there on the bus with him, didn't understand exactly what was happening at the time, but do remember clearly my father's angry response to the whispered complaint from the white passenger . . .

"If you don't want to sit near her, YOU can move to the back of the damned bus!" 

My father was a large man, and the complaining gentleman returned to his seat behind the lady and said not another word to anyone.  At the next stop, the quiet but angry passenger exited the bus, and that was probably a wise move on his part.

Later that day, after the bus was empty, my father pointed out the "Colored to the Rear" sign posted at the front of the bus and explained his objection to it.  Even at that young age I knew that I had witnessed something important, something special.

It was just one year after the famous Rosa Parks episode in Montgomery, Alabama, and I have to believe my father was aware of that event.

Regardless, I was always proud of him for that.

Steve

 

I say that because it was around 1968 before the County schools were desegregated. So much for "all deliberate speed."

Your Dad's story is great. We should compile them on an open thread: "I knew I was a Democrat when..."