Growth as Opposed to Change

I don't know, maybe it's me. Maybe it's just me. I'm tired of the use, or rather the misuse of the word "change." I was tired of the way the word was used to bash Obama an his supporters as being "pie in the sky" dreamers; as if it was somehow childish or immature to expect the formal and informal operations of our government would change under an Obama administration. I was equally tired of the way some Obama supporters used the word. To often, some Democrats looked at the prospect of "change' as something that would happen over night and would be all encompassing.

But "change" can be multi-faceted word. It is a rare word in that it can both convey something simple as in, "Change in weather," or something complex as in, "Change of religious culture."

I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I'm glad they won. The use of the word "change" is correct in that it indicates a change in presidential administration. However it is totally inadequate in describing what happened on November 4, 2008.

When I was in college I had a part-time job at the National Institutes of Health. I did statistics for the the Nursing Department in the NIH Hospital. The Nursing Department, as I recall, was hosting a conference and they had information packets to put together. To get the job done, they called on hospital volunteers. One of the volunteers was an elderly woman would had grown up in DC. She was easily in her 80s. Talking with her was interesting to say the least. She told stories of a time when the infamous "Tick-Tock Liquors" was a speakeasy, and when University Boulevard and Riggs Road were both dirt roads. She also talked about selling lemonade to marchers in the 1926 Ku Klux Klan Parade in Washington.

Yeah, that's right.




If you research this "parade," you'll learn that there were thousands of Klansmen from all over the U.S. marching in D.C. for this event. In the 1920s, after their rebirth in Indiana, the Klan was a political force to be reckoned with. So much so, that in many parts of the nation, if you sought elected, and you were white, you joined the Klan. Two examples of this are Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia and President Harry S. Truman. Fast forward to 2008. In 80 years time, basically the span of a life, America didn't just moved from a country that would support a Klan march in the Nation's Capitol, to a mature nation that would elect a man of wit, intelligence, and accomplishement to the White House. regardless of his race. Is this change? To be be sure. But more to the point, this represents growth.