Your Dad is Indeed a Mighty MAN. And I salute Him.
Too bad more couldn't have listened to Him instead of Jackson and
Sharpton.

He is as MIGHTY as the Man that said this;

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has
overcome while trying to succeed. Out of the hard and unusual struggle
through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence,
that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth
and race."

For the Unknowing that was Booker T. Washington. One of the Real
Thinkers in the day of the Foundation of the NAACP that urged the Hard
Work route instead of the Pity Party route they chose.



EH>By LARRY ELDER | Posted Thursday, November 06, 2008 4:30 PM PT

EH>"Does Obama's victory, as a black man, make you feel that you
can do anythin
EH>Someone asked me that on election night.

EH>It is a caricature of America that, pre-Obama, major obstacles blocked
EH>achievement. It is equally a caricature that Obama's win suddenly creates
EH>opportunity that did not exist before.

EH>Hard work wins, my dad always told me. My Republican father, who disdained
EH>Democrats who "give people something for nothing," taught
my brothers and me
EH>work hard, stay focused, live within our means, and at all times avoid
EH>self-pity.

EH>My mom and dad always said, "Ninety percent of the people don't
care about y
EH>problems. And the 10% are glad it's you."

EH>Born in Athens, Ga., and eventually raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., my dad nev
EH>knew his biological father. The only father figure in his life was harsh,
EH>distant and cold. His mother, because he made "too much
noise" for her
EH>then-boyfriend, threw him out of the house at age 13.

EH>So this penniless boy, living in the Jim Crow South as the Great Depression
EH>loomed, started knocking on doors. He finally got a job running errands and
EH>tending the yard for a white family. One day, the family's cook failed to sh
EH>up. But my dad, having watched her in the kitchen, whipped up a passable mea
EH>The family let the other helper go, and a cook was born.

EH>Seeking more money, my dad applied for and got a job on the railroads as a
EH>Pullman porter -- then the country's largest private employer of blacks. He
EH>traveled all over the country, making a mental note of California because, h
EH>says, its beauty and warm weather seemed open and inviting, and the people
EH>seemed more fair.

EH>World War II broke out. My dad enlisted as a Marine. He served as a cook and
EH>became a sergeant. The military ultimately stationed him on Guam as we prepa
EH>to invade the islands of Japan, an invasion that never took place because of
EH>Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

EH>My dad returned to Chattanooga, where he went to an employment office. The l
EH>at the desk told him he walked through the wrong door, directed him back out
EH>the hall, and told him to enter through the "colored only" door.

EH>"That's it," he angrily told my mom, whom he had just
married. "I'm going to
EH>California, and in a few days, I will send for you."

EH>My father arrived in Los Angeles and went from restaurant to restaurant to f
EH>work. "Sorry," he was told, "you have no
references." "Sorry, you have no
EH>credentials." "Sorry . . ." He, of course, knew why.

EH>He went to an employment office. The woman said, "We have no
openings." My d
EH>said, "I'll sit until you do." He sat in that office from
opening until clos
EH>for a day and a half. Finally, the woman called him to the desk and
said: "I
EH>have a job. It's for a janitor. Do you want it?"

EH>My dad worked at that job for nearly 10 years, while working a second full-t
EH>job for nearly as long and cooking for a white family on the weekends. He
EH>somehow managed to go to night school to get his GED and save enough money,
EH>while in his 40s, to start a small cafe near downtown Los Angeles.

EH>He ran the cafe, which provided my brothers and me weekend and summer jobs,
EH>until he was in his 80s. One day, my dad and I decided to clean out the gara
EH>We found a letter he wrote to my older brother, then two years old. My dad s
EH>he feared that if something happened to him, my brother would need guidance:

EH>May 4, 1951

EH>Kirk, my Son, you are now starting out in life -- a life that Mother and I
EH>cannot live for you.

EH>So as you journey through life, remember it's yours, so make it a good one.
EH>Always try to cheer up the other fellow.

EH>Learn to think straight, analyze things, be sure you have all the facts befo
EH>concluding, and always spend less than you earn.

EH>Make friends, work hard, and play hard. Most important of all remember this
EH>the best of friends wear out if you use them.

EH>This may sound silly, Son, but no matter where you are on the 29th of Septem
EH>(Kirk's birthday), see that Mother gets a little gift, if possible, along wi
EH>a big kiss and a broad smile.

EH>When you are out on your own, listen and take advice but do your own thinkin
EH>and concluding, set up a reasonable goal, then be determined to reach it. Yo
EH>can and will, it's up to you, Son.

EH>Your Father,

EH>Randolph Elder

EH>Dad is now 93 and, thankfully, still with us.

EH>So, yes, Obama's historic victory makes a statement about the long, hard,
EH>bloody journey. Obama makes people believe. Some of us always did.

EH>Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate, Inc

EH> http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=310860990234292
EH> http://snipurl.com/56w3g

EH>--
EH>"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
EH>to fill the world with fools." --Herbert Spencer

EH>"The republican is the only form of government which is not
EH>eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."
EH>-- Thomas Jefferson

EH>Linux User# 416016
EH>Linux Machine# 385029

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