Do You Need An Obama To Believe?

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

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

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

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

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

Born in Athens, Ga., and eventually raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., my dad
never knew his biological father. The only father figure in his life was
harsh, distant and cold. His mother, because he made "too much
noise" for her then-boyfriend, threw him out of the house at age 13.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 4, 1951

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your Father,

Randolph Elder

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

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

Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate, Inc

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

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

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