The Obama Effect

It's real, as this reader explains:

My mom owns a restaurant in a tiny Illinois town. This is the type of place where farmers come in at 4:30am before the doors are ‘officially’ open. It is the type of place where dozens of people gather every morning to talk about the day’s news. Anyway, my mom told me a story about a group of older gentlemen who were discussing Senator Obama. And, over the course of their discussion the men managed to utter a few derogatory/racist remarks concerning a black man becoming President.

The story isn’t about racist small towns. The real story is my mother’s reaction. Instead of simply chalking this situation up to ignorance and letting the comments go - my mom confronted the table.

As she tells it, she came out from behind the stove - and in come colorful language - promptly told them to shut up. She told me later that she ‘couldn’t that in this day and age, attitudes like that even exist anymore.’ This is my mother who doesn’t remember voting in any election, let alone the Democratic Party’s nominating process.

Our willingness as a Americans to stand up to ignorance, to take on tyranny, and to end oppression is what makes this nation the greatest country in the world. My mother’s story is a great example of how Senator Obama’s campaign succeeded.

Her story is my story. It is your story. It is America’s story.