“We are on edge of a great election, and many of us are personally on edge about the potential outcome of it. Thirty percent of white people, it has been found in the polls, won’t vote for a black man. As a black man and a white woman, we’re troubled by that.”
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Purple. That’s red and blue blended together. Sometimes it needs some white thrown in for tone. Or brown. That’s like us. We are purple and proud of it. We hope that many of you are too. When we were all little, that is Carol and I and all the rest of you out there, we likely enjoyed having a box of paints of different colors that we could swirl around on a piece of paper and make pictures.
So we’re as special as is the whole world. We come in all shades. Sometimes, however, just like the whole world, diversity of color isn’t appreciated, and it should be because that is what nature is all about. That is what we love when we played with those colors as children and when we look at a rainbow or stop and smell those roses. As children we knew all of the colors made pictures that were far better than the ones we drew with our pencils. That might be a great lesson today, especially as we march to the polls. We are on edge of a great election, and many of us are personally on edge about the potential outcome of it.
Thirty percent of white people, it has been found in the polls, won’t vote for a black man. As a black man and a white woman, we’re troubled by that. We realize that the majority of people of white folks don’t care what color Barack Obama is; they’ll vote with their minds and just pick between Barack Obama and John McCain, depending upon the person they believe would be the best to lead this country.
There are people who tell us that the 30 percent don’t matter. But we don’t believe that. Thirty percent can make a big difference in an election. That same thirty percent can make a big difference in what happens to the rest of us going forward. We are two people who dream in color, just as we did when we were kids and hope that those of you who read this will do so as well. We dream about people of many colors doing whatever they want to do from teaching in schools, to serving as ministers, to running corporations and to leading the country as President of the United States. We don’t want artificial barriers to prevent folks from reaching their goals and finding their dreams.
Martin Luther King did too and so do a lot of white people today. Most people dream that way, just as they do when they go to bed at night. For that is what makes our country beautiful and our towns truly great. Yes, in this small town in the South called Natchitoches we dream in color. It wasn’t always possible to dream that way, and it’s still a struggle. We’re purple and stand out in a mostly red area with a few blues here and there. However, we’re all about finding more purples, people who will blend together so they can get together in all the ways that it’s necessary to get ahead and solve the local, as well as the national, problems.
All of us can start by extending our hearts and hands to people of races different race ourselves. We can paint our lives in color. Dreaming in color, we think, is the American way, the way of a patriot and the way that we can become part of the whole human race rather than be some small part of it. As for the election, it will take care of itself, although purple people will make a difference.
Our hope is that Americans will dream in color like us and give both Presidential candidates the opportunity to demonstrate that they dream too and that their dreams will help move us ahead not keep us separated into red or blue camps or black and white and brown or whatever that hopeless arrangement has done to hurt us. Our hope is that everyone’s dream in color will be in purple so that the right choice can be made in November.
Editor’s Note: The Real Views represented by Randy Stelly who attened the Democratic National Convention in August, was a member of the first-ever national network of ethnic news media at a Democratic National Convention (organized by New America Media). He teamed with Carol Forsloff for a number of stories published while he was there. They can be reached at admin@therealviews.com.