Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

I can only imagine that this is a picture of a mother and her daughter who are sobbing with joy. Like most of us, the idea that we in America would be electing a President of color was a far off dream. Almost overnight, this dream is a reality.

I watched here in Chicago with my wife and friends as we saw the numbers slowly rise up to support this unprecedented and unlikely victory.

It was like a fog lifting from the earth, that hid the joy, hopefullness and goodness of people everywhere.

Not just people who believe in a dominant faith persuasion, or have a certain color of skin…but of everyone.

I listened to his victory speech and thought of another man of color who spoke 45 years ago, in August of 1963.

It was Martin Luther King and his (click here for the entire speech)“I have a dream” speech.

I was a young boy,10 years old. Even then, I knew this was something very special. I listened on my old blue clock radio. We had a black and white tv and I can’t even tell you if it was on television.

I listened in the quiet of my bedroom, mesmerized.

I was even too young to know the hardship and violence that African American men, women and children had faced up until that point in our history.

I still am shocked and ashamed at the inhumanity possible in the hearts of some human beings.

How could such dgradation be possible?

I saw others crying among the vast sea of people in
Grant Park, including Oprah and Jesse Jackson, stalwart figures here in Chicago and the world.

There is something truly special about Barack. A friend recently told several of us that he and Barak shared adjoining lockers at the East Bank Club recreation center here in Chicago. He and his sons played hoops with Barak.

That’s what it is. Barak is not just a brilliant visionary, a poet, an inspiring and mesmerizing speaker, he’s one of us.

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