In the school system where I used to teach, we took Diversity training and we learned to talk to each other in our seminar sessions. We started out with any statement by saying, “I, as a white woman, need to say/ask/state…whatever” So, to Belinda, “I as a white woman, agree with what you have said re understanding that Barack Obama is taking a great step forward in the history of our country. He is a trail blazer and may not receive the accolades he is due. I fear for his safety every day. I want as many Secret Service men/women around him and his family as possible. The notion of people wanting to kill him chills me to the bone. He is a good man, a smart man and a true leader. I voted for him the second day our early voting started.” Now, as myself again, I have seen the moving “Amazing Grace” which is the history of how Wilberforce in England worked so hard to stop the slave trade in England. if anyone is interested in this story, you can either watch the video or read about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce. I am no authority on how blacks and whites and other races get along in England now, but I think their tolerance there for different races is maybe far ahead of ours in the USA. I’m not sure if we are behind because we waited later to free black people, but it could have made the difference. Wilberforce helped stop the slave trade 56 years before our country went to war and President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Even after that, many blacks never knew they had been freed because communication was very different back then and it was difficult for everyone to find out the news. And even after all slaves were freed, they still paid a price. For all the many years between 1863 and now, blacks have struggled. This, I am sure, Belinda is no news to you. As for hopefully an Obama Presidency, I see him as someone who wants all of us to pull together and learn to be one people. He has started the process already where I live. People just seem to be more hopeful and kinder these days. My wish for this country is to start a movement toward the wish that Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek had. Yes, I am a Trekkie. In his mind, after he had been in World War II and had seen enough of war, he wanted a world in which all cultures could assimilate and be productive and work together. If you have ever seen an episode of any of the Star Treks, you see all different kinds of people working on the Enterprise ship and working TOGETHER AS ONE. I loved Roddenberry’s thinking and I wish for all of us that we could become like the people on the Enterprise. Call me an optimist, but I believe it is possible for our country to become this way, as long as we are willing “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man (woman) has gone before.” In in that vein, we should see our fellow Americans (strange new worlds) of whatever race, get to know them so we have an understanding of them. Then, I think, that is where Obama comes in… he is boldly going “where no man has gone before” and I believe he wants us to go with him. There, Belinda, I can’t be succinct either. It’s okay. We have to have more discussions like this and it can’t be said in just a few words. I too hope you have a good weekend. I’ll be at Obama headquarters working.

I agree with Patty E that McCain is not the choice. After reading a researched article about McCain’s days of what he calls “being tested”, I think he simply has a bad memory and/or just remembers what he wants to remember about those days back in the Vietnam war. The researcher found as follows for anyone interested in reading it: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081007_investigating_john_mccains_… I truly do sympathize with McCain that he was a POW. I too lived through knowing a fellow who was in Vietnam. He was a medic and watched people’s heads blown off, treated the wounded as best he could when he was helicoptered into near enemy territory to treat our soldiers. He also watched his own interpreter be led off by South Vietnamese soldiers and shot dead because the interpreter was accused of treason. No trial, nothing, just shot dead. Later, my fellow friend, sneaked into the S. Vietnamese camp and shot dead the guys who had shot his interpreter dead. He came home feeling so jittery and wild that he was never the same person again. I know about Vietnam. It was awful and screwed up lots of men’s and women’s lives. But, people who are not heroes, should not go around purporting to be and this article, for me, makes me know John McCain was no hero. If anything, he has a guilty conscience which makes him very angry. He doesn’t seem to be ‘at peace’ with himself.

I had a cousin like yours, sort of, but he was a “lipless wonder” and kissed with a kind of lizard tongue. It wasn’t good.

I’m 61 so I didn’t go through the Great Depression myself. I did have a story or two passed onto me by my mom and by my husband’s mom. One from my mom was that my granddad lost his job in Greensboro at the mill he worked in. He had 4 children to support, so, in order not to worry them, my grandmother made his lunch everyday as usual, and he left every morning at the same time he would have when he worked at the mill. He went out everyday and looked for a new job. Meanwhile, my grandmother worked for a newspaper collecting stories for a social column and made a little money that way. My husband’s mother told me that his grandmother lost her house due to the taxes owed. Her husband had died in the great flu epidemic of 1918 and she worked (in the South) in a factory to support her six little children. She was hardly ever home and depended on her black housekeeper to keep the children. My husband’s mother used to say, “Back then, hamburgers were a nickel. That was great, IF YOU HAD A NICKEL!” So, those were my stories. I know that my parents used to save everything that I thought should be thrown away, like little pieces of aluminum foil. Some of my current friends save pieces of soap to add to a new bar of soap, which they tell me is a handed-down habit from their parents. My father used to tell me he’d ask his father for a quarter to go out on a date and his father would say, “bring me back the change.” It had to have been awful to live through those times. Maggie

I think you’re right about your interpretation of what Whoopi means, Kryssi. As a matter of fact, on my part, speaking as a Caucasian female (that’s what they make me check in those boxes) I wish I could express myself as well as Whoopi, but then, I would be Whoopi and it wouldn’t be the same. I love you, Whoopi! I watch you every day on The View just to keep my brain straight! Maggie

Also truthful is Dwight D Eisenhower’s granddaughter is for Obama as is Warren Buffett. Care to call them “idiots”?

I totally agree with Candice Bergen’s depiction of you and I can only add, you have the sexiest voice in all the world. Happiest of Birthdays to you!!!

I’m from NC and I even contributed to John Edwards’ campaign…not much but some. I wanted Hillary to be the candidate even though I donated to John. Now I am every bit ready to vote for Obama. I don’t know whether this latest awful news about John would have changed what happened to Hillary. I do know I am so very, very sad for John’s wife and their children. Sadness, that’s the only feeling I have right now.

The adage I live by is: A Poet wrote: “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these….it might have been.” I take this to mean, if you need or want to do something, you’d better try it before it’s too late.

I agree with Carolyn Pugh. I first heard of this through my brother who had seen it on some National Enquirer place. He asked me, because I’m from Chapel Hill I guess, if I knew anything about this. I hadn’t. Another person told me to “consider the source”. I think people want to have something to talk about and they’re trying to find something juicy. I think, even if John did make this mistake, his family has been through quite enough through the years and certainly, his wife needs protecting as she continues to battle cancer. I’d like to see this whole thing minimized because John is NOT a candidate and won’t be the VEEP. Sometimes, it seems the humane thing to do to let some stories fade. In this case, I think fading would be a good thing.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Christa McAuliffe, Whoopi Goldberg

I agree with Candice Bergen’s comments; of course, I agree with her about most everything. She’s just usually right! Seriously, however, I’m not sure I could endure what Mrs. Spitzer is going to be going through. And I don’t know what I would be telling my daughters. It all seems so convoluted and now, he may not keep his job as Governor. We don’t need to be losing good Democratic governors. It will be interesting to hear Mrs. Spitzer interviewed a few weeks later to hear what she “really” thinks is happening right now.