This week was a week of history making days. The first occurred on Tuesday, 4 November 2008, and that day should live on in our memories as a day that our nation took a huge step forward in the Civil Rights Movement. I don’t care who you wanted to win the election you have to admit that this was a momentous occasion for our nation. I was proud to call myself an American on that day, because I believe a part of The Dream that Martin Luther King, Jr. had was achieved. Many Americans finaly saw past the color of a man’s skin and choose someone other than a white guy to be President.
I heard so many wonderful comments that I just thought were wonderful regarding this election. One was from a woman who had her 3 year old son with her and she had said that she was so happy to be able to tell her son that he didn’t have to only dream of being a rap star or basketball player to make a name for himself, because now he could be President of the United States of America.
Another one was from a woman who had gone to the polls with her 90+ year old grandmother. She had said that her grandma had lived long enough to remember when African-Americans couldn’t vote and now she was able to vote for and see a African-American become President.
The last one was from Whoopi Goldberg. She had said that she talked with her mom, who was always a positive thinking person, and asked her if she ever thought she would live to see the day she would see a African-American become President and her mom said that she never thought she would.
When I heard all three of these statements it brought tears to my eyes. I hope that we as a nation continue to move forward in this regard, because we are sadly way behind most of the rest of the world in this regard. I look forward to the day when we can see a Latino President, Asian President or even an American-Indian President. So let’s all take a moment and celebrate this wonderful day and once again on 20 January 2009. This is a time to set down ou political differences and take joy in this historic moment.
The other historic moment that took place happened in the northern regions of Michigan’s lower peninsula, in the city of Traverse City at the Black Star Farms. It was the wedding of Eric and Laura Voigt. While this was not the first wedding ceremony that I conducted it was the first wedding ceremony that I did for someone who was a teenager in a youth group I was the youth pastor at. Besides that part I also believe that every wedding is a historic moment because it is the uniting of two lives together.
I love weddings and find great joy in attending them or, if I get the honor to do so, conducting the ceremony of a wedding. Marriage is such a wonderful thing and something that should be treasured and cherished. I especially love when they do the dance at receptions when they have all the married couples come out on the dance floor and the eliminate them until they have the couple that has been married the longest out on the dance floor. Kimmy and I will sit there and watch that older couple dancing, and dream of the day when that is us. We don’t see any other option but growing old together and staying madly in love with each other. That is my prayer for every married couple and that is my prayer for Eric and Laura Voigt. History started indeed.
