I Had a Dream
About ten years ago I was getting ready to see my oldest son for the first time in over five years. He had been serving in the Navy and had done a tour in the West Pacific serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear aircraft carrier and named in honor of the president who is credited with emancipating the slaves . . . although a nation went to civil war over that emancipation.
A lot can happen in five years and I was looking forward to seeing him. We had communicated some by email but we had not really stayed in close communication so I was looking forward to discovering what had taken place in his life. I was anxiously waiting to hear the tales of his adventures and travels. I had also been told by La Wanda he had a girl friend who had moved back to Texas with him and that she was "very pretty and really nice."
I was staying in a hotel between Fort Worth and Dallas and they called and said they were in the lobby so I took the elevator and went down to meet them. I got off the elevator and gave my son a hug and introduced myself to his girlfriend.
La Wanda was right. She was a very beautiful girl. She had a gorgeous smile and eyes that brightened up the room . . . and she was black.
We went out to dinner at a nearby steak house and had a wonderful conversation and I soon discovered she was also very intelligent. I engaged in conversation with Liane more than my son for most of the evening.
She had served as a Navy pharmacy technician and it quickly become apparent how much positive influence she had on my son.
They married a few years later and today I have two of the cutest little granddaughters a grandpa could ever love.
I am not telling this story to make a political statement or for any reason other than to just acknowledge it is something that has happened in the lives of many grandpas across America over the last few decades.
The video I chose for today has been viewed by fewer than 10,000 people since it was first posted on YouTube over six months ago. The artist is known as Rekteen and is from St Louis. He is not only a terrific singer, but the video tells a story that will touch your heart.
It will either touch your heart with love or touch your heart with anger depending on how far you have come over the last 50 years.
A lot can happen in five years and I was looking forward to seeing him. We had communicated some by email but we had not really stayed in close communication so I was looking forward to discovering what had taken place in his life. I was anxiously waiting to hear the tales of his adventures and travels. I had also been told by La Wanda he had a girl friend who had moved back to Texas with him and that she was "very pretty and really nice."
I was staying in a hotel between Fort Worth and Dallas and they called and said they were in the lobby so I took the elevator and went down to meet them. I got off the elevator and gave my son a hug and introduced myself to his girlfriend.
La Wanda was right. She was a very beautiful girl. She had a gorgeous smile and eyes that brightened up the room . . . and she was black.
We went out to dinner at a nearby steak house and had a wonderful conversation and I soon discovered she was also very intelligent. I engaged in conversation with Liane more than my son for most of the evening.
She had served as a Navy pharmacy technician and it quickly become apparent how much positive influence she had on my son.
They married a few years later and today I have two of the cutest little granddaughters a grandpa could ever love.
I am not telling this story to make a political statement or for any reason other than to just acknowledge it is something that has happened in the lives of many grandpas across America over the last few decades.
The video I chose for today has been viewed by fewer than 10,000 people since it was first posted on YouTube over six months ago. The artist is known as Rekteen and is from St Louis. He is not only a terrific singer, but the video tells a story that will touch your heart.
It will either touch your heart with love or touch your heart with anger depending on how far you have come over the last 50 years.
Posted by Marvin David Webster at Wednesday, January 20, 2010 5:29 PM 
Categories: Society
Tags: interacial marriage a dream Martin Luther King racism
Categories: Society
Tags: interacial marriage a dream Martin Luther King racism
Hey David, cool video. Hope your son and wife are very happy. She had to be smart if she worked as a pharmacy tech in the Navy. That school is ruff.
Bill
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I, too have had my eyes opened to find a very wonderful colorful family...We are so blessed my friend. Linda
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Very Nice!!!
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Gosh David! I look forward to reading short stories. Just sharing from the heart!
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I appreciate the positive feedback from everyone. I wasn't sure how this story would be received. I intended to publish it on Martin Luther King Day, but I was under the weather and delayed a couple of days in getting it up.
Where I live there are people who would burn my house down for writing that story, but in my opinion they are ignorant. It makes me feel good to know I have friends with love in their hearts.
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Coming from Pampa, I really thought that I was not prejudiced but you really don't know until you are put into a situation where you can find out. I mean, we barely had 1000 "colored" folks out of the about 25,000 that lived there back then. We had even fewer Hispanics....they were called Mexicans then. But I only saw a few black folks and then only in rare circumstances. But we had a family deal much like yours and I was with the ones on the the side of "ain't no way this is going to happen in MY family". But it did and I was wrong and I know it now. We really do have to confront who we are at various stages of our life or else we really don't know who we are.
Good story.
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Great story dad! Perfect for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
I love you!
-Whitney
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You are sweet--gosh, David, that seems like another lifetime ago...the girls are so sweet and getting so big...Chloe just turned 7, and is just amazing! Love you.
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Wow, the video really seemed to bring your story to life.
Love is between two hearts which obviously knows no colors. Love is kind and honest and beautiful.
Love can conquer all and even grow through the hardest of times.
True love can be the truth in the world that shows what is right, what is pure and what is real.
If what everyone wanted was right and not just out of greed for selfish reasons this country and so many other countries would not always be at war.
The problem is that it is not our place to be judging others and saying who is the "right" color or for that matter why are so many people the ones holding the "lists" making the rules??
All the people standing around these "rule makers" can suddenly be on the wrong lists at any moment.
People need to learn to think for themselves and stop being so judgemental of things that can't be changed.
Skin color is something that people are born with. It is the same as judging someone for a handicap or their gender.
I wrote a blog about this.
"Are you the "right" color?"
http://tinyurl.com/262squa
Tracy Solomon
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