The Best Email I Got Yesterday

I haven't really slept at all for the last couple of days - an hour here, a couple of hours there - and it is finally starting to catch up with me. Consequently this Brown Man's thinking is starting to go a little soft, even as I feel a wellspring of new ideas coursing through my head, words and phrases that are begging to to be captured by my keyboard.

Tonight, I will actually turn the TV off and sleep in a bed.

But before I do that, I have to share something I got from one of my frequent visitors. Her original email just came out of the blue, a very nice "attaboy" that added fuel to last nights fervor.

dear brownmanthinking:

i want to thank you for your thoughtful writing as we approached this historic day. you are partly responsible for my getting off my butt and putting my money and time where my heart's desire is.

this country will, i hope, be on a new road when the sun rises on wednesday, november 5, 2008.

cheers,

karen

So I asked her to elaborate, so I could include her story in the posts I was sending to TV One. They didn't use it, but I liked it so much, I feel I have to share it. The story Karen tells is why I struggle mightily with my imperfect original drafts to make sure that the pieces I post here speak directly and clearly and passionately to all of you.

dear kris:

i am a 51-year-old "white" female and i live in fall river, massachusetts (if i tip out of my chair, i'm in rhode island, and i'm originally from white plains, new york, via connecticut, nigeria, saudi arabia and boston). although i have worked as a poll worker in three elections over the past 20 years, i have never donated to a political campaign before and never volunteered to work in any capacity for a campaign.

this election things are different. i have contributed money and time to senator obama's campaign.

i seek out blogs with good content, not based on racial, sexual or religious orientation. i don't remember exactly when it was that i first found your blog through a link from somewhere else but it was after the democratic primary had narrowed to clinton and obama. what has kept me coming back is that you made me feel that we are part of the same community. you shared the joys and difficulties and concerns of this important election. you expressed skepticism and frustration without bitterness and with humor. you are realistic in your expectations of other people. i see those same attributes in senator obama.

race is such a tricky issue. am i really as colorblind as i think i am? i like to think so. despite the name of your blog, i don't think of you as a black man, i think of you as someone with something relevant to say. the historic nature of senator obama's candidacy given his skin color is something to be celebrated, but i am not voting for him because of his race, i am voting for him because of the content of his mind and his character. at the same time that i am voting for senator obama, i am voting for you and me and the dozens of people i have met on the internet and in "real life" throughout the last six months -- people who i believe hold the same things dear and are willing to make that effort to build a better community, a better america, a better world.

i don't think i have really said well what is in my heart because it is so full at this point and i cannot stop worrying until the next president has been announced, but i hope i have in some small way communicated what i'm thinking.

please dear god, if you exist, make my dearest hope a reality.

karen
fall river, massachusetts

Thank you, Karen.

And thank you to everyone else who comes here regularly to see what this Brown Man has to say.