After we got the kids to bed, I wandered into their bathroom to put away toothbrushes and wipe down the counter. I noticed one of the kids had placed (rather messily…note handprint) their Obama sticker on the mirror. It was the last thing they did tonight and likely will be the first thing they see tomorrow morning, when we'll have a new president.
I realized yesterday that this will be the first president that Neko, and likely Shep, remembers. (Mine was Jimmy Carter.) Their first memorable president will be a person of color, a face unlike one we've seen in the Oval Office to date.
Tonight, as we watched the election, Neko talked about Obama as "the guy in the blue picture" and McCain as "the guy in the red picture." When differentiating between the two, many adults would have used race as their first identifying factor. Neko hasn't yet mentioned Obama's ethnicity. I don't pretend she will always think this way, but it was refreshing nonetheless.
I hope by the time they have children of their own, and look back on
their presidential firsts, they have seen presidents or vice-presidents
of all colors, genders, religions and orientations. I hope that they
shake our heads, and marvel that gay marriage was once not an American right.
Got hope? You betcha.