NEW YORK – J’ai reçu un témoignage émouvant d’une amie, Careen Shannon, avocate et professeur de droit, spécialiste des questions d’immigration, et qui raconte dans le texte ci-dessous la scène émouvante à laquelle elle a assisté dans son bureau de vote de Brooklyn.
0-0-0
You might be interested in a touching experience I had at the poll, where – concerned about the long lines I expected to encounter if I waited until the end of the work day – I arrived at 6:00 a.m., only to discover there was already a line down the block and around the corner from the entrance to the school in Brooklyn where I vote. When I finally made my way inside and stood ready to enter the voting booth, the person who voted just before me – an African-American woman who appeared to be in her 70s – emerged, and was so overcome with emotion that one of the election workers gave up her chair so the woman could sit down. The woman was shaking, and sobbing quietly. « It’s really happening, » she kept repeating. « I can’t believe it, but it’s really happening, isn’t it? »
I understood her comments to mean, of course, that the historic event that an African-American was being voted into the White House was really happening. Even now, it brings tears to my eyes as I recall how much this moment meant to this woman, who had lived through Jim Crow segregation, the Civil Rights movement, the Voting Rights Act, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and untold personal struggles due to racism.
There’s a good reason that there was dancing in the streets all around the world. Of course, now the hard work begins.
Careen Shannon
Via Giansetto —
That’s a scene that repeated itself many times over; thanks for sharing an up-close view.
Il y avait des interviews avec scolaires qui n’ont pas encore le droit de voter, avec larmes sur leurs joux aussi.
Tres emouvant. J’ai trouve le discours de George Bush le 2 nov. tres tolerant et intelligent … il a montre qu’il comprend bien la voie historique d’Obama. I was a bit surprised to see how much he « got it »!
J’aimeJ’aime