Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
~ Robert F. Kennedy
Last Wednesday I tried to buy a copy of every major newspaper to save for future conversations with my children. The significance of this years election will be one to remember. One of the more obvious points of historical significance is the diverse candidate slate we had to choose from. Men, women, young, old, black, white, mixed, divorce, adoption, religion, teen pregnancy, community college, prestige college, no college; this election had it all on one ballot! I firmly believe that every election from now on will either have a diverse candidate on the ticket or will be blindly running a losing race. While taking in the sights and sounds of our country the day after our community had spoken and elected its next President, a sudden dose of reality set in. The pundits on television, the talk show hosts on the radio, even the people in line at the grocery store, were experts on everything that was right and wrong with the outcome of the election. What lessons have we learned from events that rocked the foundation our country in the past? How many of us are now willing to accept that regardless of who won last Tuesday, we are now the next leg in this relay race called life? The election process began with each candidate holding the baton and sprinting as fast as they could, hoping to reach us first. The baton must now be passed on to us. Are we ready to take it from President-elect Obama and hold ourselves accountable for our portion of this race or will we drop the baton and wait for the next one? If we commit to focusing our time, energy, and resources to safely and efficiently handing the baton to the next person in line, our children, then Tuesdays election will indeed be historic. President Kennedy points out that the history of our generation will be written by all of us, not the gifted few.
My challenge to you this week is to have a discussion with someone else about your portion in this relay race of life. What are YOU going to commit to being responsible for to ensure the safe passage of the baton to our children. Since the beginning of time, elected officials have promised to change things so that the future of their children would be protected. One could argue that the baton has been dropped so many times over the past century that our children wouldn't recognize it as a baton at all. But, if each of us commits to being great in our own right, then there is hope that our children will finally receive a baton in tact. An event that makes history doesn't have to make the front page. Paying a bill on time 3 months in a row, doing homework with your children before they watch cartoons, or picking up a piece of fruit rather than a piece of candy can be historic events in their own right and none of which has anything do with who won last weeks election. Let this be the generation known for having the best credit, the smartest children, and the healthiest life style. These are the acts that President Kennedy spoke of then and now I challenge you to follow through.
Alonzo Kelly
