A Letter for my Parents

January 16, 2009

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm hoping to go to DC for the inauguration! I wasn't planning on it, but last night a couple of people who I know marginally well and wish I knew better invited me to come along with them. We obviously wouldn't actually have tickets to be THERE at the inauguration, but I think that it would be incredible to be in DC since it's such a momentous occasion. I have no reason not to go since I'll be done with all of my exams, and even though it's not suuuuper close it's a hell of a lot closer to DC from Boston than it is from California. I figure one day my kids and my grandkids will ask me things like, "Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the morning of 9/11?" ...and I do remember... I was in 7th grade, it was at our old house. I woke up and no one was in the kitchen, so I went upstairs. The television was on. People were screaming and running and very afraid. I crawled into bed with you. They kept shrieking and sobbing. I went to school and all day long TVs were on in some classroom or another, bawling and blaring destruction and despair. There was an assembly to offer words of support. And there was a really long moment of silence. I cried with Ms. Nguyen.

So when my kids and grandkids ask me, "Where were you when Barack Obama was inaugurated as president? The first black president. The first multi-racial president, like you and like me. Someone who stood for making this country and this world a little more human," I want to be able to tell them that this time I was there embracing the hope and change and progress, basking in the jubilant energy and soaking up the ecstasy on the streets of DC. This time we were screaming and cheering and laughing together as a country united by the prospect of peace, not by mourning. This time we were crying tears of belief and joy and release. This time we were not afraid, but rather our hands were linked in courage and faith as our smiles spread from sea to shining sea. This time we - I you they us them single married divorced adopted orphaned only-child shopping cart-pushing mansion-dwelling green card status Mayflower descendent gun-toting vegan-eating midnight blue translucent ivory, and EVERYTHING all-around and in-between - this time we were merging, not at a point where we vainly try to understand our differences, but where we simply come together to begin healing our country's pain, from the scarred backs of slaves to the scarred New York skyline.

Being human is powerful. From the vast mystery of the mind to the expansive ability of the soul, we are capable of creation - of the future and the past, of ideas and realities, of life and of knives, guns, gases, poisons, bombs, rocket launchers, tanks, missiles, fighter jets, of death and of destruction - of normal peoples' lives at a bank robbery a few blocks away or in a small village under attack in Gaza, of a country, an ethnic group, a chance, a smile. And whatever reality is, whatever this is, within it the ability to not only be aware but also to remember is profound. I want to go to the inauguration so that when I am a wrinkly bag of frizzy gray hairs, a broken hip and forgotten memories, they will still remember. I want to go to the inauguration so that those babies, themselves still wrinkly from the warmth of another’s womb that remembers the secrets of my existence - and, by extension, yours mom, and yours dad - can one day be told that their grandma (great-grandma... or, dare I say, great-great-grandma?) witnessed a moment of human evolution. Not the point at which Barack Obama became a viable candidate, won the democratic ticket, or won the election, but the moment it became real: when enough of us triumphed over Hate, Prejudice, Racism, and Ignorance that we changed the face of America forever. In a country and a world where a natural and deep-seated tendency towards oppression, exploitation, and segregation has reigned, we have now made remarkable strides towards equality, freedom and peace. The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 43rd President of the United States of America is a symbol of the power that we are capable of. So I want us all, connected through time by a web of wombs, to remember that every day we evolve into our humanity, but also to never become complacent and to never forget.

This is a true story that we all live. It should be remembered. And so it is.

I love you THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS much and will see you in less than two weeks! Can’t wait.

Love Always,
Samra