Today I Vote For My Father . . .

A few short years ago that feel like yesterday, I lost my father to a long and valiant fight against diabetes (click here to find out how you can help fight diabetes). Today I reflect on the relationship we had that has formed a significant portion of who I am today. I often tell people that the most poignant lesson that my father ever taught me was that real men change for the better. He taught me this lesson not through lecture but through action. As he grew older, wiser and more ill, he became more appreciative of the wife he married, the children he reared and the God that, with all his ills and sickness, was proof that doctors are simply tools for doing God's work and not the determiners of how long we live and when we go home to heaven.

As I stood in line to participate in undoubtedly the most significant election of mine and his and very well my son and my son's son time, I reflected on our relationship and how the CHANGE that I and many others are calling for is reflective of the CHANGE that we all must go through individually, as a country, globally . . . for our World to be safe, prosperous and bright once more.

So today, I vote for my Father.

I remember a summer in Georgia when I was young, attending a funeral for a family member I barely knew. I remember my dad pressing me to say "thank you" to an old man who leaned against a tree at the burial site, a man I had never seen before and had no reason in my mind to say thank you to. He wasn't family, just a family friend. He didn't give me money, or candy or even time. But my father insisted that I pay my gratitude to this man. That man was Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr's sucecessor to the SCLC. So today, I vote for my Father who instilled in me appreciation for those who gave blood, sweat and tears for my right to vote.

Today, I vote for my Father.

I remember summer nights on front porches, waiting for the non-air conditioned house to cool enough to sleep. Talking with my father till early hours of the morn when the city finally quiets and the serenity of the hum of street lights makes it seem like living in the inner-city hood ain't all that bad. I remember being allowed to share my thoughts and opinions about anything, a child speaking to a man who spoke back without hierarchy in his tone but with interest. I remembered being challenged to think about things differently than what my immediate surroundings and environment seemingly constrained my thoughts. I remember being asked and prodded to support my thoughts with background, facts and information rather than emotion. So today, I vote for my Father who taught me that a man thinks and decides not only as a result of where he is today, but where he wants to be tomorrow.

Today, I vote for my Father.

For God called him home before he could vote for himself and his father before him. For today I vote not just for a black man but for the many black men and women before him who have made it possible for a black man to be voted on. Today I vote for the change I saw in my Father. Today I vote for the change we need for tomorrow. Today I vote for the change that is required of each and every one of us to restore the brilliance of the American Dream which we wish to pass on as Father's to our sons.

Today, I vote for my Father.




In memory of the Late William W. Weaver III (9/14/1950 - 5/14/2006). I love you. I miss you.