Welcoming
a New Era!

The classic and Oscar-winning movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, is one I have watched numerous times; however, when I watched it again recently, it resonated like a sonic boom. 

Surely I thought I had remembered all of those classic and prophetic monologues and dialogue between all of the characters: yet, in this new day of electing a new president, it seemed my destiny to see this film last week, moreover, to read Frank Rich’s Nov. 2nd column in the New York Times, reflecting on the similarities between yesterday and today. 

Sidney Poitier's movies have always touched my core in ways I cannot articulate.  I have seen Poitier on two occasions and both times, my knees buckled. 

A few years ago, backstage at the NAACP Image Awards event in Los Angeles, I had the occasion of asking Barack Obama a question: I queried him about America's moral compass, then the hot topic of the day. 

That Rich would connect the dots so seamlessly within a movie that held the mirror up to our deep seated biases and fears some 40+ years ago -- dare I say a symbolic emotional and social barometer -- that are still within us today is eerie, though revelatory.

Too, coincidentally, I am a daughter of the south who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (for the past 20 years) and have found this place to be the most cathartic region in our country, an oasis of acceptance, though no where near perfection.  Such a Utopia or utopian socialism has yet to manifest.  Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is set in San Francisco.

Weeks ago, my older sister reminded me of an incident that occurred when I was a very young girl.  Raised in segregated Louisiana, one night at the dinner table, my sister said I broke into tears, crying profusely.  When our father went to console me, asking, “What was wrong?”  I said, ‘I wanted Kennedy to win.’  Today, I do not remember that incident.  My sister tells me she remembers it as if it were yesterday. 

In the recent months and days many compared Obama to John F. Kennedy; today, they call him Mr. President.

Yes, we are at a monumental precipice and I thank God that -- we and Sidney Poitier -- are here to witness the changing of our nation and not a moment too soon.

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