That important thing, yes, that important thing when you both see eye to eye. It’s a rare thing but a necessary thing that let’s you put all the other trivial (and sometimes not so trivial) things aside. It was the one thing between my father and me that I felt made us both responsible men to each other and to everyone else. I distinctly remember the first time my father and I went to the local poling place to do what so many others were doing that day. So routine to most but for my dad and me it was something special. I knew where my father came from, a small southern town. He lived through a period in this countries history that most of us today would rather not think about. A time when you couldn’t use the same bathroom as those “other” people or eat in the same location as those “other” people. A time when you wouldn’t mind being treated like a second class citizen because the second class citizens had it better than you did.

I knew all those things because I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. That ineffable something that is always there, proud but cautious. Because where he has been most of us have not been and have no idea where that is or would ever want to go. As proud as my father is he lives with the constant (and sometimes real) knowing that it can all be taken away if those “other” people really want to exercise their power. His small voice, his one voice, not loud not protesting but it was what he had and it was what he gave me that day so many years ago. When I was a child my dad would take me with him down to the same poling place where he would disappear behind some curtain that reminded me of the curtain in the Wizard of Oz where some seemingly powerful voice was coming from such a small man. That was my dad! When my dad and I went to cast our votes for the first time together I felt the booming and thundering of my own voice from behind the curtain and a kinship with my father that I had felt very few times before. Most people have this feeling that, “It doesn’t mean anything” or “It’s too much trouble.” I guess I am fortunate because I never saw it as a chore or something worthless. I must be one of the fortunate ones because I look forward to that one day every couple of years when I can relive that feeling of watching my dad become a little more powerful than he normally is and knowing I could be as strong as my dad in a world that often doesn’t give you anything.