Relief At Last! Relief at Last!

Hinds County Gazette
Christiansen's Comments
11/13/2008

Relief at last!! Relief at last!!

It is over ! After months and months of endless campaigning….Finally It is over! America has selected it’s new president. An African American, Barack Obama. Mississippi, is perceived by outsiders, as a racist state, gave him 43 percent of their votes….not a majority, but still and all when you consider 37 percent of Mississippi is black, There had to be some cross over voting…..probably on both sides.

Wednesday morning I had several calls, wondering how things were down here in Mississippi. I don’t what were they expecting…Maybe we‘d try to secede from the union, because we have a black president elect or we would rioting in the streets.

My world is rather small and my associations are mostly with white folks, probably McCain voters…but when it was over and the votes were counted…Naturally there was some disappointment…but I heard not one word about race…it was where he stands on some of the issues…

This is what I want the world to know about us white folks in Mississippi , we are not in a rage, about an African American being our new president….We have put the soon to be first family on our prayer list and we have moved on…to work, to school, into the woods to deer hunt….And of course to the Mistletoe Market.

If I was guessing, I would say Mississippi is more willing to get along then some other places…The races in Mississippi have their differences that is for sure….But unlike other places in the country, here in Mississippi both sides are well aware of those differences….Both sides know it will take time to resolve those differences….and realistically there maybe some difference that will never be fully resolved.

However I said all of that, to say this, if all the world got along as well as we do in Mississippi, it would be a far better place. The black folks in Mississippi know that it is highly unlikely that a white person is going to vote for a Democrat of any race for president…but that does not keep them from chatting with us while standing in line at the polls waiting our turn to vote… asking about each other’s families.

Our differences do not keep the white farmer from cranking up his tractor to pull a black family out of a ditch…or a black man from helping a stranded white lady change a tire.
But you will be happy to know…Both black and white Mississippians have made great advances in one area….They are both much more tolerate of Yankees. So come on down…for a visit.

Love to all

Call if you need me

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com