Pause for Purpose

Mark K October 21st, 2008

 I was walking down a street in Paris – I just had to find a certain hotel where a famous writer had spent his last days, when I heard someone calling out a sound I didn’t recognize – O bam AH!  O bam AH! Finally, I realized that someone was talking to me.  There were three African immigrants on the street corner, and one of them had seen the Obama button attached to my shirt.  He asked me if I was American, and did I think Obama would win the upcoming election.  I answered that yes,  and yes, I hope Obama will win. He asked if I was interested in some pieces of African art and I declined and then he asked if he could have my Obama button. I liked the idea of him wearing the button long after I had returned home and he was proud as he showed it to his friends.  I sense that the French would very much like Obama to win and that it would do great things for the relations between our countries. Before I came here, a friend of mine back in the states had told me that she had volunteered to help people complete their early voting ballots.  When an elderly African American man had completed his ballot, he asked my friend if he could make a photocopy of it before he sent it in.  He was old enough to have experienced the country before the civil rights movement wanted to have a keepsake of this history-making election if Obama were to win. I asked my new friend if I could take his picture so I could remember this moment as well. 

• France
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