Happy Tears

By: Walter J, Mountaineer News Contributor

Posted: March 29, 2020 | 12:11AM EST

Scotland - Heaven knows, I've tried--- but I don't think I'll ever fully understand the USA's way of choosing potential candidates for the presidential election: Caucuses, primaries, arcane voting systems, electoral colleges, etc., etc.

Sorry--- all too much for my poor little British brain! However, it all takes me back to that night in 2008 when the news came through that the system had finally come up with a definite answer----

Barack Obama was President! Obama was making a victory speech, and the camera swung round to show a familiar face in the audience--- it was Jesse Jackson, and tears were streaming down his face. They were tears of joy, and I understood perfectly. His country had finally got it right!

I had experienced the same feeling almost 20 years before, watching a report on the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. We on the left in the UK had made our own contribution over many years to the Anti-Apartheid movement supporting Mandela, boycotting S African products and holding demonstrations. And I took great pride in the fact that my home city--- Glasgow--- while Mandela was still a prisoner had granted him the Freedom of the City, and had re-named the city street that housed the offices of the fascist Apartheid regime "NELSON MANDELA PLACE" Mandela's release ( and subsequent presidency of the country that had treated him so abominably) and the election of a Person of Color to the White House were events I had never expected to see in my lifetime.

Now, in November, when it comes to that announcement of the result of the US Presidential Election, I hope my tears will be happy--- for I will have lived to see the rejection and removal of a president who has demeaned and disgraced the office of the Presidency.