5 minute read
I Walk In Her Shoes
OFFICE OF SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
BY CHERIE BUCKNER-WEBB
We knew she was coming. We knew not the day nor the hour, yet we were confident, resolute that the time was near. We waited eagerly yet steadfast, with great expectation. The time for her unveiling was imminent.
We were eager to herald her arrival—joyously awaiting that “new day” just beyond the horizon. We engaged in purposeful collaboration and coalition building; holding fast to the unique values of the many: broad based, inclusive, honoring, and balancing the needs of the individual and community. We continued to make preparations for the long-awaited announcement, a time of celebration, fully committed to the attendant work now and on the horizon: strategizing, evaluating, celebrating, envisioning, knocking, walking, and talking the gospel of a broader enhanced leadership world view.
This wasn’t the first time. For generations, many laid the foundation, shared the promise of women of power, passion, and purpose. No one lost hope. We kept the faith, were prayerful: we did not falter nor faint. We heard her voice in the admonitions of our mothers, felt her fervor in our DNA, tasted her freedom in our dreams. Her determination swelled in our hearts. Our destinies were woven with the will and perseverance she would possess to overcome the naysayers and adversaries. We remained vigilant.
All the while she was learning the ways of the advisory and how to best address the myriad of paradoxes she would face as a woman of color in a white world. She learned the formidable lessons of diplomacy, order, tact, and finesse, while understanding that there is opportunity in chaos. She acknowledged the juxtapositions she represented, those that confounded the dominant culture. In every endeavor of her life: educationally, personally, professionally, and politically, she was pushed back and pulled forward, heading toward the future. Our future. She did not accept either/or as the only answer. She worked, listened, and learned from those who came before and inhabited her paradox like a second skin. She is clear about being an individual and being a member of a group, always aware of her sameness and difference. Knowing how and when to challenge and when to support and serve an ideology, a person, the greater good, made her a leader. She is the first and will not be the last.
She honors the women who forged the path for herself and all of us. She epitomizes the skills and capabilities, the cherished “firsts” in the political and in life—the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Carol Moseley-Braun, Rosa Parks, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges—the first African American child to attend a white elementary school in southern America.
We knew not her name, but that she would embody the whole of all women, races, backgrounds, cultures, and professions. And finally, she is here. We call her Kamala Harris. We call her sister, mother, trailblazer, Vice President of the United States of America, and now candidate for the President of the United States.
We stand ready and willing to march with and for you in service to the greater good of our families, communities and our country.
We welcome you, Kamala, to this place in our time. We knew you were coming.
