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I posted my scenario in jest but I have a serious story too. Back in 1976, my parents divorced. I was 9 going on 10 that year. I almost flunked third grade but thanks to a helpful, sympathetic teacher and my mother, I managed to pull out. That along with it being the BiCentennial helped ease a little of the pain I was experiencing. That was the worst thing I experienced in my life until my mother passed away in November 2013.

That said, Mom worked at K-Mart but needed a better job so she decided to put her office skills to use. She applied for an opening at the Port Authority in Pittsburgh, they are the ones who run mass transit then as well as now. She was called in for an interview and was excited. When she got home, she was mad, spitting nickels and having kittens at the same time. I asked her, "what is wrong?" She replied, "I did not get the job." I said, "why, you're smart and qualified." She said back to me, "the interviewer told me I was very qualified and she would have hired me but she said that 'I have to hold the position open for a colored woman.'" "Why is that, "I asked, "that's not right." Mom said, "affirmative action." That was my first encounter with it.

We never got quite over it, in the years a they went on, when this came up, I saw the anger in Mom's eyes and I had anger too. When Barky was elected, I saw 70 years of anger in Mom's eyes and I felt the same in my 42 years since he was our first "affirmative action pResident." My mother passed from inflammatory breast cancer in November of 2013. She was triple negative so no chemo helped. I can even see as the cancer went to her brain, when she saw Barky on TV, she still scowled at time and even cussed at him. I remember during Barky's first term, she always cried when they sang God Bless America during the 4th of July on TV and I asked her why (even though I knew) and she said, "he is hurting this country." Also she even said in 2012 when she saw an Andy Williams rerun, she cried again and wished "we were back in the world of Andy Williams." She told me in 2008 that she did not want to go to her grave with him in office. Well, that did not work out, but she is in a better place now, but I do get scared where we are heading and I wish she as here with me to at least share the burden together and to comfort each other.

I'll admit that, yes, I am bitter and angry at all of this.