HAMILTON: Sasha Obama at the mountaintop

Columns

January 9, 2009

Anonymous The Niagara Gazette Fri Jan 09, 2009, 10:18 PM EST

To me, the Karen Bleier of Getty Images photograph was as beautiful as any picture that Norman Rockwell ever painted.

Seven-year old Sasha Obama had her nose pressed against the bullet-proof window as her bright, brown eyes peered at the paparazzi that had gathered around the blue Secret Service SUV that would take her to the exclusive Sidwell Friends School that Washington, D.C. morning. Her little brown face had the same look of concern that any child in any new city would have going to any new school. It was so similar to an image that I had seen before that it actually made me tremble.

That other image, taken in 1957, lacked only the detail colors of modern photography; and while little Sasha was obviously in the moment, it was in that moment when I saw the picture, both Sasha and I were actually in two separate but similar moments together. While for Sasha, Sidwell was a matter of mere minutes away. But, for me, and likely for many other progressive Americans, that moment was the condensation of what seemingly was a fleeting 52 years.

Upon arriving at the school, along with a Secret Service agent, Michelle Obama escorted the little angel into her classroom.

To some Americans, such a photograph breeds animosity. To others, it means nothing more than that the daughter of a president was going to school. After all, we have seen such scenes in the past with Amy Carter and others. To millions of other Americans, it means that we all are one step closer to that day when our Constitution will mean the same things to all of us.

It is likely that others like me found our selves a bit overcome by the simple picture of a child looking out of the window of a vehicle; and I did dab the corners of my eye with a facial tissue that had somehow found its way to my desk. For you see, I saw more than just one little girl in an SUV on her way to school traveling through just one moment in time.

Though my vision was blurred by a tear or two, when I saw Bleier’s color photograph, my mind’s eye flashed back to the murky black and white images that had one day poured out of the television set that was in the living room of that old house where we once lived. It was between the hard red bricks of Hyde Park Boulevard and the modest, gray cinder block apartments of the nearly segregated Hyde Park Village. Though now reinforced by the hundreds of pictures that have appeared in magazines and PBS specials, I recalled the newsreels of that day at Central High School in Little Rock and agents escorting nine young black students, not too unlike little Sasha, past a rabid mob of anachronistic thinkers who were hell-bent on keeping the world segregated. Except for their race, those officers and troops that did the escorting then were not too unlike the Secret Service agent that was now escorting young Sasha into Sidwell.

There is likely no way now that the bright eyed child that peered through the window of that SUV can understand that in one of her tiny hands she held tightly onto the future. In the other hand, Sasha had reached far back into the past and had gripped the hopes and the pains of some seven generations of parents who were not only the sons and daughters of Africa, but the descendants of all of the people of this great world. Along with the aspirations of their children, she took them all to more than Sidwell with her that day. While it seemed that she rode inside the SUV, Sasha was actually traveling upon the dreams of all of those who had gone before her in time, but they had not yet made it.

They made it that day. For in that moment, little Sasha symbolically stood on the peak of that great mountain that separates what was from what now is. She had been led and pushed there by Americans of every stripe and of every star. And with the same expression that she had when she looked through that bullet-proof window that day, she also looked at the dark, sun-crested silhouetted figure by whose side she figuratively stood. Then, as if on cue, releasing the shadowy hand of Dr. Martin Luther King, Sasha’s heart shattered the glass barricade that would allow millions of the aforementioned children to flood down the rocky path and into the land of which King once spoke.

I thank Bleier for her photo of this and may God keep and lead little Sasha, as He blesses this great country of ours.

Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. He can be contacted at Kenhamilton930@aol.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Columns

HAMILTON: The SPCA and the pineapple upside-down pie
It is said that, as free Americans, we often get the things for which we ask; we also often get exactly what we deserve. Sometimes it works out to our good, and sometimes it doesn’t.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
GLYNN: Slim chance now for a real thick ice bridge
If you’re not convinced about the unpredictability of Western New York weather, consider that this area was experiencing temperatures in the mid-40s on the 100th anniversary of the ice bridge tragedy in the gorge.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
BRADBERRY: Is Black History Month Still Relevant?
I am uncomfortably recovering and slowly recuperating from a relatively minor, but medically necessary procedure which has kept me out of circulation, out of touch and essentially on my back for a lot longer than I have personally believed was justifiable; however, in this case my opinion matters not; the doctor’s diagnosis and promising prognosis trumped mine, so here I lay almost completely befuddled, nearly unable to pen a clear sentence.

February 7, 2012 1 Photo
CONFER: Time to end the NFL’s blackout rule
Long ago, in a much simpler time, ticket sales accounted for the majority of revenues for professional football teams.

February 6, 2012 1 Photo
CITY BEAT: Stuck on traffic
Sometimes I feel like the traffic signal reporter in Niagara Falls.
Traffic signals have been making a lot of news around here lately. There’s the whole flap about what to do to improve public safety near the Como Restaurant in the 2200 block of Pine Avenue.

February 5, 2012 1 Photo
HIGGS: Discussing crime and punishment in the Falls
Have to take a detour off Pine Avenue in 1956 this week to report on an event held by the Niagara Falls Block Club Council for its member clubs and other interested citizens.

February 5, 2012 1 Photo
GLYNN: Hotel Niagara plan exciting for the Falls
It all sounds like a re-run of a TV program you’ve seen a dozen times. This time, however, there is every reason to believe that the landmark Hotel Niagara on Rainbow Boulevard will be restored to the splendid atmosphere that guests enjoyed for decades.

February 5, 2012 1 Photo
HAMILTON: BOE and kids, or the SPCA dogs?
There is example after example of otherwise qualified Niagara Falls’ board of education members and staffers lending their time and efforts to organizations outside of the school district’s core business.

February 2, 2012 1 Photo
GLYNN: Trust in SPCA shelter must be restored
Stories about the operations at the Niagara SPCA shelter shape the image of sickening and disgusting treatment of animals.

February 1, 2012 1 Photo
BRADBERRY: Old medicine and new challenges
Having suffered and recovered from my fair share of illnesses and injuries over the years, I have come to believe that sometimes the treatment and the cure of my condition can seem to be far worse than whatever I may think is ailing me at the moment.

January 31, 2012 1 Photo
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

HAMILTON: Sasha Obama at the mountaintop

Site Map

Contact Us