"Life Ain't Been No Crystal Stair"

You’re right.  Those are not my words.  They belong to one of America’s most revered poets, a black man, Langston Hughes.

Today an Internet headline told of a CEO in this great nation of ours who sent his 7,000 employees a memo telling them they may lose their jobs if Obama is elected. 

And, through this long evening I’ve worried about the implications of the CEO’s appalling action.

 I think our right to vote in this country is one of our most cherished rights.  People have died for the right. I feel helpless for myself and for the people who received their CEO’s memo.  How quickly will another CEO take the same step?  What will employees do if their choice is President Obama?  Perhaps they will not vote at all.  Or, maybe they will vote for another candidate.

I’m thinking there is no hope for America’s future if the power that one might have over any of our lives is misused to influence the wonderful privilege of an individual’s freedom of choice in the voting booth.

If the news tomorrow reports the CEO was served with papers summoning him to answer to ‘attempted voter coercion’ or a voting rights violation of some sort, I may completely recover from the shock of his misuse of freedom of speech.  Please someone in the Justice system, make it clear to the man that company officers/management/supervision cannot use their power over workers to influence how they vote.  

Agonizing over the miserable gall of the CEO, reading the memo itself, I was consumed with sadness.  It came to me my life hasn’t been overflowing with joy and happiness.  Langston Hughes words from his poem, Mother to Son, came to mind.  

A parent is speaking encouragement to a child.  I think the parent having suffered hard times knows her child will also be faced with similar problems.  She is telling him when life’s difficult moments get you down, just keep moving forward.

Mother to Son

         By Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I'se been a-climbin' on,

And reachin' landin's,

And turnin' corners,

And sometimes goin' in the dark

Where there ain't been no light.

So, boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps.

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

Don't you fall now—

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

         Langston Hughes was born in 1902.  He died in 1967.   The poem was first published in 1922.

                                           _______________________

Keep moving forward.