Unwanted Unlocking

“Jobs creation is key to our economic recovery.”

I watch President Obama delivering a speech and I’m proud of my country, though my mind flinches as I observe his expressions, his body language.

My President looks like my father; not exactly, he’s half-black and my father is American-Indian/White, but startlingly similar enough to invoke memories of my childhood.

Why couldn’t my father have possessed this same steadiness of voice, this protective reassurance?

Is my political interest, this oft viewed visage of our leader, reemerging these nightmares of my gun-slinging sire, hunting and haunting me, attacking my hardly-won sense of well-being?