Extraordinary Day

Dear readers of www.barbecuebible.com.

Normally, Steven’s blog is reserved for all things barbecue. But today, as I watched the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, I could not help reflect on the enormity of the occasion and its impact on all of us.

I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1950s and 60s. Baltimore was a “southern” city back then. I’ll never forget my first trip to the Baltimore Zoo—I must have been 4 or 5 years old. When I had to go to the bathroom, there were two entrances: one marked “for whites only” and one marked “colored.”

The same was true when I went to get a drink at the water fountain. And when we rode the bus, we would sit with the other white people in the front, while the black passengers walked to the back. Men and women old enough to be my grandparents sat in the back simply because their skin was a different color than mine.

Later, in 1968, I remember Baltimore exploding in violence, as riots turned out neighborhoods into war zones and smoke not from barbecue grills, but from burning buildings darkened our skies. I remember playing Bob Dylan’s protest songs on my guitar: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol, The Chimes of Freedom Flashing, Blowing in the Wind. I remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s inspiring speeches, culminating in the “I Have a Dream” speech in our nation’s capital. And to this day, whenever I visit that Mecca of barbecue, Memphis, Tennessee, I can’t help but think with sadness about that motel balcony, where an assassin’s bullet took Dr. King’s life.

So that fact that a black man—whose father would have had to use different facilities at the zoo than I did, who, 50 years ago, could not eat at some of America’s most famous barbecue restaurants—has today became president of the United States: it is a moment of such joy, such pride, such justice and honor, tears fill my eyes as I try to describe it.

Many members of our barbecue community here on www.barbecuebible.com live elsewhere on Planet Barbecue. We’ve read their posts, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of them in person in places as far flung as Germany, Cape Town, and Australia. For some, the injustice of segregation may seem incomprehensible. To others, it may seem painfully familiar.

Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your religion or politics—or your style of barbecue—I hope you will join me, your American friends, and our whole barbecue community today in celebrating this momentous inauguration and this extraordinary day. Today, we have seen the United States of America at its best.

Next week, back to barbecue.