Ann Nixon Cooper - Witness to Progress, One Century Plus

The right to vote--not a privilege, a right granted all law abiding adult American citizens--carries great meaning for every person, but the vote of centenarian Ann Nixon Cooper, cited in Barrack Obama's acceptance speech, may speak for all who vote, or would if they could, everywhere in the world.

Born in the wake of America's Civil War, a war that brought slavery to its end on the North American continent, Cooper got born just in time to witness not only the invention and first mass production of the gasoline-powered automobile, but also and more importantly the longer, slow, but certain caving of prejudice in American politics.

Close to 146 years have passed since the Confederate surrender at Wilmer McLean's home in the village of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia (April 9, 1865).  By today's North American medical standards, that's about two average lifetimes (mid-70's to mid-80's for the healthy and medically well attended), certainly also a snap of history's fingers: still, today, what a sight to behold, from the tenacious General Grant and the magnanimous President Lincoln to the listening-thinking General Petreaus and the definitely black, also Harvard educated, President-elect Obama.

I'll leave the Googling on the history of American suffrage and race relationships to you.

Below: the link to CNN's article on Cooper, which itself contains links to video and other materials.

Reference

Johnson, Robert.  "106-year-old voter shares hopes, secrets."  CNN Politics.com, October 20, 2008 and November 5, 2008: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/20/centenarian.votes/index.html

"Surrender at Appomattox, 1865," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997): http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm

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Comments

[Carolina Major Diaz]

ANN NIXON COOPER ANN NIXON COOPER

Te conoci una manana I met you one morning
Con tu nombre de mujer When a king
Evocado por un rey. Breathed your woman’s name.

Tu imagen, tu cara Your image, your face
Una noche vino a mi Came to me one night
Y contigo, And with you along
La historia Centenaria The centenary history
De un pedazo de tierra. From a piece of Land.

Ann Nixon Cooper Ann Nixon Cooper
Adoro tus anos y tu vida I worship your years, your life.

Ann Nixon Cooper Ann Nixon Cooper
Se que te sentaras a mi lado I know you will sit by my side
Un dia sagrado On a sacred day
Y Desvelaras a mis oidos y And will reveal to my ears,
A mi Corazon To my heart
Los secretos del tiempo. The secrets of Time.

Ann Nixon Cooper, Ann Nixon Cooper,
Tu cuerpo, Your body,
Baul de tesoros, Trunk with treasures,
Eternidad, Eternity,
Vida. Life.