Winsome Sears, Virginia’s Next Lieutenant Governor, Makes History
In victory she said, “ You are looking at the American Dream. I didn’t run to make history, I ran to leave it better than I found it.”
Ponder that for a moment and consider the countless generations of all races, men and women, who dedicated their lives to that proposition. They rightly believed that America was a good but imperfect nation, whose principles of freedom and equality were not fully realized, but could be left better than they found it. And so they did and so now the torch is passed to Winsome, their worthy successor. Long live Winsome. Long live America.
“ Well hello Winsome, You’re lookin’ swell Winsome… I can tell Winsome, You’re still glowin’….. You’re still crowin’….. You’re still goin’ strong” ….an extraordinary career of accomplishment, she is originally from Jamaica. This feels like our Crossing of the Delaware Moment , inspiring us to greater purpose and Patriotism.
The appropriately named, Winsome, demonstrates that in 2021 America a black woman, immigrant, and marine veteran , can achieve her hearts desire if she has the gumption and self- respect to do so.
In 2021 America George Washington can return to us in a different gender and race. In 1789 she might have been a slave on his plantation, and for nearly 200 years thereafter, she might have been the victim of Jim Crow laws, but “ look at her now.” From Virginia then to Virginia now, “eternity in an hour,” from tragedy to triumph, that is the core of our reason for being and the ennobling instruction of our history.
And look at America now. We are the sum of our parts: complex, contradictory, conflicted, and inexpressibly grand and glorious. It is imperative that we tell our children the entire story, and when we do, tell them the story of Winsome Sears as a paradigm of hope and progress in an exceptional country, “ tis of thee we sing.”
American is not a nation of oppressors and the oppressed, America is the land of possibilities. The like story of Winsome Sears belongs in K -12 classrooms all across the Country.
We can be sure when our flag is flying and our anthem is playing she will stand proudly to salute it, not take a knee. “ Only in America.” For us, it is our portion , “to stand beside her and to guide her with a light that is bright from above.”