BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
Youthful exuberance — These youngsters make cheerful victory signs about President-elect Barack Obama, before scattering away to their games and other activities at the Boys and Girls Club of Spring Hill.
BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
Sharing their thoughts — Marques Lester, Ashaunti Pleas, Taylor Brooke McRae and Janie Lester share their thoughts, all positive, about the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama.
BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
'Yes, we can!' — Youthful members of the Boys and Girls Club of Spring Hill raise their hands to signify, "Yes, we can make a difference," as they talk about Sen. Barack Obama's election to the presidency of the United States
BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Birds of a feather? — Frank Kinsley, right, poses with DeLand City Commissioner Scott Price and a pink flamingo after a meeting last year, proving politics can be interesting.
BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
A different perspective — DeLeon Springs resident Mike Mathis shares his thoughts about Barack Obama's win in the presidential election, after stopping at The Beacon.
PHOTO COURTESY LLOYD MARCUS
Conservative view — Deltona Arts & Historical Society President Lloyd Marcus, who mixes politics with music and art, has a dim view of the Obama win, although he said he will pray for the new president.
By Pat Hatfield
posted Nov 11, 2008 - 2:52:13pm
Days after the historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th, and first African-American, president of the United States, the news has sunk in.
It's real. Barack Obama will be president.
Althea Chavers, director of the Spring Hill Boys and Girls Club, has been talking about it with her young students, her own pride in President Obama reflected in her face.
Students at the Spring Hill club are mostly African-American. They don't come from well-to-do families.
On Nov. 10, Chavers gathered them from their games to talk to The Beacon.
"Our president-elect is Obama," she reminded the group.
"What does 'Yes, we can' mean?" she asked the young people, who range from grade school to high school.
"Believe," some said.
"Make a change in the community," others said.
"Make a difference," still others said.
"How?" Chavers asked.
"Try to help people," the students answered. They talked about helping people who need food, homes and health care.
What did these young people think when they first heard Obama won?
"I think that Barack Obama is really going to make a change to the world, to strive to make the world a positive place." — Ashaunti Pleas, 14.
"I was happy!" — Lisa Davis, 15.
"I'm going to be president one day." — Sydnee McRae, 10.
"I think he's going to make change to the world, for the positive." — Marques Lester, 15.
"He will be a great president. He'll have a great time." — Tysha Sanders, 10.
"It's good, not just because he's black, but because we need change, for the economy, and stuff like that. For health care." — Freddie Pleas, 10.
"I think he would be a great president." — Honesty Hayward, 9.
"I think that his children will be happy living in the White House." — Tayazhnaei Fields, 9.
Direct connection to history
In West Volusia, Obama supporters were multiracial. They came from all backgrounds and walks of life.
Mike Mathis of DeLeon Springs is white, middle-aged and middle-class. He's a retired Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam.
His first vote was cast in 1968, for Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey.
"I was 18. That was my first year of college," Mathis said.
It was also the year civil-rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.
Four decades later, Mathis worked for the Obama campaign, making phone calls and putting out signs.
He didn't want to take much credit for his work at Obama headquarters in DeLand.
"There were so many people down there every day," he said.
While Mathis was in the Air Force, he couldn't campaign, so it wasn't until the Gore and Kerry campaigns in 2000 and 2004 that he could participate again.
Then came the Obama campaign.
Mathis gathered with friends to hear Obama make his election-night victory speech.
"I was ecstatic," Mathis said. "We, the people, we elected him. We, the people, have decided the course for our country, and not some political machine or lobbyists."
That night, he said, millions of Americans at the grass roots felt they not only helped elect a president, but changed the country's course.
"I feel a direct connection to history, 148 years after we elected Abraham Lincoln, the president who emancipated the African-Americans," Mathis said.
Lincoln's 200th birthday will be celebrated in February, the month after Obama is inaugurated.
The loyal opposition speaks
What about those who did not support Barack Obama?
Frank Kinsley of DeLand, a Republican who's actively involved in local politics and civic affairs, was not one of the 127,474 Volusia County residents who voted for Obama. Nor was he among the 113,716 who cast their ballots for John McCain.
"I was one of 2,080 who voted for none of the above," he said.
There were 13 presidential candidates on Florida's ballots. Kinsley chose one of the other 11.
He did not sound unhappy with the election result. He thinks Obama's election will improve the relationships between the United States and other countries that suffered under President George W. Bush.
"Historically, politics aside, it sends a great message to the rest of the world. It's certainly a radical change to Bush. Personally, I think this is what we need today, and I wish him the best in the world. It's time to turn things around," Kinsley said.
This staunch Republican will be watching to see how Obama fares in office.
"It's always interesting when candidates say, 'I will, and I will, and I will,'" Kinsley said.
He pointed out the presidency is but one leg of a three-legged stool, along with Congress and the Courts, and said sometimes incoming presidents don't have as much control as they think they will have.
Kinsley said he will remain involved in politics. He can't get away from it, he said.
He's glad his local candidates won their races.
African-American does not equal liberal Democrat
Lloyd Marcus, president of the Deltona Arts & Historical Society and president of the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of Color (NAACPC), had a strong reaction to the election of the nation's first black president.
Marcus is not a liberal, a Democrat, or an Obama supporter. And, in a country that's moved beyond racism far enough to elect an African-American president, Marcus isn't sure why that's unusual.
"It's getting annoying, everyone wanting to congratulate me," he said.
Even conservative friends are congratulating Marcus on the election, and telling him he should be happy.
Marcus described Obama as a "far-left person who has an agenda that is horrifying."
He said he will fight the new president's agenda of "redistribution of wealth" and his position on abortion. Marcus also rejects Obama's ties to people like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Marcus said Obama campaigned as a centrist, and even sounded conservative toward the end of the campaign, but is, in reality, a "far-left liberal."
"I am a Christian, and the Bible does call us to pray for leaders. I am going to pray for him, but I'm going to fight his agenda with everything that is within me," he said.
Marcus said God is in control, and will give the country an opportunity to return to true conservatism.
He said the new NAACPC will lead a movement to educate people about what being conservative really means.
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