Although I've lived in California most of my life, and I am one of those oddities today in California--a native son born before World War II (only 2 people in 1,000 in California today fit that description)--and I have been here non-stop for the past fourteen years, I had no insight or perspective about Kamala Harris when she became the Vice Presidential nominee for the Democratic party.
And I just read a story about her and her husband, which was eminently readable no matter your party persuasion. It is at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/relationships/doug-emhoff-kamala-harris-husband/2020/08/18/a6c64db6-e15c-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most
What appealed to me? Simple. The lines about the backgrounds of she and her 'new' husband sounded sort of just like my wife and me.
"a pairing that reflects the country’s diversity. Emhoff is White and Jewish. Harris is Black and Indian — she identifies as Baptist, like her father, but her mother also introduced her to Hindu customs. “They showcase America as it is, as it is becoming and as it will be . . . .”
"It’s Harris’s first marriage and Emhoff’s second — he has two children from his previous one. According to the Pew Research Center, remarriage is on the rise — as are unions of two people of differing faiths and races."
How, you might ask, is that "just like my wife and me"? Well, we are 're-married'--each of us for the third time. We estimate that we have had a thousand people 'tsk-tsk' when they hear that. The fact that we are now together for 35 years is some testament that it worked, but each of our deceased parents would doubtless still be surprised.
Re people of differing faiths and races uniting, Jenny is Catholic, my first wife was Mormon, and the second Episcopalian, while I was raised as a Protestant Methodist. Moreover, Jenny's second husband was Jewish, so we've covered the waterfront on mixing differing faiths.
As for ethnic mixing, our offspring and our nieces and nephews have brought Asians and Hispanics into the family, not to mention Southerners from Alabama and Louisiana. Not wildly diverse, but enough to challenge some family old-timers with Archie Bunker views.
Both of us are from the 'high-tech' world, so we've become acquainted with, and good friends with, Indians, Blacks, and Asians from a wide variety of countries and faiths and beliefs. And we have consistently been impressed by their humanity as well as their intelligence and hard work and dedication.
I've been on the Computer History Museum Board of Trustees for a while now, and it began as a bunch of computer nerds (almost all old white guys, usually ex-IBM or DEC folk). Today, both on the staff and the Board, the heterogeneity is both gratifying and amazing--and the advice provided is much richer and more nuanced than it ever was in the pasts.
So, whatever else may play out in this election campaign, it is refreshing to see someone who isn't 'just another old white guy' on at least one ticket. America has long since become a very multi-cultural country, and I for one think that is our greatest strength as a nation.
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