Inspiring/Touching Story from The Politico

by Ben Smith (The Politico)

My reader, whose family hails from Martinsville, writes:

I was raised by my grandmother and am from a military family. Everyone is a Republican. I was the first to go to college and am finishing up my graduate degree....

I am currently in a relationship with a black man in what John McCain would describe as the "real Virginia." My family, after three years are just now becoming comfortable, if you want to call it that, with my boyfriend. They claim that he isn't like all of the other *****.

Before my grandmother died she left me with a note that she didn't want me to open until she died. I opened that letter. My grandmother -- who has never referred to blacks appropriately -- had [early] voted for Obama. She called him a "socialist" in her letter but she voted for him because she said that maybe the values that her parents instilled in her, which was to hate anyone that didn't look like her, would not be passed on if people saw Obama in office.

It was especially touching given my current relationship, and I honestly believe that there are many others out there just like my grandmother. Take it for what it's worth but I believe that Obama will not only win my home state of Virginia, and that includes doing well in the "real Virginia" as well as win this election.