God Spare Life

Barack Obama - Another Magical Moment in History

I'm feeling a bit psychic, given the news today. Listen to my interview with my editor/publisher, Yvonne DiVita, from a few days ago about my experience at a private reception for Senator Obama here in Florida on May 21.

As I mentioned in the interview, I was able to give a copy of my book to Senator Obama and he wrote this about it:

Dear Claudia,

Thank you so much for the copy of your autobiography God Spare Life. Your struggle to break boundaries never before crossed is truly inspirational. I encourage continuing to spread your message to everyone that we should never give up our hopes and dreams. Of course, the greatest gift you can give is your support, and I truly appreciate it. ...

Click on the image to enlarge and see the rest of Senator Obama's letter to me.

As you can tell from my smile, my words, and my voice in the interview above, I'm in turn inspired by Senator Obama and his message. When I and my classmates took over the Vassar College administration building in 1969 and wondered if we would accomplish our goals or be expelled, I could not yet envision this day.

Now we have an African American ready to be nominated by a major party for President ... and serious talk of a woman as his running mate! As I said in the interview, the feeling for me is magical.

Diversity Award: 2008 and Beyond

What an amazing week I had at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting in San Francisco last week! In addition to receiving the AAOS 2008 Diversity Award, I had the opportunity to meet the future I've worked so long to help bring about.

You may recognize these two shining examples:

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That's Debi Thomas in the middle (yes, the former US and World Champion and Olympic medalist figure skater), who's now a practicing orthopaedic surgeon. She attended the Trilogy Breakfast where we bring together the African American, women's, and Latino societies of orthopaedic surgeons. 

And the third photo is Kalilah Allen-Harris (Miss Black USA 2007), who is in medical school studying toward becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Kalilah and I were on a panel presentation entitled "She Can Do It" and she expresses the spirit of passing on what we've been given on her own blog where she wrote, "Being able to encourage people is such a blessing."

Here's more about my whirlwind week from a conversation with Yvonne DiVita and Tom Collins last Friday (just click the Play ">" button to listen, or the link below to download the MP3):

MP3 File

Stop back soon for another segment from this conversation.