anotherlook

I am moved by the visual of the inauguration of President Obama and the speech he gave that day. I realize, as I view the masses of people of different ages, shades and beliefs, the struggle it took to be at the point we are now, with race relations.

As I watch the news and see Obama executing his job, I see the pause Obama takes with each new task he undertakes, how people stand, when he enters a room, a pause of reflection, his signature on a document, a pause in realizing a dream, a pause to feel the power and to reflect with pride on his accomplishment.

I believe in my heart that Obama has the people at heart, yet I see him with a lot of pride for the accomplishment and I hope that does not go to his head because reality is, men who run for positions like that are full of ego, need for power, love of control…

That being said, I’d like to share this. After all my years in the world I’m finding it hard to recognize that there have only been two people speaking, that my spirit has really felt, who sends chills through my body, as my spirit is awakened, just to hear their voice. With simply the sound of the voice, I come alive with a unity of spirit, mind and body, and my hope is revived.

Those two voices are Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. The speech Martin Luther King is famous for, “I have a Dream” - I don’t care how many times I hear it, every time the chills come and the spirit is awakened and I know the words are most relevant to what really needs to be done.

I was in the world when the dream was being created in the hearts and minds of people, people who where both black and white, unified in the belief that black people be treated as human beings, as Americans. I know the struggle, I’ve felt what it felt like, I’ve cried from the pain of it and I see where it has taken us, but slowly we are arriving at the destination - I had lost faith.

During that time racism had begun to be seen for what it was, by a few white liberals as they were called, I just saw them as whites with a heart that had been touched by the reality of what, we as blacks, had been through from slavery to freedom, segregation and rudeness, to forced integration in a time that people where not ready for integration, to a slow acceptance culminating in the very real election of Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States - it has been a struggle.

Barack Obama talking change when change means different things to different people but the inclusiveness he offers seems to bring a thread of unity from many different directions. He is doing what he can do while we wait out Congress to see what they will allow or come up with on the economy but there is an abundance of push back as they analyze some small things that they feel do not seem to fit.

Blagojevich has stated that part of what they are hanging him out for, is the fact that he side-stepped some legislation, after consulting with an attorney, to help secure medical coverage for people who had none, or something like that. He claims that in so doing, he is being accused of a crime. Is transparency being used as a tool to show how Congress acts in relationship to passage of legislation that would be more “for the people?”

Those voices of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama tend to touch spirits with their words which makes me think and truly feel that their are more and more people with spirit to be touched and that’s appealing to my senses even though I know that Obama was voted in for different reasons it does not take away the raw emotion I have witnessed in some people

When I hear black men say they can truly mean it, when they look their children in the eye and tell them, they can be anything they want to be, in America, I can feel the pride that father has and see him believing in the dream, as well, my spirit is moved and it’s all because you the masses have joined forces to accomplish this great deed.

I am so, so glad to see this, more than that I feel honored that I have witnessed this historic memory. The feelings are so real and raw that they bring tears to my eyes. My spirit is awakened and I feel a renewal of life and I know that united all people have a fair chance and when the symbol of a fair chance presents itself through the collective efforts of the strong majority, the potential for change is in the making.

Democrats and Republican’s are a basic line of color drawn, between the people here in America, a polite way of drawing color/class lines between the people, that needs to end as well.

Now the people who have kept dissention handy, always making their presents known by the crazy things they do, trying desperately to cling to how it was, not so very long ago, too closed off from what is real and in their faces; too closed off with hate and ego to see the lessons unfolding, right before their very eyes. The lesson of freedom, what freedom means, what hope looks like, so they stay in the past, using the same symbols of the past, ropes with nooses, violence in the streets like, the case of Oscar Grant, in an attempt to cause chaos. Maybe that is why I have a hard time getting into the head of a racist - there is nothing there but hate and ego, nothing relevant to human existence.

Getting into the mind of a militant I can do because at least there is something there, some real emotion, a cause, a shared experience, loss, revenge, and then hate.

In the mind of a racist all there is hate and ego. A hate based on nothing significant and an ego that needs to have someone below them, in order to feel good about themselves, be it someone that was handed to him (in the case of slavery) or someone they invent, Hispanics, Jewish, gays, anybody will do, as long as there is a noticeable differences, and where there is difference, there is justification in the narrow space of the existence of a racist mind; only this difference is what is needed, to breed the ugliness they allow to consume them.

And that’s the way I see it!!