A friend of mine wrote this in his blog last night, so I can’t take credit for it. But I thought I would share it as I found it to be quite an inspirational read…
“Watching Jesse Jackson cry on television, as election results soaked into the global consciousness Tuesday, struck something in me that I didn’t even know was there.
Imagine this man, who held a dying Martin Luther King Jr. in his arms moments after a sniper’s shot; A man who suffered through our nation’s darkest days of hatred and violence; Who in his lifetime went from a persecuted second class citizen to standing at the edge of the stage as a Black man ascended to the most powerful office in the world.
Imagine seeing the world through those eyes, through that lifetime. Imagine risking your life, your body, your family, everything you hold dear to fight for an American promise. It’s the tears of millions back then that helped us recover our American values; values that make this transformative moment in history possible today.
I believe that some of us are meant to live long, bitter-sweet lives in order to bear witness to change.
We, the Millennial Generation, can not begin to comprehend the mayhem, fear and passion of those times but we cannot forget them.
What Barack Obama has accomplished was done on the wings of a new generation mostly unhampered by the chains and manacles of discrimination. People from every race, from every creed, chose him to lead us based on the fiber of his indelible character. Martin Luther King’s dream realized.
Was this the landscape of the Promised Land that Dr. King said he saw from the mountain top during his final speech, just hours before his own assassination?
Peggy Wallace Kennedy believes that it is. She is the daughter of infamous Alabama Governor George Wallace who had vowed to maintain segregation forever. On November 4th Peggy enthusiastically placed her vote for Barack Obama.
Dr. King’s movement relied on the youth of a nation who loved our founding principles so deeply that they sacrificed life and limb to take it back from those who had mangled and mutilated it to suit their own power and prejudice.
We face a different kind of struggle in the world today, one that requires a leader as charismatic, intelligent, and inspirational as Dr. King. And that man is Barack Obama.
With two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a badly tarnished reputation with the world, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Elect Obama has a tremendous weight to bear. But, as he said in his spectacular acceptance speech in Chicago, it’s also our responsibility now to help repair America by coming together and doing our part to better ourselves and our communities.
I believe that we cannot be consumed by our materialism, our policies of economic greed, and our global domineering ambitions. I believe we must resurrect the character of those days in the 60’s where young people put themselves in harm’s way to fight for the basics of democracy, to fight for security that we take so much for granted today and better America.
And it’s okay not to be satisfied with the way things are right now. As Dr. King once said as he spoke out against both segregation and the Vietnam War, “I am deeply disappointed in this country, but there cannot be great disappointment without great love.”
I love my country. And if there’s anything I’m certain of today, it’s that America is about to Change.”
I will definitely stay for the forums though. I need something to entertain me while I’m at work. LOL.
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