A More Perfect Union

Today, we take a break from the daily bantering about me and my world to analyze Barack Obama's speech. Some of the media are dissecting it word by word saying he didn't do enough in denouncing his former pastor others are heralding it as historic.

Here are my thoughts.

As you know, I am a supporter of Obama's movement. I love that he is an architect of words, a thinker before a speaker, a listener, and most important, a uniting force.

That said, Obama's speech today, which I'm watching now on YouTube and read earlier today on Internet, moved me. Surprise, surprise, right?

Get this, I didn't totally agree with everything he said today, or think he said everything as best he could. It was wordy in some places, and unclear in others.

But here's why it moved me: it was earnest.

There is a brutal honesty found within this speech, a candidness you will find in the words of few other politicians. Obama worked both sides. He played every card the way Jimmy Rabbit did on stage in 8 Mile (bad analogy, I know). Barack told the nation about itself from the perspective of a embittered black man chastising whites for slavery and Jim Crow to the white working class despising blacks for affirmative action.

But he weaved his words and analogies all in the name of unity, the idea of perfecting our union in mind. Not making this country perfect, but striving for perfection understanding full well that we will fall short. He said he understand the impossibility and impracticality of curing all of the ills of the racial divide in this country during his time in office.

Yet in still, there's is a profoundness to a man who dare hope in the face of iniquity, a man who stands up at every turn and agrees or disagrees staunchly with his supporters and naysayers in moments of triumph and failure. This is what we, as a black people, have hoped for in Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan in so many ways. Someone to say something, that makes sense, in moments that matter, and be able to move a people.

But now we understand that he isn't going to agree with every black plight, as he has suggested by denouncing his former pastor's words. But Obama will call a spade a spade, whether it's white, black, Latino or Asian; whether it's rich or poor; corporate or union.

The thing he wants us to take from this tough, at least I believe, is to do what you do, and say what you say in the name of unity, in that name of perfected union. I could a write thesis on what the words perfection, perfected and perfect truly mean. They are loaded words.

But Obama is conveying that we should be striving for a perfected union, one that wants to provide a harmonious life for every child, woman, man and elder it possibly can, understanding that it can't.

That is this speech's purpose. It an attempt by Obama to make clear his purpose for running, and his true ambitions for America, to do the best things possible for the greatest number of Americans. The question is, Who are we to stop him or our own people?

And by people I mean Americans (and all watching superdelegates).

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Interlude: A Wait for Change

Ed's Note: A quick break from the previously scheduled series for this special announcement.

Obamanation 2008 Hits Kansas City

Each turn led us in the opposite direction of the Barack Obama rally site, and toward some other winding turn. Some of these halls, I didn’t even know they existed. We probably walked half a mile underneath downtown Kansas City while moving at a centimeter-a-minute pace.

Photo borrowed from a great photog named Jamie Cox, who apparently got a little closer to Barack than I did.

But on this night, we resolved to walk through those halls underneath Municipal Auditorium inch by inch in an organized manner and through security to hear the man who has the audacity to hope in person.


I can’t tell you how many people (somewhere in the thousands) I followed in line just to get to see Barack Obama. I can’t tell you how many people made it in after me. What I do know is that it was worth the two-hour-plus wait.

See, this country has been waiting - patiently and impatiently - for about 40 years, waiting to hear a voice that moved our American people the way John F. Kennedy did. Waiting to hear a voice that dared us to dream the way Martin Luther King, Jr. did. Waiting to hear a voice that carried us through doubtful times the way RFK was forced to do.

I heard that voice on Tuesday night in Kansas City. I saw a people – mixed with white, brown and black faces, young, younger and old bones, women and men – who earnestly believed the words coming from that voice. The voice, of course, belonged to Barack Obama.

He grazed over all of the important issues – from healthcare to ill-equipped inner-city schools systems to social security to the war in Iraq. He borrowed a phrase from Dr. King, saying he was running because of what Dr. King called “the fierce urgency of now,” concerning these issues. He discussed what he plans to do to right the wrongs of the last seven years and the ignorance that is Washington.

"We are at a defining moment in our history," Obama said. "Our nation is at war. Our planet is in peril and the dream that so many generations fought for feels like it's slowly slipping away.

"We cannot wait to fix our schools. We cannot wait to fix a broke health care system. We cannot wait to bring an end to global warming. We cannot wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close."

And while that mean plenty, hearing him say these things in person seemed to matter little. Obama’s greatest strength lies in his ability to make you believe. You could see the sincerity in his eyes. You could hear the truth in his words. You could feel his ability to make light of important matters while still speaking candidly.

He joked about being distant cousins with Dick Cheney, and how he was thankful that, even though they're kin, Cheney’s name wouldn’t be on the ballot on Super Tuesday. Same with George Bush. Obama heard the random shouts of impatient listeners, and responded on cue. He recited the Pledge of Allegiance in response to people who claim that he doesn’t even know it.

And, of course, he spoke about change, the focal point of his campaign. He spoke so much about change that I kidded with a fellow supporter that Obama should make Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” song his campaign anthem.

But it made sense (Think: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror…” and "...make that change"). Obama declared that change is not about him, that it’s not about a top-down mentality. Rather, he said each person must decide he or she has the audacity to hope, and take those hopes to the next level. Then work toward achieving the dreams and goals of this nation.

“Change in America never happens from the top down,” Obama said. “It happens from the bottom up. It happens because ordinary people decide to do extraordinary things. It happens because we’re a decent and generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations.”

It’s the kind of hope the majority of us who trudged along in line at a snail’s pace for a few hours had just to hear him speak. It’s the kind of hope this nation needs to have embedded in its leader. Most important, it’s the kind of hope we need for tomorrow.

I don’t hate or even dislike Hillary Clinton. I don’t even loathe or seriously dislike John McCain. If you choose either of them, it’s your right and more power to you. I won't think ill of you. But I can tell you this much, on Tuesday night in Kansas City, I heard the voice of a man who gives us the best chance for positive change in America, and his name is Barack Obama.

And I can’t even complain about the super long wait and slow winding walk, because it was worth it every minute.

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A1: The Black Family

To be honest, I can't quite say I know exactly how to absolve Black America of its greatest problems. On a grand scale, that's damn near impossible.

No one man has the ability to move our people, and rarely, if ever, has he. In the 50s and 60s there was Martin Luther King. But there was also Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who subscribed to different beliefs about how to correct the ills of society. They had unique followings.

Now we have new "leaders," and I put that in parenthesis for a reason. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are about the closest thing to leaders that we've had in some time. They both have their flaws - the main one being their desire to align themselves with causes that permit them to line their pockets.

Some (including Toni Morrison) once heralded Bill Clinton a champion for the black man. Clinton finds himself fighting for his wife against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. And Obama, and yes, I hope he wins the race. But say he does win, will Obama have enough power, as president of these United States, to bring about positive change concerning the issues I listed in my last post?

I doubt it.


Yet in still, here are the ideas I have for each of the problems I briefly discussed yesterday. If you don't know I believe one of our biggest issues is that we just lament our issues, and don't come up with ideas for solutions. Here's No. 1.

1. The Black Family. How do we, as a people, turn right the negative ills that have befallen the black family? I think the first step is to stop putting ourselves in positions where a family is broken before it's formed. Stop having children out of wedlock.

The marital bond was put in place for good reason. And the numbers show that the children who are born in stable, two-parent homes are more apt to succeed in school and life versus children born out of wedlock. This by no means says you can't raise a successful child as a single parent. It just says that the odds are against you.

On another front, our males must, and I mean must, be men instead of grown children. Be there for your seeds. They need you. Work with your child's mother for the child's best interests. Monitor what your children get involved in at a young age. On Friday I met a seven-year-old (white) kid who has a Facebook account. This should not happen. Be better parents and adults.

On another level, a lot of our families have been built on the traditions established by grandparents. They defined stability for most of us. Family gatherings, holidays and even birthdays centered around the grandparents. As some of them have passed, families' structures have fallen apart because there's no one there to continue the traditions we grew up with. Someone needs to step up, and continue to instill these necessary values in our children and give them that invaluable bonding time so they see the importance of family, so they know their family.

This isn't something that can be done on a universal level. It's a man by man, family by family situation that must be met head on by each family. No one man can say, "black families be better" or enact a law that forces people to do right in this situation. We have to desire to do right by our kinfolk, then do it.

Okay, I'm going to do this day by day. Tomorrow will be solution No. 2: The Black Soul.

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Back to Black

So, we're back here again. Contemplating the issues in Black America. Wondering how we right what's wrong. But this time there's a twist. In the conversation I had with Wildcat-Squared last night, I told her while name her three biggest problems in Black America, she had to name problems of blacks created by blacks that can be fixed by blacks, i.e. no other races are allowed in the discussion.

I've been on this kick about not blame other races and the establishment for things we can control/fix. I'm subscribing to this new thought: "People who overemphasize the victim mentality don't dream. They live nightmares."

It's a line I came up with while considering a lot of things: King's I Have A Dream speech, A Raisin in the Sun and A Dream Deferred to be specific.

Here are the problems I came up with. In the next post, I'll give my solutions to each of the problems. Here goes:

1. The Black Family. I can take this a million directions. The rise of teen pregnancy, the crack epidemic, children born out of wedlock, the lack of positive examples, high divorce rates. Take your pick. All have had their effect on Black America. But now more than ever we're seeing the results of about 30 years of worsening conditions. Kids don't respect their elders because they don't know them. We used to be raised in communities where the neighbor could whoop that ass if you stepped out of line, and none of that exists now. The Huxtables are a myth, and the black family damn near no longer exists.

2. The Black Soul. I'm just finishing Souled Out? by Shaun Powell of the Newsday. It's an interesting read about how blacks in sports have lost what's most important - their souls. Now I'm going to take it a step further. Black society has souled out almost as a whole. Everything is about cars, cash and jewelry. From our black celebrities to the common man, everyone is looking to flash a little too much, and find the next dollar to flash a little more. All the while, few are tending to their souls. Few value the importance of making the right decisions over the $ight decisions. We have to get back to what's important at all levels - from the common man to the Russell Simmons of the world.

3. Black on Black Hate. Sean Taylor. Antione Walker. Darrent Williams. Jamaal Tinsley. Need I say more? Why do we not appreciate the gains of another black man, and applaud them? Why must we try to bring him down. It used to be that people would talk bad about the black man with the college degree. Now, not only do they talk bad about him, they rob him. They seek out the rich black athletes and rob them. This may be the most complex of the issues because it deals with the other two I've listed.

So those are the self-created problems I think are slowing progress within Black America. Wildcat-Squared only differed with one problem. She added the idea of how blacks tend to mishandle money. It's an important issue. I think it weaves itself in with my second problem sorta. But then again, money is a major part of that one. Anyway, those are the issues. I'll come at you tomorrow with my solutions.

Then I probably going to come with three problems created/manufactured by the establishment.

Out.

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Vic Damone and the Old White Man

Before I jump into a story, I have a thought.

I know that most of the free world is wondering "Why Heath Ledger? Why not Britney?"

I have the simple answer. Did you see the over done coverage of Ledger on television yesterday? Now imagine if Britney overdosed. Barack, Hillary and McCain wouldn't be seen on the tube for weeks.
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I got up to go back to the HyVee salad bar for seconds. That salad bar is my favorite lunch spot. Just $5 for all you might possibly want in a salad and fruit, and then some.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So I get up to head back to the bar for some fruit, and this elderly white man speaks to me before I can take a step. He had to be at least 80 or so.

"Hello," he says.

I respond by asking him how he's doing. I told him I'd be right back, that I was just going to get some water. And that's what I did, skip the fruit. I was curious as to where our talk might go.

So I came right back, and what followed was one of the more intriguing conversations I've ever engaged in as an adult.

You see, I had my computer out so I could finish a few things up. He questioned why I had the computer, and said "I couldn't work any of that stuff no matter how hard I tried."

"If you gave me the time time I could teach you," I said.

My cell phone start chirping. It was a text message about a business meeting I had scheduled.

"And those things, what ever happened to just talking to people, like we're doing here," he question? "I guess our generation are just supposed to be different."

"That they are. "

"In my day, it was all about face to face communication. You talked to people, like we're doing."

"I still subscribed to that."

"But most people don't. What went wrong?"

Of course I had an answer.

"I think people go to college and understand that they're in a progressive environment, and they could talk to anyone. I know that's how I felt. I probably met 100 people my first two days at school. But when you leave that environment and head to back to the real world, you realize it's not as inviting. People close up. They're guarded."

"I can see that," he said. "But I just don't see how people just don't talk to each other. It's not hard."

It's certainly not.

Ed's Note: Part two of the conversation comes tomorrow.

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