TALK TO THE DADDY

Hello. Come on in. The daddy writes about current events, literature, music and, once in a while, drops something on you from back in the day to make you pause and ponder, stop and stare, and begin to wonder. Who knows? You may start to pace the floor, shake your head from side to side, then fall down on bended knees in a praying position and cry, "Lawd, have mercy! What is this world coming to?" Check yourself! But this blog is NOT about the daddy. It's about you: your boos, your fam, your hood, your country...our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. So let's make a pact: the daddy will put it on the track if you'll chase it down and hit him back. Together, we can definitely take it to another level. Shall we?"

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Barack Obama: To finish a dream

At Real History blog, Lisa speaks of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign as a kind of quest to finish the dream that the late Sen. Bobby Kennedy started. Like Barack, Bobby, too, wanted to end a war (the Vietnam war in his time), end the mindset of continual war and only go to war as a last resort. Like Barack, Bobby wanted to take funding being used to purchase planes and ships and tanks, to bomb homes and village and redirect those sources to much-needed projects at homes: providing health care for more, improving education, reducing homelessness, ending poverty, and healing racial wounds.

Neither the death of brother, John Kennedy, or his friend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., destroyed his basic belief in Americans or his optimism about life. When Dr. King was assassinated, Bobby was speaking to a predominantly black audience in Indianapolis, Indiana. Police advised that he not go there. They thought it was too dangerous, that it was crime-ridden ghetto area. Bobby insisted. When he heard the news on the radio, he felt compelled to tell the audience and this is what he said:

"My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black."

Bobby's quest to achieve these goals was stopped when he was felled by an assassin's bullet in the kitchen of a California hotel and Republican Richard Nixon became president in 1968. But Barack's quest continues. He has become the democratic nominee for president of the United States, the first African American to do so in U.S. history. Now, he is leading in the polls and is poised to become our 44th president.

Can Barack help this nation to gain the compassion and wisdom to transcend racism, sexism, and homophobia and move this country to end a mistaken war and transfer monies used for that war to improve the lives of Americans here at home? Obama says he can. He's an optimist. Here's what he said to that crowd of 17,000 in St. Paul a few months ago:

"
I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals."

Will America have the courage to make him their 44th president?

Will Barack Obama and the democratic party have the courage to finish the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy started?

10 comments:

Somebodies Friend said...

He can, and he will finish the dream!

Amen!

Lenoxave said...

He can with our help and that can't be emphasized enoungh. He is one Man and will need the vigilance of the people to help him succeed.

I feel blessed to be alive at this moment in time. We have a chance to do right and correct some of our mistakes. What a time to live in the world.

Anonymous said...

Love the story and the photos. Go, Obama!

rainywalker said...

I look forward to this healing, it will be good for America and out souls.

Somebodies Friend said...

I agree with sdg1844, he will need everyones help, all the good people of this country.

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

I voted this afternoon. My daughter was amazed at how excited I was. I was amazed that my son joined his excited friends and they all went to vote together for the first time.

Got my fingers crossed, MacDaddy, that I'll be happily amazed again in another few hours!

Vigilante said...

I'm sure many feel as I that we are probably not within sight of the finish line, but Barack Obama gets us back on the track, for sure. This is a great day. It might be the last presidential election I cast a vote in. But my vote today was my best. Ever.

LISA VAZQUEZ said...

Hey there!

Ladies and gents....

We have elected a Kenyan-American president....Toot's grandson:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
44th President of the United States

And we're movin' on up!!

Anonymous said...

Hey MacDaddy & Friends, Just wanted to let you know there's an amazing international outpouring of personal congratulations to Obama on his FACEBOOK page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/barackobama?ref=mf

This is a note I left to President-Elect Obama last night, on this page:

My heartfelt thanks to you, President-Elect Obama, for your willingness to give of yourself to lead our country -- and hopefully, transform hearts and minds for the greater good. Tonight when I was out shopping, a young black boy shopping with his family pointed to me, and said "she voted too," seeing my sticker & my Obama T-shirt. He was bubbling over with excitement. When he grows up, a black man being president will be a normal occurrence.

Now, we must all follow your lead, and daily try to rise above, find the common ground, and strive for peace and dignity in how we conduct ourselves. It's time that civility and reason replace the hard-headed, hard-hearted, and fear mongering ways of the far right. Fear and hatred are tools of the petty and small minded. We can be better. We can be bigger. It is time. You have shown us how.

Christopher said...

President Barack Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden.

This is huge. No close election this but, a landslide and these men will go to Washington with a mandate for change.

I am still stunned and I feel like I'm in a dream. It's a new day, folks. A new day!