BARACK OBAMA,, LANGSTON HUGHES' MOTHER SAYS LIFE AIN'T BEEN NO CRYSTAL STAIR

Listen up. The Daddy is feeling The Prez today. The Daddy is upset that, at the precise time he needed to be on hill, fighting for the health reform bill, he was speaking to kids at some school. The Daddy is further upset by his lackluster stance on the Public Option, saying he would prefer it but he is willing to listen to people with other ideas as well. Remember: this is the most important part of healthcare reform and the most significant way to keep Insurance costs down. Remember: Inclusion of the public option is, ultimately, the way the healthcare bill is going to be judged. And don't get a brotha started on the The Prez's stalling on his failure to change U. S military's ridiculous DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell) policy. So what's the point? It's this:

No matter how hard, sometimes you got to fight for something or you can be indirectly influenced or even bullied (Remember Gen. McChristal's report to Obama saying if we don't get an increase in U.S. troops, we will fail in Afghanistan?) or privately (behind doors between the sheets) to falling for anything.

Well and good. But you know what? A brotha is also thinking about the tremendous weight on The Prez's shoulders: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the immigration issue, the killing of soldier's by other soldier's at home and abroad (Remember the Lavena Johnson case?).

That being the case, The Daddy thought of a poem by Langston Hughes, a poem which reminds us that, for a black man or black woman, it doesn't matter what you do, life is going to be tough. The poem's called, Mother to Son. It's a poem The poem contains lessons The Daddy thinks would be good for all of us to remember. Check it out and check out the metaphor crystal stair:

Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Can you put yourself in Obama's place and see the difficult problems and critical decisions he has to make?