What do you do to relax, to find "A Certain Peace?"

Today, this Sunday morning, the daddy is feeling good. He walked a few blocks around his neighborhood and lingered in his backyard, listening for the wind and the birds. Now, he's sitting in his kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee from his "Mickey's Diner" cup (named after a famous cafe in St. Paul, Minnesota. The cafe is actually a train car, small and intimate. Sometimes, the daddy goes there and talks to the customers, many of whom are homeless, including veterans of Vietnam and Iraqi war). And he's sitting at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of java, listening to Mahalia Jackson sing "Precious Lord" and "We shall overcome" and blogging.

Feeling restful and calm, the daddy thought he'd find a poem about a peaceful state and a poem about Mahalia Jackson. In "A Certain Peace," Nikki Giovanni (photo on the right) speaks about the importance of taking some time to be alone. In "The Day They Eulogized Mahalia," Audre Lorde (photo on the left) puts Mahalia Jackson's death within the context of black life in Chicago.

A Certain Peace
by Nikki Giovanni

it was very pleasant
not having you around
this afternoon
not that i don't love you
and want you and need you
and love loving and wanting and needing you

but there was a certain peace
when you walked out the door
and i knew you would do something
you wanted to do
and i could run
a tub full of water
and not worry about answering the phone
for your call
and soak in bubbles
and not worry whether you would want something
special for dinner
and rub lotion all over me
for as long as i wanted
and not worry if you had a good idea
or wanted to use the bathroom

and there was a certain excitement
when after midnight you came home
and we had coffee
and i had a day of mine
that made me as happy
as yours did you

The Day They Eulogized Mahalia
by Audre Lorde

The day they eulogized Mahalia
the echoes of her big voice were stilled
and the mourners found her
singing out from their sisters mouths
from their mothers toughness
from the funky dust in the corners
of Sunday church pews
sweet and dry and simple
and that hated Sunday morning fussed over feeling
the songs
singing out from their mothers toughness
would never threaten the lord's retribution
any more.

Now she was safe
acceptable
that big Mahalia
Chicago turned all out
to show her that they cared
but her eyes were closed
And although Mahalia loved our music
nobody sang her favorite song
and while we talked about
what a hard life she had known
and wasn't it too bad Sister Mahalia
didn't have it easier
earlier
Six Black children
burned to death in a day care center
on the South Side
kept in a condemned house
for lack of funds
firemen found their bodies

Question: What do you do to relax, to achieve "A Cetain Peace?"

Dear Prez Obama: Remember the words of General Patton

"The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is high you bounce when you hit bottom."
--General S. Patton Jr.
"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."
-- George S. Patton Jr.

Dear Prez Obama:

Can a brotha call you Prez?

Listen, Prez, a brotha knows you are busy; so he'll keep it short and sweet. Yes, he knows you have big challenges ahead: the worst economy since the depression; two wars, one of which is getting worse by the minute (Afghanistan); high unemployment; over 47 million without healthcare. But guess what else a brotha knows? He knows:

1. Big challenges create an opportunity to be a great president; and you don't want to be a good president but a great president, not for your ego but for the American people;
2. You will be a president of tremendous courage, intellect and leadership;
3. You will have the support of not only the American people but the world;
4. Given your humble upbringing and experience as a community organizer, you will continue to possess the right instincts and mindset in approaching all pressing issues: Thinking first and foremost, how will your decision affect the majority of Americans; and

Yo, Prez, you will lead us out of this economic crisis, get the economy on the right track, bring us closer to universal healthca re, return our brave daughters and sons home from Iraq and improve the care once they get here. And history will record that you were one of our more successful presidents. Just remember the immortal words of General Patton:

"In planning any operation, it is vital to remember and constantly repeat to oneself two things:

1. In war, nothing is impossible provided you use audacity.

2. Do not take counsel of your fears.’"

Sincerely and with audacity,


MacDaddy, a brotha

The election of Barack Obama: What it says about America, what it means to black Americans

"We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots. Your victory is not only an inspiration to millions of people all over the world, but it has special resonance with us here in Kenya."
--Mwai Kibaki, Kenyan President

Today, the daddy is feeling two articles about the importance of President-Elect Barack Obama's victory, its connection to the founder's concept of American democracy, especially to African Americans in the southern part of the United States: "An Eternal Revolution" by Harvard sociology professor Orlando Patterson and "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" by writer Alice Walker.

In her article, Walker, a feminist, womanist (a kind of special kind of feminism for women of color), author of "The Color Purple" and Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, makes the point that Obama's victory had deep meaning for blacks from the South, the depth of which Obama (having not lived in the South) could not fully appreciate. She also expresses the hope that, beside providing great leadership as president, he will continue to be a good role model for all Americans.

Patterson is a scholar, but he is best known for his insightful, if controversial, Opions in the New York Times. In "An Eternal Revolution," Patterson, frames Obama's victory as a result not only of Obama's brilliant, steady leadership and brilliant intellect but as "an ever-evolving process that began with the election of George Washington in 1789." He argues that a key element of that process has been the persistent struggle of three groups that were originally excluded by the founding fathers, three groups that played a key role in the election of Obama: women, blacks, and youth.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
by Alice Walker

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

To read the full story, click here.

An Eternal Revolution by Orlando Patterson

BARACK OBAMA’S victory marks the end of another magnificent chapter in America’s experience of democracy. But rather than being seen as a radical transition, it is best viewed as part of an ever-evolving process that began with the election of George Washington in 1789. To interpret it as a foundational change, ushering something new and unknown, is to diminish the past, to unduly singularize Mr. Obama’s achievement and to raise unrealistic expectations about his presidency.

Mr. Obama owes his victory, first, to his gift of leadership and personality: the hybrid cool of his charisma, his cathartic power to mine unity from difference. But his triumph depended on voters, first prone to see his candidacy as exotic, to recognize it as something that could (and would) only happen here. That they did stems in large part from the founding fathers’ clear vision of the ideal makeup of a democracy: an inclusive electorate, political participation and political power sharing.

To read the full story, click here.

President-Elect Obama: Keep your promise to those who keep us safe

"Should I become President...I will not risk American lives...by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported
by our allies."
-- John F. Kennedy, October 13, 1960

Today, the daddy is thinking of veterans, the need to take care of them by providing them the armaments and protection they need when they go to war, and the need to think of the sobering cost to them and their families before sending them to war in the first place.

The daddy is thinking of the more than 58,000 Vietnam veterans who were killed and still missing, or who, after more than 30 years, continue to suffer physical and psychological injuries, some of them hiding in shadows under dirty, damp bridges or sleeping on cold sidewalks in clear view for all to see

The daddy is thinking about the fact that the Bush administration has provided inadequate funding veterans and, sadly, has done little to erase the red tape to clear the path for them to get help immediately.

He is thinking of a letter written to President-Elect Barack Obama by Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and founder of IAVA (Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans of America), insights and recommendations that speak eloquently of the need to make it a priority to take care of the people who risk their lives to keep us safe:

Dear President-elect Obama,

Congratulations on your victory. Both you and Senator McCain are true patriots, and you each ran a remarkable campaign. While I'm sure you're relieved that the election is over, now is the time to bring all Americans together, get to work, and focus on the next four years of governing.

As the nation's leading new veterans organization, it is crucial to IAVA that you keep Iraq and Afghanistan veterans high on your list of priorities. With aggressive action, you can send a strong message to America that as Commander-in-Chief, you are committed to truly honoring our nation's newest generation of heroes. Here's how we think you can best accomplish that:

1. Convene an urgent Presidential Summit of Leading Veterans
As you consider nominations for appointed positions within the VA, you should convene a leadership summit of leading veterans' groups from across the country, including IAVA. Candidates for appointed jobs within the VA should have a proven track record of innovation and reform, and should be ready to address the urgent needs of new veterans.

2. Advance-fund VA Healthcare
Year after year, the VA budget is passed late, forcing hundreds of veterans' hospitals and clinics to ration care. IAVA believes that veterans' health care should be funded one year in advance and we ask you to present to Congress an advance-funded VA budget that continues to match the Independent Budget recommendations made by leading Veterans Service Organizations.

3. Implement GI Bill Transferability
While the new GI Bill was passed several months ago, the Department of Defense has yet to release guidelines for the transferability of GI Bill benefits from servicemembers to their spouses or children. You should direct the Secretary of Defense to issue the appropriate guidelines, so that GI Bill transferability can be implemented by August 2009.

4. Issue a National Call for Mental Health Professionals
The military and the VA need innovative strategies to recruit and retain more mental health professionals to combat the high rates of PTSD and major depression among returning troops. You should issue a national call, urging mental health professionals nationwide to serve our troops and veterans. Those who answer the call should receive incentives and benefits for serving this patriotic cause.

With more troops returning home from the wars everyday, you'll need to hit the ground running. IAVA is committed to serving as a resource for you and your administration going forward.

We look forward to working with you and the new Congress to support Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

Sincerely,

Paul Rieckhoff
Iraq Veteran

Executive Director and Founder
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Prez, Sen. John McCain, a veteran himself, waxed poetic about supporting veterans. Truthfully, he did little for them. You say you will do better. Helping the people who have kept us safe-- and continue to do so--is change all Americans can believe in.

Keep your promise to look out for the people who keep us safe.

Barack Obama and this new day

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
--Melody Beattie

"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress...To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too."
--Barack Obama

Yes, Barack Obama and his brilliant campaign transcended the Clinton machine, the petty, smear campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin to become the 44th president of this great nation.

Yes, he won because his opponent's campaign lacked a solid organization on the ground and a strong, consistent and believable theme, and because Obama had a well-run, younger and more committed staffers and volunteers on the ground and a theme of change that America could believe in and-- after eight years of war and economic decline-- was yearning for.

And, yes, Obama won because, while his opponent was dull and fear-mongering, he was motivating, inspiring and transformative. But today, the daddy is feeling something beyond excitement for Obamas' and America's success. He's feeling something else, something he thinks everyone should feel after a hard-fought battle, victory or defeat: Gratitude, reflection and humility.

Gratitude to opponent Hillary Clinton and John McCain for pushing Obama, challenging him to be the best presidential candidate he could be and to his campaign staff to be the best support persons they could be. Gratitude especially to Hillary Clinton who, in bringing up or embracing criticism of Obama as inexperienced or as displaying poor judgment by staying in Rev. Wright's church, made those issues basically irrelevant after the primaries, giving McCain no real "October surprise" or smear material worth noting.

Humility before his Creator and his people, the American people, for giving Obama not only the vote to become president of their country, but demonstrating their faith in him and his administration to steer it through its worse economic crisis since the depression.

Reflecting on the historic nature of this presidential campaign. This was a campaign where John McCain's so-called "Straight Talk Express" bus with its reactionary, union-busting "Reagan Revolution" rhetoric of small government and low taxes for the richest Americans ran off the road and out of gas; where a woman candidate came close to becoming the next president; where an African American, the son of a Kenyan father and Kansas white woman, became the 44th president of the United States of America.

In a country of hard workers, status seekers and job climbers too busy for breakfast and, often-times, family dinner, the daddy believes that this day of reflection, humility, and gratitude about this new day, about what we can do to make America better, about how we can best support our new president to ensure his success and to make America even greater, is in order.

What about you? Are you too busy to show gratitude and humility? Are you too busy to reflect or meditate?

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?

President Barack Obama: History Will Follow Him

"When a great and unique man speaks small men should keep silence."
--Rilke, from Letters to a Poet
"Life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
--epitaph on Jackie Robinson's gravestone

The daddy has gotten e-mails asking him what he thinks about Presidential candidate Barack Obama's chances of winning the presidential elections and about the presidential campaign in general. Here' s what the daddy thinks:

1. History will record that Barack Obama has run the most brilliant campaign in America history. He ran against the Clinton machine and won. While both Clintons were in the process of dismissing as being too inexperienced, he was running a campaign on a basic theme of judgment over experience, arguing that it was experienced people in Washington that caused this country to become corrupt and descend into financial chaos. While Bill Clinton was trying to connect him to Rev. Jessie Jackson, to being just another black person running for president, Obama eschewed race and ran a race-less campaign, focusing on the need for change for all Americans. For the most part, White America bought it. Blacks too.

2: Barack Obama will be our next president. The daddy thinks he will win most of the battle-contested states, including Florida, Virginia, Indiana, even Arizona, yes, Sen. McCain's state.

3. Despite running a race-less campaign, despite his tense and tenuous relations with the old guards of the civil rights struggle like Rev. Jessie Jackson, Obama, nonetheless, owes his campaign to the black legacy of struggle for equality of opportunity and to the numerous Rev. Jacksons and lesser-known common black folk who marched and knocked on doors for decades. Yes, a change is gonna come (Sam Cooke on YouTube), but Obama will never be able to get away from the fact that he is standing on the shoulders of the Bayard Rustins and Fannie Lou Hamers who got "sick and tired of being sick and tired" and took to the streets to change this nation.

4. Given this struggle, Barack Obama, as President of the country, will be a president of all Americans. However, just by his position, by the historic symbolism of a black man as president of a predominantly white nation, he will provide a new psychology for black people, people of color, and working people that anyone can succeed in America-- if they study, listen, and work hard enough.

5. Barack Obama will represent perhaps a different concept of what it means to be a man, especially to some black men. Some black men think that being a man is about how much money (cheese) a guy has in his pocket, how much bling around his neck or how shiny and cool his Escalade with the spinning rims is. What Obama's succeess will prove is that manhood is about building: Building knowledge and skills for oneself, one's family, one's community, and one's nation. This will lessen the attraction to gangs (at least the criminal ones) and increase the attraction to institutions and groups that focus on building knowledge and skills. The idea of manhood, or womanhood for that matter, is beautifully captured in a wonderful poem entitled "Seventh Sense by Audre Lorde:

Seventh Sense
by Audre Lorde

Women
who build nations
learn
to love
men
who build nations
learn
to love
children
building sand castles
by the rising sun.

6. As president, Barack Obama will come to represent the best of us. Traditionally, white Americans, some Black Americans too, have judged blacks by the worse of us, black psychopaths and criminals. But with Obama, representing the best of us, they will have to consider the best in us too: those of us who go to work everyday, don't go to jail, stay in partnerships, remain nurturing fathers and mothers, and loving partners. In a poem entitled "Sanity," Nikki Giovanni talks about this, about "dancing" with the best of us:

Sanity
by Nikki Giovanni

Know the truth
when you hear it
know beauty
when you see it
And as you dance
always dance on that floor
polished by the best
of you

Yes, Barack Obama will become our next president because he has proven to possess a great intellect and to be a skilled architect of his political campaign. But the truth is that he never would have gotten into the position to run were it not for a long, bloody and on-going black struggle for Freedom. And that history is so powerful that it will not allow him to forget.