The Minority Report

The Chronicle described him this morning as a phenom. The speaker that introduced him called him the next President of the United States. I simply call him HOPE!! I was awoken yesterday by the sound of a good friend’s voice on the phone at 6:30 a.m. mind you, “You didn’t tell me Barak was going to be here today. I thought we were better than that!” I went on to inform her that the Senator’s visit had been highly publicized and was indeed a fundraiser. Next call, 7:45 a.m., it’s one of the local radio producers, “I’ll give $1000 dollars to your favorite charity if you can get the Senator to call into the show.” I went on to inform him that the Senator would not do any media on this visit to Houston. Next call 8:00 am, a college classmate who now serves as an assignments editor at a local television station, “Do you have any information on the Senator coming to visit, and can we get a camera crew in.?” Again, there would be no media for this event. Suddenly it hit me in the midst of my very sleepy morning. The city had GONE BANANAS!!

What is it about this man that draws people from so many walks of life? There has been a spark of hope within many about the possibilities for change. I had an interesting conversation with a good friend this morning regarding this man. For me something changed last night, and I was reminded of what it was that made me want to understand politics but particularly policy. After reading the Senator’s book and hearing him speak it reminded me that in the final analysis of what we do, no matter who we are, it has to be about the community. We have gotten caught in politics. It is time that African Americans change their thinking before we can expect anyone else to. When Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. first ran for President of the United States, as symbolic of a gesture that it was, America including the black community cried out that he couldn’t win. As recently as the 2004 elections, Rev. Al Sharpton and Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun ran for the Presidency and America including Black America cried out that they couldn’t win. Today we have before us what many are calling the most viable option ever for an African American President, well educated, member of the US Senate, understanding of the issues of our country, and even half Caucasian American. All of this and the Black Community still cries out that he can’t win. If we don’t begin to take ourselves seriously as part of the promise of America how do we expect anyone else to? Last night I felt hope. I felt hope for not only my community but for myself as a young African American living in this country. As I concluded my conversation with my friend and began to prepare to make my way to the office we concluded by beginning to name the states that Sen. Obama could feasibly carry in the 2008 election ultimately giving him the Presidency, the possibilities didn’t seem so unrealistic then, as with all elections we can only pray and hope. I think that’s what draws people to the Junior Senator from Illinois is that he does indeed give them hope. Not black hope. Not white hope. Simply Hope.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Barack Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.