"Waiting to exhale"
"by Joseph Williams | March 2, 2008
WASHINGTON - A few days ago, after she cleaned my teeth, my dentist turned her small talk to politics. What was said - and what wasn't - was a microcosm of how African-Americans are talking about Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
"A lot of surprises, huh?" she said, a sly grin crossing her face.
Yes, I answered. A lot of surprises.
A headline in this month's Ebony magazine spelled out our unspoken conversation: "In Our Lifetime - Are We Witnessing the Election of the Nation's First Black President?"
The question, it seems, is on the lips of most African-Americans these days, anticipation that Obama may smash what generations believed was an unbreakable barrier: a black man in the White House. Given Obama's remarkable 11 straight primary or caucus wins, his packed campaign rallies, and Hillary Clinton's struggling campaign, one might expect giddy anticipation rippling through the black community.
Instead, there is an almost palpable anxiety. Conversations about how Obama is tantalizingly close to the presidency are muted, not celebratory, tamped down by a mixture of cynicism and fear.
Clinton, a formidable politician, might rebound. Obama could stumble. Conspiracy theories bubble: Political maneuvering or party bosses will torpedo him. Or, the unthinkable - an assassin - might strike at an open-air rally, personally preventing the first black presidency.
What, ANOTHER LONE GUNMEN?!?
I don't even like this subject being brought up because it should never happen.
If it does, it points to an INSIDE JOB since SECURITY will have failed -- which it NEVER SHOULD!
As Obama's campaign sweeps across America with the promise of reconciliation and a strikingly different face in the White House, it has revealed something else in black American culture: a deep-seated fear of hope.
They can't even let the African-Americans enjoy a few moments, can they?
Or the rest of us, for that matter.
Behind that fear lies an ordinary human trait, the instinct to protect against disappointment. But in black America, as the presidential race is revealing, long historical cycles of hope and disappointment have woven that impulse into the culture itself.
Can' really blame then, then, can ya?
"It even happened to me, and I'm an educated PhD," said Stephen B. Thomas, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health. After realizing Obama was a legitimate contender with an excellent shot at the White House, "I said to my wife - I looked her in the eye - and I said, 'Is it OK for me to hope?' "
.... An anticipated positive event can produce drastically conflicting emotions is well known among sports fans; just ask any devoted Red Sox fan about the '86 World Series. Protecting oneself against anticipated emotional pain has earned its own catch phrase: hoping against hope. Eventually, if the potential pain seems too much, then hope itself begins to feel dangerous....
So it's going to be Hitlery vs. McCain then?
And GET OFF the SPORTS ANALOGIES, will ya?
This is REAL-LIFE not some STOO-PID GAME!
As the Obama campaign marches on, a very specific set of fears has grown with it. Some are simply political: Clinton and John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, are both strong opponents, and McCain has a head start on the November election. Then there's the so-called Bradley effect: Whites who tell pollsters a black man has their vote - until they enter the ballot booth.
But, but, but.. America isn't a racist country, etc, etc.
Actually, this canard no longer matters in politics; however, it will be used by the AmeriKan MSM and their script-writers to deny Obama the presidency.
Other fears are slightly less rational: Will Obama be undermined by a vast, white-majority conspiracy? Will he be ambushed by a "dirty trick"?
Already happening.
Didn't they grill him about Farrakhan?
I love how they miss the Zionist angle, too.
Oh, that's right, Zionist-controlled media!
But much discussion in coffee shops and bookstores centers on the biggest fear: That white America will not accept a black president, and will use violence to prevent it.
Talk about the ZIONISTS SETTING UP a COVER STORY in ADVANCE!!!
Whose the next McVeigh?
Black people point to the fact that Obama was granted extensive Secret Service protection early in the primary campaign - an unusually strong reaction to a still-undisclosed threat.
Which is why NOTHING SHOULD HAPPEN -- EVER!
"My barber, matter-of-factly and without hesitation, said they're going to shoot Obama, if it comes to that," a close friend wrote in an e-mail a few days ago. "The execution of our messiahs is a tragic continuum...."
Bye-bye, Barack!
Looks like you are toast either way, you brave, brave man!
Maybe we should stop looking to "messianic leaders," and TAKE CONTROL OURSELVES, 'eh?
And if Obama gets that far?
"President Obama's Inaugural Address.
Something unusual has happened. A black man has been elected president against all odds. He won the nomination of his party largely through the efforts of a media that was disposed to his candidacy. It was believed that the Republicans would have a much easier time defeating him and so the spin cycle was set on full to make the percentages appear that Candidate Obama would have an easier time defeating Candidate McCain. No effort or expense was spared.
Candidate Clinton was made to appear vile and duplicitous. Candidate Clinton was discussed and photographed in bad light. In the years preceding the primaries, Candidate Clinton was advised to vote in favor of the Iraq War. She was advised to support fascist legislation. She was convinced that she must take a hard line and show a hawkish persona. All of these efforts became immense liabilities in the runoff against Candidate Obama.
Candidate Clinton had long been owned by the elite forces that had ruled the country for so many years. She was never more than a pawn in the process, just as her husband had been before her. Candidate Obama was perfect for the intentions of the shadow government. His name rhymed with that of histories most legendary terrorist. He had connections to a Black Muslim leader. He had levers that could be used and wheels that could be turned. In the end Candidate McCain would win.
Candidate McCain was unimportant. It was McCain’s vice presidential running mate who was to be the front man for the final stage of the New World Order. President McCain was to die shortly after taking office. Years of elaborate planning; of double blinds and never ending Chinese Boxes made in the USA and The City in London all assured that there was no possibility of mistake. Somehow, for reasons unknown to anyone who should have known; against all odds, America was watching the swearing in of her first black president. America was watching the people’s choice, which had been set up to lose, come down the stretch a winner. Time stopped.
We are watching Barack Obama being sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. There is an air of awe and expectancy over the land. Everyone is watching, or listening and wondering. Is this the new Camelot? Does America finally turn the corner? Is hope real? Is change a possibility? Do dreams come true? Here in another moment of great national trial, with enormous challenges at home and abroad… do dreams come true? Is change a possibility? Is hope real?
Do not concern yourself with why McCain lost. Use your imagination. This is the least important feature of this portrait. Assume that it is so. We will now join the new President Obama as he steps toward the microphone to deliver his inaugural address. This is what President Obama should say. If President Obama sincerely dreams of a better world and possesses the integrity to attempt such a thing, this is how it should go.
We see him now. He looks far too young for the weight of this new office. He is as impossibly young as our hopes and dreams. There is a force in his eyes as the camera catches him placing his hands upon the lectern. There is a pause like captured breath, held tight against a sea of emotions, which cannot be recalled once they are loosed. President Obama draws a sheaf of papers from his suit coat. He opens them and studies the first page. He looks up at the crowd and exhales. He shakes his head and returns the papers to his pocket. He looks up. He looks down. He looks out upon the sea of faces and he says…
“My fellow citizens and citizens of every country in the world, I had a speech prepared for me today. It was filled with all of the rhetoric that I have been compelled to utter in these many months until this moment. I did not know until I looked at it in my hands that I could not in good conscience deliver it. Change and the presence of realized hope cannot depend on words for their accomplishment. Change and hope that are not real will never come to pass. We achieve instead… only some new variation on a theme. We merely paint the existing structure with a different face and nothing changes but the appearance.
We cannot find unity. We cannot bring healing. We can accomplish nothing transformative until we have seen and named and touched the evil in our midst. In these last eight years many terrible events have occurred and we are left with the same tired excuses and explanations that are always attached to terrible things interpreted by the reasonable men who made them happen. They say, that we had no choice. It was our duty. It is complicated. Yes… it is always this way.
Those who caused the events and led us astray into the wilderness of painful and unnecessary destiny are now all patriots again as they have ever been. They are elder statesmen now and they will be called upon for charitable endeavor and on to corporate convention floors and university auditoriums and television screens and history will be reworked before our eyes as it has always been. It is not enough for me to continue in this charade. It is certainly not enough for you; you the people.
On September 11th of 2001 this country was attacked and everything changed in that moment. That event became a blank check for oppression at home and reckless adventurism abroad. As time passed it has become increasingly clear that so much of what we have been told is untrue. A commission to investigate this event was created against the wishes of the previous administration and it proved to be a corrupt engine in which the truth was abused and left bleeding. Many Americans bled and died as well. Many more citizens of foreign lands were killed and tormented. Millions now reside in dangerous camps with no recourse in sight.
Until this country addresses what actually happened; what really happened on September 11th, 2001 we can never move on. We can never be healed. We can never expect real change and we shall see no fulfillment of that hope that has brought me before you today. In my first act as your new president I have empowered a select commission to powerfully and impartially investigate what occurred on that day. This is the first business of my term of office.
We live in fear. We are burdened with a struggling economy. We are viewed with suspicion and outright hatred around the globe. With a campaign born of hope and the promise of change, I have been advised to fill your ears with the words you want to hear and to assure you that everything is now OK. Our nation, our people, our reputation will never be OK until we know finally and conclusively what happened on that day.
I realize that there is great danger for me in this action that I take. However, the danger to this nation, which I have been elected to serve and protect, is far, far greater if I disregard my duty to the truth. Whatever the truth may be we shall all be improved with a greater possession of it. We have had too little truth for far too long. Let the chips fall where they may. We as a nation are gifted and capable enough to pick up those pieces in the aftermath and weave together a finer land than we have ever known before. You have trusted me with your votes. Let me now trust in your support.
There will be a hue and cry concerning this venture from various sources. There will be outrage and indignation. There will difficulty in the process but I promise you. I swear to you. We shall know the truth and the truth will make us free as it has always intended to do. My beloved brothers and sisters of this, the greatest nation on Earth, let us become that. Let us join together and set our house in order that our house may no longer be divided but joined in a common understanding that never again shall truth and the common good become a casualty of darker agendas. I ask you to step into the light with me. Let us live in that light and let us be that light which we have always promised to be; a beacon of light and freedom for all nations and peoples of the Earth.
Thank you for your belief and your support. Now let us make our hope and our dreams become real. Now let us seek the new horizon of a nation reborn. God Bless and guide us all.”
Till We Walk Across the Bridge"
Just reading that made my eyes mist up and filled me with such a surge of hope!!!
If he was to orate this speech in January 2009, I'll be weeping... as I would be weeks later when the power structure puts a bullet in his brain like they did Kennedy.
