Well here we are today, on the precipice of forever…
I refuse to look down, keeping my head to the sky…
Mainly to give thanks to all those who have come before me. I know they are watching us all. Today is more than just a soundtrack for me. It is the realization of the dream that my father had for me and my brother. That my grandfather had for my mother and her sisters. It is the dream that my great-grandmother had as an immigrant from St.Kitts. To be part of America. To be an American. Oh to commune with them again will be heaven, but for now the crisp sunshine on my face will have to suffice.
The work has only just begun my friends. It will require a yeoman’s effort to remove ourselves from the division that has been fostered over centuries of supremacy. Along with the back-breaking task of restoring an economic system that values the workers and the actual producers, instead of only the CEO and the shareholders. This isn’t the rise of socialism either, but the realization that we all have some value. We can’t continue to undermine the farm laborers or the sanitation workers because they are as important to the human ecosystem as doctors and teachers. And doctors and teachers must once again be respected.
There is so much work we have to do now. We have to amend our laws that promote the unnecessary and excessive incarceration of Black and Brown youth. The architects that design prisons also design schools. The same contractors that build prisons also build schools. The same vendors that furnish prisons also make furniture for schools. We have to change our values to education. We have to make those values valuable again. This isn’t socialism or communism. This is futurism and Americanism. Why can’t we be a world leader again in intellectualism as opposed to militaristic intelligence? Being the smart kid on the block doesn’t mean that we won’t get into fights but Lord knows we have enough arms to swing back.
I just can’t help thinking about all the people that I love who I wish were here to enjoy this moment. For all the the hard they put in. For all the indignities they suffered. For all the times they cried. For all the LOVE they gave to EVOLution. I dedicate today to them and I will rightfully celebrate their memory with all of those alive today. Our work has only just begun.
i think today will be the first time that i ever buy an american flag and wave it. one!
I guess I’ll set it off with the first of the voting stories…
Woke early this morning dressed patriotic with my red Lo sweater and Dorenbacher AM95’s and walked to the polling place. Whats crazy is the last time I walked that route, at that time of day, I was all of 11 going to elementary school so it was surreal that the experiences I had as a shorty came back full circle as I went to go vote. I got a little misty eyed thinking about my late grandmother and how that generation in my family never got to see this day so I was doing this for me and them. After waiting on line listening to my iPhone shuffle songs I finally got into the booth. With divine timing as I pulled the lever to close the curtain “Prophets of Rage” by Public Enemy kicked in and as I flipped that first lever for Obama the words chimed in so well…
“I gotta right to be hostile man, my people bein’ persecuted!!!”
What a joy to exercise my 15th Amendment right….
Today we are making history. As I got to the polling booth with my son, I got teary eyed too. He will NEVER have to grow up thinking a black man like himself can’t be President.
I cast my vote today for Emmitt Til, Rosa Parks, Marcus Garvey, all those who marched so I could drink from a damn water fountain and use a public restroom, Martin, The Girls in Birmingham, the folks of Montgomery, the Africans kidnapped and brought to these shores…..and for Malcolm. I voted for YOU. I hope you are all voting for ME.
My brother got up at 7 AM and went around the corner to our polling location and he came back because the lines were so long. He got an iPhone update saying that in places like Philadelphia people camped out and got in line as early as 4 AM this morning. He waited a couple of more hours and the lnes were even longer. Now we’re both gonna go out and check to see where the line is and by noon regardless of where it is we’re gonna just stay in line and do what we came to do.
The whole ‘hood is out in force voting….”Brothers (and sisters) are gonna work it out” indeed.
Peace to all those that fought and died for us to have the rights that we should’ve been afforded rightfully at birth.
One.
Amen.
Dart….I voted in Philly today but was out there at 6:45 and was done by 7:10am. Hang in there with the lines. The outcome is worth it.
Same here went to vote at my old elementary school. Thinking about how small it seems, how I never see that many people out to vote and how big…everything is right now.
this day is a bi product of all the work of our ancestors, i stand head high upon the shoulders of their contributions, casting not just my vote but my commitment to this world of impending change.
i think about my Grandmother who thought she lost my Grandfather in the Birmingham Bombing, my Greatgrandmother who endured the catastrophic loss of the Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma, my mother the teenage revolutionary who took action to close her college campus down in order to ensure an ethnic studies department and black history studies for students which spawned a change world wide.
together, we the generation who have been named apathetic can and will stand for change!
Thank you Dallas for stating this so eloquently!
Get Out The Vote in GA.
We need to denounce & reject this horrible racist Saxby Chambliss, who said at rural white rallies “the other side is voting in big numbers, so our side needs to vote”. Vote for the Dem Jim Martin to ether Chambliss’ bitchass.
Chambliss is also the same loathsome douche that in 2002 compared then-Sen Max Cleland to Osama Bin Laden, & that Cleland was soft on terrorism. Cleland is a Vietnam war hero, who lost both legs & an arm in ‘Nam. Meanwhile Chambliss’ chickenhawk bitchmade ass used a football injury as an excuse to get out of being drafted for Nam.
I went to vote early last Thursday and as most of yall know, the southside of Chicago is at a fever pitch with the election. Home to the Obama family, there is crazy energy in the air and as I stand in line, just 5 blocks away from his crib, listening to old school satellite radio. Two women walk past me to get in line for the 3 hour wait, one younger lady, escorting an older woman on a walker. I shut off the Inno, and the younger lady announces to me that the lady with her, her grandmother, is 102 years old.
102 years old, B.
Myself and a few brothers waiting refused to allow this lady to wait so as I helped them up to the front of the line, I let everyone in line know her age. Everyone began to cheer and clap for this black woman who was born in 1906, decades before we had the right to vote. She could barely speak, but everyone was clear on the strong statement of just her presence. As I took my original spot in line, I started to understand the magnitude of this election. When you witness something like the events of this day, if you’re human, your eyes can and will well up.
Luckily I rocked the RayBans.
You said it best, D. I wish I could vote again!
Word Is Bawn! the events @ Grant Park are gonna be ridixnix tonight. I dare not miss this piece of American History, B! The weather is unseasonably warm and the Burton® Backpack I.V.pouch is filled to the rim with Henny!
Waited for an hour in Savannah, GA. this morning to vote for Barry O and Jim Martin (against Chambliss). Line stretched around the block. No problems, no issues.
Came home before work to listen to “Yes We Can” and “Black President” again…a few tears dropped, no lie.
This shit is happening. It is real. And it’s gonna change everything.
Anyone in Savannah tonight needs to come to Malone’s on River Street for the Democrats party. That shit is going to bonkers once they call it for Barry.
wtf, my comment did not get posted.
@Frederwrit, next time consider votin with an absentee ballot. I just had to fax an application form, & then they mailed me the ballot.
I did so to avoid lines, which was great. Also to avoid fraud ala Ohio 2004 that has occurred with these auditless propietary electronic voting machines, which they use here in GA.
but as a bonus, for the 1st time, I could vote in an informed way on all offices on the ballot. Even the nonpartisan races that have random names of people I never heard of. I talked to an acquiantance from Georgia For Democracy, who is knowledgable on local politics. She & her homies emailed back some endorsements on these races. In prior years, I just had to skip these, because I had no clue on these nonpartisan offices.
Absentee ballot is the illest. Oregon already has their entire voting process setup this way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu8H9rU62w
Capitol Hill Gangsta once again has a good take on how election fearmongering didn’t work in 2008
Normally I would wish I had absentee, but I gotta go do this one in person. This is Washington state’s last election with polls. I ain’t mad, this is kinda historic.
voted last week…………but…………….yeah bwooooooooooooy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the motivation and inspiration we need!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of my homies passed away last night,but I know he’s up there smiling down on us all,proud.
I wish he could be here with us witnessing this, that’s the only sadness I feel about this.