Uncomfortably Numb

I wish I could allow anger to fuel my writing passionately and prolifically, the way that anger fuels Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers to score 40+ points in a basketball game. Because I am angry and not a little frustrated at my current state of affairs. You see, I'm one of the millions of people dramatically affected by what's been going on in our nation's economy. Two months ago, I was laid off from a job that paid me less than $500 a week basically delivering packages and media-related items for one of the world's largest film studios( who I shall leave nameless, though they just recently made over $1 billion on the biggest hit movie of last year, which shall also go nameless). In the interim of those two months, I have had to contend with an unemployment office that has basically left me in the dark as to when I might receive my benefit checks, even after numerous phone and email attempts; having to seek alternative work whereever I might be able to find it(after about a month, I did finally manage to find a part-time job as a non-emergency medical shuttle driver); needless to say, also contend with the fact that my bills were going to have to be delayed or put off and that rent would have to be paid incrementally as I somehow managed to scrounge and scramble to cobble together enough money to put towards it; and also, along with my wife(who I'm supporting while she's in cosmetology school), have to apply for food stamps and accept donated food from a local food bank. And all this, after being laid off a year ago, for nearly five months, from the same job due to the WGA strike(which, as a writer who initially supported them in principle, seemed to me to be especially ironic!).

So, yes, I'm angry. I'm angry, because at 44 years of age and looking back at my life and the promise I believe I had both before I entered college and after I graduated, I certainly did not see myself here(which, I'm sure, is a sentiment I share with a lot of people in probably not dissimilar positions, though that's no consolation). I look back at a lot of poor choices and mediocre jobs; on avenues of opportunities that I should have pursued and now regret that I didn't. I also find myself wavering in belief in a God that I know has seen me through a lot of these things, both good and bad. I know that I have been blessed by moments of grace, especially during my college years, that left me with little doubt that there was someone watching over me who was more than just merely benevolent, but was and seemed ever-present. Even now, I have, on occasion, experienced not dissimilar moments of grace as well. But the little doubt has grown exponentially in spite thereof, which I try to fight against and find myself failing miserably--which scares me, because as I became an adult, I became constantly of the mind that believing in God was akin to believing in breathing and that the alternative was unthinkable. And yet...here I am, wondering if God still watches and listens, even in spite of myself.

I want so much in my life and out of my life that I can't see straight. I still harbor the goal and dream of being a successful writer. Of being able to provide my family a comfortable and suitable home and bills that are paid in full and on time. Being able to travel to see family and friends at will or take a vacation or two. Again, I wish that knowing that there are other people out there with similar dreams and goals and aspirations were a consolation to me, but unfortunately, it is not, though I do hope that they are able to see their dreams realized, as do I. And, lest I forget to mention, that I am also angry at those who profited on the dreams of millions of struggling and working people only to turn around now and ask us to support them being bailed out, mostly with money that was taken out that now we could ill-afford to live without(not to mention the fact that they blame us for this mess we're in!). And yet, when someone comes along to say that I'm going to try to fix this mess, that I want to do something about it so that everyone benefits, and then actually does it, they want to be the first ones to shoot that person down and claim failure even before they've enacted their attempt at rescue. It's like telling a firefighter--'no, thank you, sir, I'd rather you didn't go in and save my burning house; I'm waiting for someone better to come along to do it.' Give me a f$&@%#' break!

I'm not looking for a sunny resolution. And I'm not even sure what getting back to normal is or if I even want that. As a black man, I still celebrate the fact that this nation justly and rightly elected a black man to be president, even though that celebration is tempered with everything that I just wrote above. My mother and older sister continue to tell me to 'stay encouraged', and, as I've said, that continues to become increasingly hard to do. But I will try and I will continue to fight and kick and scream my way through my life, for however much longer I'm given to do so. Becaue the alternative... is unthinkable. 'Nuff said.

Thought For The Week

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Thought For The Week--Happy Valentine's Day

"On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway."

--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quotes For The Week

"Simplicity is always the secret to a profound truth, to doing things, to writing...Life is profound in its simplicity."

"The poem has some value, believe me. It keeps you from going totally mad."

--Charles Bukowski, Hollywood



"I will not take 'but' for an answer."

--Langston Hughes

It's Just Nice To Hear Someone Else Say It Better Than I Ever Could Have

"Our future President ran not as a "lefty peacenik", but as a bipartisan candidate willing to compromise for the greater good rather than drown in idealism. This will no doubt lead to cries of hypocrisy, cynicism and sellout, as the months and years, pass by those who have pinned their personal hopes to his lapel like a three dollar American flag pin.

He may disappoint you at times, I am certain he will disappoint me, but that is what happens when you work in a collaborative setting like Washington. This does not mean that you should not get mad when you are disappointed. On the contrary, get fired up, speak out, organize and be heard!

The onus is on all of US who really care, to not just hold him to his promises, but to help him to achieve them.

He may not become all the best attributes of every president rolled into one, but at a time when we need it the most he has offered us the light, the glimmer, the hope, the opportunity, that things could get even a little bit better (hell, a lot better!). It’s up to all 6 billion of us on this planet to seize this opportunity and to do everything we can do to make it real."

--Michael Franti, of Spearhead
Taken From His Pre-Inauguration Blog

Thought For The Week

"Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up."

--James Baldwin

Price of Silence

This is what's up! A music video that brings together 16 of the worlds top musicians—some of whom have fled oppressive regimes—in a rousing musical plea to guarantee human rights for all.

This Is Why We Elected Him President

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as delivered.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Source: Associated Press

A Different Consideration Of The Man, Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this day, the national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, where so much continues to be made of his famous "I Have A Dream" speech from August 1963(as if this is the only speech he ever made publicly), I choose, once again, to consider some of his other words from other speeches he made, which prove, much to the possible chagrin of this nation's short-term memory, that he was more than just a dreamer, hoping that his children(indeed, all of us of a slightly darker persuasion) would one day be judged by the content of their character; but that he was also about addressing economic disparity and the injustice of war, here and abroad, respectively. Words which, more than 40 years later, and much more, I think, than the so-called famous speech, are still very relevant in these times and as we prepare to inaugurate the first African-American president of these United States.







From "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City.

As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men [in the ghettos] I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked – and rightly so – what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

... Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.

... Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. ... I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. ... A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.



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From the Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 1964. King was 35 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that we shall overcome.



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From "Strength To Love," 1963.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.



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From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963.

For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never."

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your 6-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a 5-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.



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From "Birth of a New Nation," April 7, 1957.

The road to freedom is a difficult, hard road. It always makes for temporary setbacks. And those people who tell you today that there is more tension in Montgomery than there has ever been are telling you right. Whenever you get out of Egypt, you always confront a little tension, you always confront a little temporary setback. If you didn't confront that you'd never get out.

You must remember that the tensionless period that we like to think of was the period when the Negro was complacently adjusted to segregation, discrimination, insult, and exploitation. And the period of tension is the period when the Negro has decided to rise up and break aloose from that. And this is the peace that we are seeking: not an old negative obnoxious peace which is merely the absence of tension, but a positive, lasting peace, which is the presence of brotherhood and justice. And it is never brought about without this temporary period of tension. The road to freedom is difficult.



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King's response to death threats, June 5, 1964.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.



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From "I Have Been to the Mountaintop," delivered in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968. The following day King, 39, was shot and killed by James Earl Ray.

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. ...We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do, I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.

That couldn't stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take them off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in the jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.

Thought For The Week

"You need to know that you can go somewhere. You're not just like grass growing on the street. You're like trees, you have roots, and they've done wonderful things, and you need to know that, and by knowing that, you see how outfitted you are for these times. And that you really owe it to those who went before so that you can add to them for those who are yet to come.

"You need to know that you are in a continuum, and if you understand that, you realize that you are worthwhile. This continuum would be broken without me."


--Maya Angelou

Two Cents Doesn't Go As Far As It Used To

With the ending of an old year, there always comes the inevitable plethora(a word, by the way, that should never grow old or lose its usefulness) of best-of lists, highlighting what that particular individual critic or pundit felt was the most newsworthy or awe-inspiring or can't-miss event of the year. So, with that in mind, I thought I'd throw in my two cents, for whatever its worth, though I will limit myself to just what I considered the best of the year in terms of what I saw on television and in the movies; heard on the radio; and read, when I thankfully had the chance. Starting off with movies--

Unlike most people and film critics, I was unable to see a lot of movies this past year, unfortunately, much to, I feel, my detriment and chagrin, because I love films and to hear others raving about movies that I have yet to see or probably will never see, especially around awards time, kills me. But I did manage to see a few, and thankfully, they were well worth the time and money spent, especially the one I consider to be my favorite of the year just past:

The Dark Knight--is there any more that I can say about this film that hasn't already been said, ad infinitum? Even if you took the Batman out of the equation, it made for one of the best crime dramas in quite some time. The fact that it was a Batman film just gave it an extra dimension. And needless to say, but I will say it anyway, Heath Ledger's amazing transformation as the clown prince of crime, just put the film into a whole other stratosphere--dare I say, one of the defining acting performances of our time. Taken along with the previous film, "Batman Begins"(who says it's impossible for sequels to improve on or surpass the original?), is there any doubt or question that Christopher Nolan should be the de facto director for any subsequent stories in the Batman ouevre? To quote from an icon of another comic book entity, nuff said!

Runners-up:

Tropic Thunder--two words, Tom Cruise! Though not to be outdone, Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance as an obsessed Australian method actor who undergoes a radical, transformative skin surgery, is a standout performance, among many in his career, including one in another runner-up, I'll mention later.(Is it possible for him to qualify for an NAACP image award or would that be asking too much? Just a thought.)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall--it is possible to be sweet, thought-provoking, and raunchy at the same time. Not unlike "Knocked Up", and to a certain extent, "Superbad", before it, we were treated to three-dimensional characters who you could actually care about in realistically funny and touching situations.

WALL-E--This film just took animation to a whole nother level. I would like to rewatch this film, because I wasn't able to give it my fullest attention, but I was absolutely amazed by the lifelike animation and the sweet story between two very different robots. It also showed that you can speak volumes in your film without saying a word of dialogue--there are certainly some live-action films I've seen which could take a note or two from this film in that regard.

Kung-Fu Panda and Bolt--Two more animated films, which like the live-action "Tropic Thunder", and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", made me laugh harder than I've ever laughed in the movies in a long time. And the fact that they were animated says a lot, because too often, animated films are made to be too cutesy and are geared towards kids, without taking into account the adults who are inevitably going to be, and have to be, in the audience. And I can never say enough about an animated film that respects my intelligence while also tickling my funny bone--also an attribute that can be applied to the film, "WALL-E".

Miracle At St. Anna--This was an overlooked film by a lot of people and critics, and like a lot of Spike Lee's films, a very ambitious one, that seeks to provoke thought, as well as show a side of African-Americans we don't see in films. Especially in regards to those who fought in what's considered by American history(or at least Tom Brokaw), "the great war". There was a lot going on in this film, some of which I would put up against any foreign film; some of which reminded me of the scenes in Sicily depicted in "The Godfather"; a few things that may or not have worked(no film is perfect), but you can never accuse Spike of not at least trying to tell a good story, certainly one that needs to be told.

Milk--A lot of praise has been given towards this film and it's made a lot of best-of lists. I wouldn't say, personally, that it's one of the best films I've seen, though I wasn't disappointed in it and certainly not in the story it was trying to tell, of a little-known figure in our nation's history, one which, especially given the time we're living in, more people should expose themselves to. I will say, however, that the film, without question, is anchored by yet another transformative performance by an actor and that actor is Sean Penn, who as far as I can tell, and judging by the accolades he's been given thus far, I'm not alone in saying this, becomes the man he is honoring with said portrayal, San Francisco councilman Harvey Milk, the first gay man ever elected to public office. And if, nothing else, it's a reason to see this film.

Iron Man--Whereas "The Dark Knight" was dark and brooding, this movie was just fun and cool. And it certainly made a difference that it starred the aforementioned Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead role. I look forward to more outings of the oh-so metallic one(though I think the studio is making a huge mistake in recasting Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle--no disrespect!)

Moving on to TV:

Dexter--Who knew a series about a serial killer who kills for good would be, in my opinion, one of the best shows ever put on television? This show just gets better and better with each episode. It's like watching a mini-movie every week, one which you don't want to end, and for which, it's hard to muster the patience for each subsequent episode. This is a show, which I don't think gets enough accolades, like say, a show like "The Sopranos", and that's a shame, because I feel, the writing is some of the best there is--featuring some of the best characterization there is, and not just including its main lead, played brilliantly by Michael C. Hall. An extra special dimension was added this past season by the introduction of a character, played by the always excellent and dependable Jimmy Smits. If you have not caught this show, which is an excellent reason to subscribe to Showtime, you are missing out on what is truly "must-see TV".

The series finale of The Shield--Is it possible for a cop show to become almost Shakespearean in its telling? After watching the nearly two hour end of yet another groundbreaking police drama, I would answer with an emphatic yes. This episode, more than any other, featured some of the best writing and acting I've ever seen on television. Heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, edge-of-your-seat drama, with resolutions for each character that actually made sense and gave you a sense of closure, unlike some other series finales(at least one in particular, which shall go nameless here). Definitely one that should not only be remembered, but commended with full honors come Emmy time later this year.

True Blood--The title says it all. I wish there was as much furor over this particular vampire saga as there is for that other one(come on, do I really have to tell you which one?). Creator Alan Ball has added another winner to his already impressive resume, which includes his last HBO series, "Six Feet Under", and his Oscar-winning film, "American Beauty", one of my favorite movies. And as with both of those projects, we are treated to irrepressible human (and vampire, of course) characters who stick in the mind like some of the clothes that stick to the body because of the Louisiana humidity, which is the setting for this ongoing tale of vampires trying to assimilate into mainstream society. Kudos to an excellent cast, headed by the lovely Anna Paquin; but my high praise is reserved especially for newcomer Rutina Wesley as the irascible and very outspoken Tara--definitely one of my favorite characters from the past year.

Runners-up(and this, by the way, isn't to diminish their quality or my appreciation of these shows--there is no order here.):

30 Rock
The Office
Californication
Boston Legal(which also ended its series run in fine fashion--allowing us to say goodbye to one of the best onscreen TV couples in our time, Denny Crane and Alan Shore, wonderfully played by William Shatner and James Spader, respectively).
Chuck
Weeds
American Idol(thank God for David Cook giving this show some much needed fresh air!)
So You Think You Can Dance(hands down, the best dance show on the air right now, especially based on who the competition was and who actually won!)

And now we move to music, which I will keep brief, because as with movies, I missed out on a lot of album releases last year, but because of public radio(thank you, KCRW!), I was exposed to some really good music. I'll just list here two standout songs in my mind:

Another Way To Die by Alicia Keys and Jack White--My official kickass song of the year. It's the theme song from the latest James Bond release, "Quantum Of Solace", starring Daniel Craig(which, I'm sorry to say, is one of the films I missed out on from last year). I fell in love with this song well before the movie came out(again, thank you, KCRW!) and have it as my ringback tone for those who call me on my cell phone. This song just rocks and it certainly doesn't hurt to have the likes of Jack White, from the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, and the always amazing Alicia Keys. Again, nuff said!

And my favorite song of 2008:

Chasing Pavements by Adele--There must be something in the water over in Britain, at least as it pertains to women, because it's produced some wonderful female artists in the past few years--from Joss Stone to Amy Winehouse(yes, I said it! In spite of her troubles, she can still carry a tune. Ever heard of Billie Holliday or Etta James?!)to Duffy(who also had a great hit last year with the song, "Mercy"). And now Adele, who should well be on her way, at her young age, to be a major force in the music world. This song was just infectious from beginning to end and reminiscent of early 60's R&B, which is always a plus in my book, if it's pulled off well. And Adele certainly pulls it off well on this song--I can't wait to hear the rest of the album, which is simply titled, "19", for the age she was when this album was produced, as well as her subsequent work in the years to come.

And lastly, on to books:

Most of the books that I read last year were not released in the previous year, but I will list here two that stand out in mind as some of the best reading I've ever enjoyed this or any other year--

Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants by Kareem Abdul Jabbar--yes, that Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Aside from his very impressive record as an NBA Hall of Famer, he is also widely recognized as a writer and historian, particularly of the African-American experience. Both roles are brought to bear in this book, which he uses to chronicle the Harlem Renaissance of the 20's and 30's, and the many prominent members that came up out of that artistic and social explosion, as well as its effect on his life and career. Very readable and very necessary, for a period in our nation's history that should not be overlooked by any means.

Incognegro by Mat Johnson--Graphic novels seem to be the wave of the future or at least should be, especially in terms of literature. They certainly are when it comes to the movies, as evidenced by recent films like the upcoming "Watchmen", and "American Splendor", from a few years ago. This is one that should be added to that illustrious list and hopefully soon. As with the Jabbar book, it depicts, in a fictional, yet no less dramatic or poignant way, a chapter in our nation's history that should not be forgotten or brushed aside or swept under the rug--the epidemic of lynchings that were commonplace throughout much of the South during the latter part of the slavery era on past the turn of the century and well into, as recently as the 60's. It also deals with the very real phenomenon of those in the African-American community who accomplished what is called "passing", which many of those of the lighter persuasion partook of, some of whom for the benefit of the race in order to bring to light some of the horrors of said lynchings and other atrocities that were being perpetuated on blacks of this time. The central story of this novel revolves around such an individual, who as a reporter, is able to go undercover(incognegro, if you will, hence the title), in order to record the exploits of his findings. It is very possible to be swept away and into a story depicted in this graphic art form, especially with the benefit of brilliant illustration, which is why comics are still with us, and for that reason alone, should be, in my opinion, considered no less a part of literature than any traditional novel. Hopefully, you'll get to check this one out, especially if, and I think it's a strong possibility, this one gets picked from the pile of destined-to-be produced films.

And that, as they say, is a wrap. Here's hoping 2009 produces more quality and noteworthy artistic expressions, especially now with an artistic minded president taking up residence in the White House. If you need reminding, Marvel has already celebrated this fact in one of their recent issues of "The Amazing Spiderman", with a cover story featuring our president-elect. I also just saw recently Will-I-Am's latest video of his song, "It's A Brand New Day", which celebrates the recent victory. I'm hoping, at the risk of tooting my own horn, that my poem, "Barack Means Blessed", gets some momentum in the ether as well. On that note, nuff said!!

Lifetime Resolutions(A Work-In-Progress)--A Poem

In a time of making resolutions for the new year(and I, for one, am glad the old one has passed, in spite of a historical presidential election, and in light of the worst economic crisis since probably the Great Depression), I submit the following poem, originally written several years ago, but one which I believe still applies in my life, and maybe even yours. I hope with the onset of a new and hopefully very different administration, with tough challenges ahead for all of us in this coming year and, with that, hopefully new opportunities for growth and creative possibilities, this will be a year that's a damn sight better than the one we've just said goodbye to.




Lifetime Resolutions (A Work-In-Progress)


Resolved:
To understand that which is still not clear to me.
Resolved:
To live the questions that will not be answered.
Resolved:
To dance to the music that plagues my soul.
Resolved:
To speak the bitter, unspeakable truth.
Resolved:
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower.
Resolved:
To hear the whispers of a sometimes silent God.
Resolved:
To feel the unavoidable, painful embrace of humanness.
Resolved:
To touch the inner/outer extremities of my soul lover.
Resolved:
To know the why of the rage inside.
Resolved:
To quench the insatiable thirst of my heart and soul.
Resolved:
To walk a mile, maybe more, in my brother’s shoes.
Resolved:
To love beyond the limitations of my imagination.
Resolved:
To stand for something other than the reason to sit still no longer.
Resolved:
To read the words of those who probably know more than I do.
Resolved:
To write an end to this still-evolving poem.


© Joseph Powell

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

God bless us everyone, and I do mean everyone!!

Thought For The Week-A Short Manifesto Of Sorts For Writers

Writers are weird. We're dysfunctional and insecure. We're childish and wise. Occasionally brilliant. We're stray cats, and we have the blues.

--Joe Donnelly,
Deputy Editor, L.A. Weekly

No Lame Duck Here

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be sadistic, and I consider myself a nonviolent person by nature, but this video footage of the Iraqi journalist hurling his shoes at George Bush made my day and had me laughing throughout the day today every time I thought of it. It also speaks volumes of how Bush is perceived, not just in the Middle East, but around the world.

Words To Live By

I think that if you're a creative person, you should just go about your business, do your work and not care about how it's received. I never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too. Not that I don't care about success. I do, but only because it lets me do what I want. I was always prepared for success but that means that I have to be prepared for failure too.

I have an ego, I have ideas, I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. People who say they create only for themselves and don't care if they are published...I hate to hear talk like that. If it's good, it's too good not to share. That's the way I feel about my work. So I'll keep on communicating, but only my way."

--Shel Silverstein, from Publishers Weekly, February 24, 1975

Happy Thanksgiving

Without meaning to downplay the origins of what this holiday symbolizes, which I won't go into here, I would just like to say that we should strive to be thankful, in these rough times, for what we have in our lives. Our families(dysfunctional, though they may be), our friends(dysfunctional, though they may be). The fact that we have a new president who already has changed the landscape of this country just by who he is. Thankful that there are still things in this world that can divert our attention away from the troubles of our world, if only for a moment--things like art and music, literature(anyone for poetry?!), movies and theater. Thankful that there are things that we can do to help alleviate the troubles of our world, like helping to feed the hungry or donating toys to needy children or even putting a dollar in the Salvation Army till at your local store( I use to man those things every Christmas,when I was in high school, in the cold winters of Chicago, so I try to make it a point to return the favor).

I'm also thankful for this blog and that I have its means to express myself any way I choose, whether its through my poetry, thoughts, found videos, etc. And I'm thankful for those of you who choose to read it(you are out there, right? Please! Anybody?!)

In any event, I wish you all a safe and sane(as much as possible) holiday with whomever you choose to spend it with, just as long as you are thankful for them.


Peace!

Another Bukowski Poem

Friends Within The Darkness


I can remember starving in a
small room in a strange city
shades pulled down, listening to
classical music
I was young I was so young it hurt like a knife
inside
because there was no alternative except to hide as long
as possible--
not in self-pity but with dismay at my limited chance:
trying to connect.

the old composers -- Mozart, Bach, Beethoven,
Brahms were the only ones who spoke to me and
they were dead.

finally, starved and beaten, I had to go into
the streets to be interviewed for low-paying and
monotonous
jobs
by strange men behind desks
men without eyes men without faces
who would take away my hours
break them
piss on them.

now I work for the editors the readers the
critics

but still hang around and drink with
Mozart, Bach, Brahms and the
Bee
some buddies
some men
sometimes all we need to be able to continue alone
are the dead
rattling the walls
that close us in.

from You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense - pg. 139 - 1986

Something To Consider--Obama and Lincoln

My brother emailed me this a few days ago, taken from an aricle by a staff writer in the Washington Post.


Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 19, 2008


He was a boy with a distant father, raised in a family of modest means. He had a curious intellect, devouring history and memorizing passages from Shakespeare. He became a lawyer and settled in Illinois, where he was elected to the state legislature. With relatively little political experience, he decided to run for president. Few believed he stood a chance of winning a primary campaign against the
party's heir apparent, a senator from New York. But the gangly, bookish Illinoisan galvanized millions across a country in crisis with his soaring rhetoric, speaking in
big strokes about transcending partisan politics and creating America as it ought
to be. He rose from obscurity to clinch his party's nomination and the presidency. The New York senator returned home deeply disappointed and bitter, having fallen to a shrewd political tactician.

Sound familiar?

The year was 1860, and Abraham Lincoln had narrowly defeated Sen. William H. Seward to become the Republican presidential nominee. After winning the presidency, Lincoln disregarded personal animosity and took the unprecedented move of tapping Seward to be his Secretary of State. He appointed two other political adversaries as well:

Salmon P. Chase, a handsome widower and Ohio's governor, who resented losing to
a man he considered inferior, as secretary of the Treasury; and Edwin
M. Stanton, a long-bearded Democratic lawyer contemptuous of Lincoln, whom Lincoln inherited as his attorney general but later appointed as secretary of war. Lincoln chose another foe, Missouri's distinguished elder statesman, Edward Bates, to succeed Stanton as attorney general. Bates had considered Lincoln incompetent but eventually concluded that the president was "very near being a perfect man,"
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin writes in her 2005 book "Team of Rivals." As the United States splintered toward civil war, the 16th president assembled the most
unusual administration in history, bringing together his disgruntled opponents and displaying what Goodwin calls a profound self-awareness and political genius.


As he has been for many of the nation's presidents, including the one now holding the office, Lincoln is a source of inspiration for Barack Obama, who will be
inaugurated Jan. 20. On a chilly morning 21 months ago, Obama launched his long-shot bid for the presidency from the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. -- the same place where a century and a half earlier, Lincoln delivered his historic
"House Divided" speech. And now, Obama is contemplating Lincoln's particular model of
presidential leadership as he moves toward assembling his own team of advisers and Cabinet officials. His overtures to his former foes have suggested he may be mulling his own team of rivals, perhaps led by a certain senator from New York as secretary of state. Obama met with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Chicago last week.

Since winning the election two weeks ago, he has been reading Lincoln's writings again, Obama said Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes." "There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful." Offers Goodwin: "You can't find a better mentor than Abraham Lincoln."

"Lincoln said, 'The country's in peril. These are the strongest and most able people in the country and I need them by my side,' " she said in an interview. "At first, people wondered whether or not Lincoln would be overshadowed by Seward. But in the end, Seward ended up becoming his closest friend. . . . He went on in history in a more profound way than he ever would have had he stayed just a senator from New York."

If Lincoln is the president against whom all others are measured, it is in no small measure because he was the greatest politician to occupy the White House, said presidential historian Richard Norton Smith. "Lincoln is a crossroads of character and political shrewdness," said Smith, a scholar-in-residence at George Mason University. By appointing his former rivals, he "displayed a remarkable generosity of spirit. On the other hand, it's a very shrewd attempt to co-opt your potential enemies."

Obama may let it drop that his proverbial desert-island book is Goodwin's 916-page tome, and Garry Trudeau may decree Obama is "The Second Coming of Lincoln" in his
"Doonesbury" comic strip, and the president-elect may grace this week's Newsweek
cover standing in Abe's long shadow.

Thoughts On President-Elect Barack Obama

Hell has officially frozen over. A blast of fresh air is about to blow into the White House. The dream that was proclaimed 45 years ago has reached its culmination. The 21st century has officially begun. That sound you just heard--was the collective cry of the men and women who died in the bottom of slave ships; in shackles and chains in cotton fields on Southern plantations; who hung from poplar trees after being beaten and maimed; who died from an explosion in a Sunday school and driving to help those who were never allowed to vote gain the opportunity and exercise the right to vote. So that this day could happen. A black man, son of an African man and a young white woman from Kansas, who rose up to become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review to a Chicago(say it with me) COMMUNITY ORGANIZER to a state Senator from Illinois to a United States Senator representing that same state to now, the first of his kind to be president of these United States. This is the equivalent of when the late Harold Washington became the first black mayor of the city of Chicago(I can't help but think that that may have partial inspiration for Mr. Obama); it's also the equivalent of Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of South Africa.

Along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Oprah and the scores of men and women we saw on TV from across the nation, I wept openly after the announcement was made that Barack Obama was named President-Elect Tuesday night after an overwhelming landslide in the electoral vote. I wept for those men and women who hadn't even dared to dream that this day would happen. For those who thought it would never happen in their lifetimes, including myself. Who had shed blood and tears and sweat just so we could, at the very least, be invited to the table, if not given the seat at the head of it. I wept for Madelyn Dunham, Obama's grandmother, who died just one day before getting to see her grandson make history. I wept as a proud black man that I got to see a nation that has finally figured it out and is finally growing up, just a little bit. I also wept for the young black men and women, particularly of grade school age, who got to witness this moment, and who can, and without any hesitation, now say that when they grow up, they want to be president. And the young Hispanic and Latino men and women. And the young Asian men and women. And the young Native American men and women. The door has officially been opened. We are now allowed to sit at the head of the table.

I was glad that I was able to call my 76-year old mother, who after witnessing all that she has seen in her lifetime, including a World War and the debacle in Vietnam; Jim Crow and segregation; race riots and the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, among many others; I'm glad she got to see this moment and that I was able to share in that moment with her briefly over the phone.

This is indeed a new day. But yet, with the celebration of this monumental occasion, comes always, the cold water of reality. This most likely will not change the state of race relations in this country. At least, not overnight, or even during the course of Obama's first term in office. Neither will the problems that have beset us and which now he is being challenged to deal with after he is inaugurated on January 20th of next year. I honestly think that, given the nature of who he is, he will probably be under much more scrutiny than any president ever has been. And consequently, his safety and the safety of his family will be an ongoing concern--much more so now than it ever has been before. Now the real work begins. And not work that is merely on his shoulders. We elected him to be president of these United States. Our United States. As such, we need to stand by him, support him, long after the fanfare of this election and the upcoming inauguration has died down. We need to fight with him for those who don't have a voice or the ability to fight for themselves. To fight for better jobs and a stronger economy. To bring an end to an unjust and unnecessary war and bring our troops home to their longsuffering families and friends. To bring about universal health care for the millions who have gone without it for far too long. To save a disastrous educational policy that is doing nothing for our kids. To help those who can't help themselves, up out of poverty and hunger and illness and illiteracy.

I really hope that with the inevitable scrutiny, will also come, a willingness to let this man govern, as he sees fit, and be allowed to make mistakes, which is granted every human, and has certainly been granted to the previous 43 presidents of this country. I believe that he has surrounded, and will surround, himself with very capable people who will seek to move this nation forward and hopefully salvage the sullied reputation of this country, both here and abroad. But as I said, he will need the help of all of us. We cannot just sit back and take an idle approach to how things are run in this country. We must speak up and speak out and often. And we must pray--for him, for his family, for his advisors, and for his cabinet. For their safety and security. That they don't succumb to the pressures of this job. And that they'll be able to help lead this nation on the road to recovery that it so desperately needs.

President-Elect Barack Obama, you have been blessed. And you are a blessing to us, by God, to help lead a still very young nation onto bigger and better things. And to be a blessing to others, both near and far. I wish you Godspeed, health and prosperity, safety, wisdom and strength. And Peace!

YES WE CAN AND YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More to come later after I've had time to digest and get my thoughts together...

Daring To Dream Of A Black President

This was a post from the Independent and since it includes thoughts from some of my favorite people, I felt compelled to share with you all. Here's hoping that after today, it becomes more than a dream.



The Independent. Posted November 4, 2008.



Some of America's leading black voices, including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Tiger Woods share what it means to them.




With Obama on the brink of victory, America's leading black voices share what it means to them.




Maya Angelou, novelist: 'If he wins, it means my country has agreed to grow up'


I never thought I'd see a black president in the White House in my lifetime. I didn't even dare dream it. I feel like a child approaching Christmas, you can't believe election day is finally here. It's been so long since we've had people -- Asian and black, white and Spanish-speaking -- come together and say YES. Some did during the civil rights struggle but not as many as today. What it means if Mr Obama is voted in, is that my country has agreed to grow up, and move beyond the childish idea that human beings are different.

I'm talking to friends in the UK, in Italy, in China who can't vote, who cannot press anything other than the point home, so I know the world is watching. We have lain so long in the undergrowth of ignorance. Can we really be saved from the rage of consumerism where we identify ourselves by our spending: 'I'm a shopper'. What kind of stupidness is that? Buying things we cannot afford and do not need.

I'm no prophet, I'm no seer, I'm a beseecher -- so I have been out to thump the drum for Mr Obama. I started out in Senator Hillary Clinton's camp and I thumped the drum for her.

When it was proven that the majority of people wanted Senator Obama, she stepped out of the race and began to thump the drum for him, and so did I.

I think he has simply proven to everybody that he is very intelligent -- and by that I'm referring to what used to be called common sense, which is terribly uncommon these days. You can see him thinking before he speaks, which should be a presidential prerequisite but rarely is. Most of the candidates all the way back, save for two or three, seem to just punch a button. There's a question and they punch number seven and out comes an answer, which had been stored up.

Senator Obama has proven that he knows how to be a president to all the people, not just the rich and mighty, not just to whites, not just to blacks, but all the people. I'm so excited, the excitement can hardly be contained. How will I be spending election night? On my knees. Maybe getting off them to have a very nice Scotch and then getting back down on my knees again.



Toni Morrison, novelist: 'Things are different now. A lot of white people are different'


This election is critical, vital to more than just people in the United States. It's going to make a big, big difference which way it goes. The worst thing is not Senator Obama losing, it's who wins. I am encouraged by the polls and by him but I have lived long enough to know that elections have been systematically stolen. Luckily, I think everybody knows that and is sending about 5,000 lawyers to the polls.

I don't believe in the Bradley Effect -- there were a lot of reasons he lost. And this time is different. First of all the country is different. Secondly he's different. And thirdly a lot of white people are different. Several weeks ago I read about the Reverse Bradley Effect, where whites down in the south say they are voting Republican because of their neighbours!

I think the situation is dire, I cannot think of a large issue where things are going right, and Senator Obama will have an extremely difficult time. But there are two things that one should remember. The first is a cliché, but he himself has said it, 'It's not about me, it's about other people'. He cannot do it on his own, he needs the force of those who voted for him. The second thing -- and one of the reasons I really respect him -- is that he surrounds himself with really smart people, and not just smart people that say what he wants to hear. He likes the dialogue, the questioning, the one who tells him the truth as opposed to the one who strokes ego.

I think the promise with Senator Obama is that we return to an idea known as "the common good" and we have not had that in eight years. I mean, you can't get sick in America, you will be bankrupt. This administration has been very clear in its assumption that privatisation is best. There are jails where you have to pay room and board, you get into debt and when you get out you have to pay it back. And some people who do not have means to borrow go out and steal again. I know that the Democrats are more inclined to take the right position and not regard taxes on the extremely rich as some sort of insult to them.

What am I going to do on election night? I have three choices: I can go to some friends; I was invited to go on a TV show; but I think under the bed may yet prove the safest place to be.


Samuel L Jackson, Actor: 'There's been a warrior culture here. It's time that ended'


We have been through eight years of pretty much lunacy and madness. In America, we have tended to think that we are the greatest living things on the planet and our leadership has exemplified that. There's been a sort of warrior culture here, and it's time that ended. Obama is the president to take us to the next place. He's not part of the establishment, number one. He doesn't have that sense of entitlement that others have had. What he does have is a sense of empathy for people who are on the lower rung of society and he doesn't want to give the people with all the money all the breaks.

It's not just about what an Obama victory will mean to the African American community, it's for the nation in general. It means something for the little Asian kid, or the little Hispanic kid, for everybody of a different origin than Anglo-American. It actually means that the lie that they told us all these years -- that you can grow up to be anything you want to be in America, even the president -- might actually be true now. Until this election, it was just a fantasy -- you had to be white to be president. The closest we got to it was when Jimmy Smits was elected president on the West Wing or Morgan Freeman being president on screen.

I grew up in the segregated South, and there's probably still two generations who grew up next to "Whites Only" signs. We were part of that time in America when we were second-class citizens, so no, I didn't expect to see this in my lifetime. It's really wonderful and revelatory in terms of how far we have come so fast. And hopefully it will signify a major change in how we are perceived in the world community. Obama represents what we hope America can be.

But I will not be comfortable until 5 November. I was in the UK for the 2000 election. When I went to bed in Liverpool that night, Bush had lost, when I woke up the next morning Bush had won. Until I go to Obama's inauguration in January, I won't really believe it. And I'm definitely going, I've made hotel reservations already.


Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader: 'I just wish Martin Luther King was here to share the joy'


It will be the sixth time I've voted for Barack Obama. When he ran for the State Senate I voted for him in the primary and the general; when he ran for the US Senate I voted for him in the primary and the general; and in his run for the presidency I voted for him in the primary and will be voting for him in the general. I will spend election day on the phone, encouraging people to go out and vote. I will not be letting up until the polls close.

Our struggle in America for civil rights started out with the right to vote and now Mr Obama is on the doorstep of the White House. We got the right to vote in 1965, that's 43 years ago, and we have kept evolving over those years. America is a country that continues to grow, it's maturing. This election says to Europe, Africa and Asia that democracy is real and that we must rise above limitations of race and gender to achieve our purpose.

The people of America are ready for a black president now. Senator Obama's race is self-evident, he didn't make an issue out of it. He's reached out to people across the divide and had universal appeal by focussing on the real issues.

There's a great sense of joy. I just wish Dr [Martin Luther] King were here to share it. He would be overjoyed. But he would also know that we have challenges beyond the election. He would be proud of where we are but he would remind us that we are not all the way there yet, until we wipe out poverty and illiteracy and end these unnecessary wars.


Jay-Z, rapper


Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so that Obama could run. Obama's running so that we all can fly. I can't wait until 5 November and I'm going to say 'Hello, Brother President'. I can't tell you who to vote for. All I can do is tell you to vote."


Spike Lee, director


I say it's very simple, we have BB, "before Barack," and AB, "after Barack."

This coalition that he's got: black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, whatever. It's come together and this has never been done before and I think this thing is preordained or whatever we want to call it. I'm not going to say it's God, but this is not a mistake, this is happening now. He's here when his country is at it's lowest in many many years.

Even though I live in Manhattan, I still vote out of Brooklyn, so 4 November I'm going to be the first in line in Brooklyn. Then I'm going to get a flight to Chicago and I'll be there all day.


Tiger Woods, Golfer


I've seen him speak. He's extremely articulate, very thoughtful, I'm just impressed at how well, basically all politicians really do, how well they think on their feet. Especially those debates. It's pretty phenomenal to see them get their point across. But I just think that he's really inspired a bunch of people in our country and we'll see what happens down the road.


Alonzo Mourning, basketball player


I need to be part of this because this is part of the history of our nation and I do have a voice in the community -- I have a presence and it's beautiful to be able to use it on behalf of something I believe in. Some athletes worry something like this might affect their sponsorship deals, but I'm not afraid. Obama has given real leadership. I'm not ashamed to say I'm with him all the way.


Stevie Wonder, musician


He's a combination of JFK and Martin Luther King. With that, he can't lose. I see a time when we will have a united people of the United States. And that is why I support Barack Obama.


James Blake, tennis player


I am proud. I am very proud of Barack Obama. I believe in him and I believe that he will do good things for this country. I hope the country gives him that opportunity.

GO OUT AND VOTE!!!!!!!!!!

Barack Means Blessed--A New Poem

When Jesse said, "I am, Somebody",
He was talking about this one;
When JB said it loud...,
He was talking about this one;
The shining black prince, that was Malcolm,
And the gentle warrior, that was Martin--
Have come back to us
As this fortunate one,
This fortunate son;
The African diaspora and the American dream,
Clothed in this one man,
In this man,
Blessed by God,
For that is what Barack means.

This man,
Standing on the shoulders
Of those who came before,
Both great and small,
Black and white;
This man,
This human,
Jazzman,
Michelle's, Malia's, and Sasha's man,
Our man
For these times,
These interesting times;
Courageous,
Audacious;
Proud,
Yet humbled;
Black
And beautiful;
A leader
And yet,
A servant.

This one,
This man,
Renaissance man,
Helping us to see
What it means,
To be reborn;
Helping us to see
What it means,
As a people,
As a nation,
As these United States of America,
To be blessed by God,
For that is what Barack means.


© 2008 Joseph Powell

R.I.P. Studs Terkel, 1912-2008

The city of Chicago and indeed, the nation, has long another one of its unique voices. An everyman for everyday people. A friend and defender of the underdog, who always managed to find a way to tell their stories as he heard them and as they needed to be told. A raconteur, a jazz man--whose instruments were his voice and his pen. He was the very definition of 'old school'--with his rumpled look and gangster-style voice, he was someone you wanted to have a beer with at the local bar and then have over for dinner to meet your family, because you knew he'd be interested and would be interesting. When one thinks of Chicago, if you truly know the city, you can't help but think of Studs. Like the Cubs and the Bears; like the river and the downtown skyline; like the Picasso in front of the Daley Building and the Art Institute, Studs was very much an indelible part of that city.

He's a reason why we can remember the Holocaust; a reason why we know the people who were affected by the Great Depression; a reason why the working man has been celebrated and his dignity has been esteemed; a reason why we can appreciate the people we meet; because he helped us to do that, through his long running radio show, broadcast from his adopted home in the Windy City; and also through his many books, including one of his most seminal, "Working".

He once said in an interview that he wanted his epitaph to say that "curiosity didn't kill this cat". Here's to one of the coolest and most curious of cats that ever lived. Take it easy, Studs, but take it.

Just In Case You Needed Reminding...

This is one of the most thoughtful ' WHAT IF ' scenarios I have read. It was on a comment opportunity after people voted on who won the debate in a Colorado Springs newspaper.

WHAT IF the FACTS WERE SWITCHED AROUND?

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?.....think about it. Would the country's collective point of view be different?(10/8/08)

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to painkillers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:University of Delaware - B.A. In History and B.A. In Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester. North Idaho College - 2 semesters - General Study. University of Idaho - 2 semesters - Journalism. Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester. University of Idaho = 3 semesters - B.A. In Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

A Change Is Gonna Come

It's the timelessness of a song that, I think, reveals the brilliance of that song. Its continued relevance, even long after its debut. Marvin Gaye's, "What's Going On?", and Bob Dylan's, "Blowin' In The Wind", are cases in point. As is the Sam Cooke song, "A Change Is Gonna Come". Is there a more appropos song, given the potential events of the upcoming week?



I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees

Ohhhhhhhhh.....

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Thought For The Week

"There's a song that says, 'the time ain't long.' That song is right. Something has got to change in America---and change soon. We must help that change to come."

--Langston Hughes


Addendum:

The following was related to me by a friend who heard it on NPR today--

"Rosa sat,
So Martin could walk;
Martin walked,
So Barack could run;
Barack ran,
So children could fly."

--Anonymous

Somehow, One Of My Nightmares Was Captured On Film!

Stranger things have been known to happen in this world. Let's just hope that this is one of those that will never happen.







But its message is clear:



GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!!!!!!! OBAMA '08!!!

TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN'T REST EASY

1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.

2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They're whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.

3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.

4. Those who forget history... In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!

5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.


We can't afford to let this one get away!! It's much too important, with a lot of things at stake, not to mention, the historic aspect of it all. Please do all that you can to make sure that two weeks from now, we'll be saying President Obama, and not Senator Obama.

$700 Billion Sellout?

"It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases."

- Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activist. (Source: The American Prospect blog)


"If you'll forgive me," he added, "your country is the ultimate triumph of corporate creativity, which means it is a country controlled by the group-thinking of corporations. These corporations are without humanity because there is no one personally responsible for their use of power; a corporation is like a computer with profit as its source of energy--and profit as its necessary fuel."

--Arbeiter, a German radical, The Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving (1981)



"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

--Thomas Jefferson, 1802


'Nuff said?

Silver and Gold and Infinity

The ego part of me would like to believe that my poetic influence and creative ability had something to do with the creation of the following poem, written by my stepdaughter, Santi Biondolillo, for her sophomore English class, a few weeks ago. But the truth of the matter is, that she's a talented and gifted artist in her own right--from the stories and essays that she's written for class and family, to the self-made greeting cards she manages to create for every known occasion, to the incredible anime drawings that are the equal of any professional animator out there. The poem, entitled, "Silver and Gold and Infinity", is an outstanding stand-alone piece that captures perfectly the teenager that she is and, I think, every teenager that currently exists in our society. I hope you are touched and moved, as her mother and I were, by this amazing poem.



Silver and Gold and Infinity


I come from stained pillowcases,
Apple-scented dishsoap,
And clinking dishes.

I am from paint already scraped from my walls,
And tiny particles of who knows what
Spread across my carpet.

I come from sunflowers,
The "jungle" that Malla had prowled,
And a tire swing(one that I was too afraid to ride).

Then I am from a pink playhouse,
My grandfather had built just for me,
And later I am from concrete, and a tree
That grew flowers, whose names I still do not know.

I come from chewed fingernails,
And the peeling skin around them,
Often covered in blue or red ink.

I'm from same hair since seventh grade,
My mole, and eyes, shaped like my father's.

I come from "Martin, are you walking home today?"
From I was like, and he was all.
I'm from Holy Beluga, "make good choices", and
I love you more than silver, and gold, and infinity.

I come from "bein' hip" with pocky, yanyan,
And empty Starbucks cups(plastic or cardboard depending on the weather).
From "faken" bacon, buttered noodles,
And the best tacos(that my mom just happens to make).

I am from a loving man's tears shed for someone great,
Someone he knew better than I,
And from the mattress and that phone call
That left me missing her cherry eye.

I come from deciding not to sleep,
Even though I am tired,
And from trying to close my stubborn dresser drawer,
As I stare curiously out a hole in the door where the knob used to be.

I come from just sitting,
My ipod playing, thinking back on my life, and what
I come from.

I lay my head on my stained pillow,
Looking forward to tomorrow, hoping
Not to miss a second of life,
But for now, I will take a short break
Until the morning, when I write, ready to make more memories.

I fall asleep...


© 2008 Santi Biondolillo

The Beast In Me

Throughout my life, I've encountered songs that have not only spoken to me in deeply profound ways, but have captured, I feel, the essence of who I am and have been in various stages of my life. One such song is one that I discovered several years ago on the original soundtrack for the former HBO series, "The Sopranos". It is a song by Nick Lowe, entitled, "The Beast In Me", and I've transcribed the lyrics below.



The Beast In Me

The beast in me
Is caged by frail and fragile bars
Restless by day
And by night, rants and rages at the starts
God help the beast in me
The beast in me
Has had to learn to live with pain
And how to shelter from the rain
And in the twinkling of an eye
Might have to be restrained
God help the beast in me
Sometimes it tries to kid me
That it's just a teddy bear
Or even somehow manage
To vanish in the air
Then that is when I must beware
Of the beast in me
That everybody knows
They've seen him out dressed in my clothes
Patently unclear
If it's New York, or New Year
God help the beast in me
The beast in me

R.I.P. Paul Newman, 1925-2008

We've lost yet another bright light and a class act, in every sense of the term. Paul Newman was an inspiration, both on-screen and off. Through his nearly 50 year career in film, television, and on the stage, he celebrated the underdog in us all, no matter from what part of this thing we call life. He also did the same through his "Hole-In-The-Wall Gang" camps for children and other charitable contributions. With actress and wife, Joanne Woodward, he maintained that rarest of feats, the so-called "Hollywood marriage". Even in light of the tragedy of losing a son, he continued to persevere and do some of his best and, what will continue to be, memorable work for years to come. I can't say that I've seen all of his films, not because I never wanted to, just haven't yet and hopefully will sometime--I can say, without hesitation, that he was always someone who delivered in his performances, whether it was one of a pair of outlaws on the run in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; or one of a pair of con men devising a major revenge scam in "The Sting"(both films he co-starred with another wonderful and handsome actor, Robert Redford); an alcoholic lawyer on a major case in "The Verdict"; or a much older version of his classic performance of pool hustler, Fast Eddie Felson, in "The Color Of Money". His work as an actor will and should probably be studied by every young and up and coming actor in a class somewhere; one can only hope that his philanthropy will enjoy the same scrutiny and hopefully, emulation, for there can be nothing better in this world, than to make sure that a child endures a little less suffering and is given an opportunity to see that there is beauty in this world and that someone does care. Paul, you were part of that beauty and that someone who cared and you will be missed.

Thought For The Week

"They who live humbly have angels from heaven to carry them courage and strength and belief."


--Anonymous


I like to think that I try to live humbly, sometimes against my own will to live otherwise. I hope that the above statement, written by an anonymous poet, is true, because I certainly am fresh out of courage, strength, and belief.

Free Troy Davis

An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thought For The Week

"I've had enough of somebody else's propaganda. I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."


--Malcolm X

This is an addendum to the above thought, speaking of propaganda and the truth. The following was sent to me by a friend, who wasn't aware of the author of this, but I post it here because I think it speaks volumes. Let me know what you think.


I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight...

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while
raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're
not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

I Believe - A 9/11 Tribute

MAY WE NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER FORGET!!!!!

Sen. Barack Obama's Full Speech to the DNC

For those of you select few who may have missed out on this historic speech, I present Sen. Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, in its entirety. Enjoy!

Thought For The Week

Although I think, given that we're in the last leg of our presidential race, the following thought might be appropos for the next two months. Let me know what you think.

"But the American electorate doesn't do resumes. If it did, William Seward would have been elected president in 1860, when the country was in its greatest moment of crisis, not some lawyer from Illinois nobody had heard of(sound familiar?--italics mine), and a century later John Kennedy, a senator of arguably less substantive accomplishment than Obama, would not have defeated the more seasoned Richard Nixon."

--Steve Erickson,
Los Angeles Times,
August 31, 2008


On a slightly different note, though not altogether irrelevant, something to be considered regarding the date of August 28th in terms of the best and worst of our nation's history.

---On August 28th, 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was horribly murdered while visiting family in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

---On August 28th, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now famous, "I Have A Dream" speech, standing before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

---On August 28th, 2008, Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, became the first African-American to accept his party's(Democratic, for those of you not paying attention) nomination for president.

In the words of that great black philosopher, Arsenio Hall, things that make you go, hmmmmm!!

We've made a lot of progress in the last 53 years in this country, standing on the shoulders of such people as Emmett Till and Dr. King, to see such a moment as what occurred at the Democratic Convention in Denver just a couple of weeks ago. Here's hoping we can continue to progress forward to what will be an inevitably historic and necessary moment in our nation's history. 'Nuff said!