YES WE CAN

"ONLY IN AMERICA"

I am watching the Obama biography video  and getting ready to hear the next president of the United States of America speak and my heart is stirring.  I don't know why I have flurries and butterflies outside of the obvious.  The obvious being I wish my father were alive to witness this day the same day some 45 years later that Martin Luther King Jr. said, I have a dream.  Or that I feel connected to my country, to being an American where my dreams can actually come to fruition.  

I remember when Jesse Jackson was making his bid for the presidency.  I was young but had seen a lot.  I had witnessed my father get jumped on by toy cops at Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ.  He bought over 200 people from our church conference every year to this park.  He and his friend Rev. Tate witnessed a black man being brutalized by the cops and they stood and asked what was going on.  I witnessed them jump on my father and throw him in the back of the car.  I witnessed them apologize only when they found out who he was.  But what if he was just him and not a title.  I have been teased for talking looking to black, big eyes, big butt, big lips and a big nose.  I have been followed in stores for browsing while black, I have been run off the road for driving while black while in college.  Not an American, separate, wrong somehow for being black.  I was, in the 5th grade, not encouraged to join a spelling B or move to the next level buts scolded that I was winning too much and had to give the other kids a turn.    

I remember learning about Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves and being murdered.  I remember learning about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and the Kennedy's all hero's shot down before I was born.  I was taught not to hope too much, don't make too much of a stir, do good enough but not too good, it's not good to have too much.  Don't put a grand idea or hope that will only be shot down into the minds of a black boy or girl.  You can shoot for your dreams but not too high or too far.  

I remember thinking how futile it was for Jesse Jackson and how thwarted was my ability to hope for him.  But today, as I have strived and hoped to dream the impossible dream for myself.  That I a woman, black will get an Academy Award at this stage in the game.  That I can affect change or instill hope in someones life.  That I can inspire others and touch others in a way that only I can.  Without having to take my clothes off or show my ass.  Today I am still dreaming that dream for myself AND I am dreaming a larger dream for my country.  Today hope revived, I believe Yes We Can.  

However large or small are dreams are, YES WE CAN and Yes I Can.

"And God Bless the United States of America!" -Barack Obama