Monday, February 4, 2008

"It's Been A Long Time Coming!"

It's been long time coming, but after listening to Ms O's speech a again, it came to me! Thanks Ms O!!!
Let me make this prefectly clear.
I am a "Ms O" fan and believe she has the rigft to vote for whom she likes...
It amazes me that she is backing "BO" for POTUS.

You know I call myself "Culturally Conscious."
This is something that became apart of me when I lived in Germany back in the ninties. Culture, because of the short cultural landmarks we have as a black people. Consciousness, because it is important to preserve, display, and teach our culture so that it will not be lost or forgotten.
In Europe their culture is visible every where and all the citizens know it. The most obvious visible landmarks all is found in their graveyards.
They have grave markers that are four hunderd years old. I was in awe when I realized that they can point to a "Cultural Landmark" and say this is our roots...

I did a post called, "Viola Liuzzo Who?" I found her name in the list of well known fallen Civil Rights leaders. I received two comments; one from her daughter and son each. This is Cultural Consciousness. The struggle is about moving forward and not leaving our fallen on the battle field forgotten.

Both of the candidates on the democratic side and their supporters, all have envolked Dr. King's name. Hillary talks about being taken to see Dr. King speak by her youth minister. Dr. King's speech changed her life. Caused Hillary to convert from a republican to a democrat.
Obama talks about what he read Dr. King said, and he says he is the candidate of "now!"
"Ms O," Spoke about the struggle being about rights to vote and being free to chose...

All this is true and they almost got me.
I was almost convinced that maybe these important people see something that I don't see...
Until I shifted back into my "Cultural Consciousness" and reflected on the actural struggle...
The struggle that people died for...
The struggle that people cried for...
The struggle that people walked, sat-in, and marched for...
The struggle that people lost family and friends for...
The struggle to vote...
The struggle for equal opportunity...
The struggle for equal rights...
The struggle for women's rights...
The struggle for human rights...
The struggle for this snapshot in time...
Yes, this struggle that moves from this point on in video form...
Yes, they almost had me until "Ms O" talked about this struggle...
So if they are talking about this struggle then certainly it is not Obama's time...

It is not Obama's time because his roots did not need the benefits of this struggle to accomplish all he has done. He has enjoyed the benefits of this struggle, but his roots never needed them...

His roots are not rooted in the dark dirt of this struggle he so quickly envolk...

These are roots Obama adapted...

Toni Morrison, the writer, elder and cultural icon, that I salute and truly admire, endorsed Obama.
She said, "In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you (Obama) exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22879780/
I believe it is that "something" that exposes the lack of Obama's roots in the struggle that he so quickly envolk.

In 1998, (Mother) Morrison wrote a column for the New Yorker magazine in which she wrote of Bill Clinton: "White skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22879780/

Mother Morrison spoke of roots she saw in Bill which are rooted in the same struggle of dark dirt of black people. I said it in a previous blog: "Timing is Everything," that this is culturally contradictory of black women. Black women are great supporters of the notion that the woman behind the man makes the man. As a black man, I have heard this quote all my life: that behind or beside every great man is a great woman...

So it's about roots...
Roots give the oak the strength to withstand the storm winds and flood waters...
It's roots that reminds the leaf at the tip of the highest limb that "we are oak..."
It is roots that are firmly afixed in the black dirt of the struggle each candidate so easily envolk...
It's about Culture...
I am not saying that Obama does not have the right to run...
But (yes the "Big Butt" in the room) to be truly culturally conscious of this struggle that Obama is running on, one would have to say, that Obama is not one of its rooted and grounded sons.

A vote for Obama on the platform of "the struggle" might as well be a vote of "Arnold Schwarzenegger!"
Actually Arnold and Obama have something in common.
They both have political appeal...
Arnold will not be running on the "King dream" but the "American dream."

So you see, Culturally, Hillary has roots in the dark dirt of the civil, women's, and voting rights struggle that she so eloquently speak of...
It is a struggle she has been intimately involved with for several decades...
If Hillary were not running and another who did not have their roots intimately involved in this dark dirt was running, it would be Obama's time.
But she is running!!!
When "Ms O" stands on stage with the Kennedy women and declare us to free, the struggle is over; she is saying we are all equal in every way...
Culturally, this is Ludacrous...
Did she not see what happened in "Jena!"
Yes in 2007!
The struggle is not over.
Did she not see what happened to the black woman in West Virginia?
The struggle is not over....
Does she not know how many black people are unemployed?
The struggle is not over...

Sorry "Ms O" but your "slip" is showing...

Barack Obama's time is not "now!"

It's about struggle...
It's about roots...
It's about time...

It's Hillary's time...

"It's Been a Long Time Coming!"

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