"In Jesse's Shadow..."

Wow...

This stuff keeps getting gooder and gooder... So culturally, we have come full circle... We have a black man and a white woman making "mad" history in the most significant political race this generation has ever known...

Wow, this stuff gets more and more exciting every minute... Stuff like "Ms O" got that "slip" fixed and so did Bill (slip of the lip...LOL!!!)... Stuff like "the woman factor" is a "strong black woman that speaks blacks..." And stuff like, now we are all sitting on the eve of a marriage between Titans that could rewrite the rules of politics and not to mention history...

Wow, this is so exciting stuff...

But one cannot be amiss of "the what was" that allowed "the what is" to be... When one thinks of the ground works that gave way to this day, one must rewind the video tape a few decades...

Yes, a few decades???

Yes, back to when another Clinton was a governor and a black man ran on the mantra

"keep hope alive..."

A time when blacks and whites were finding themselves and testing their limits... A time when the old and the new first began to merge into the same lane without a traffic jam...

And a time when a young black lawyer caught the vibe of a wave that he has kept alive and rode until this day... Yes, there are a lot of people standing "in Jesse's shadow..." These of "the what was, the what is, and the what is to be..."

They are all standing in Jesse's shadow...

But (opp there is that big but) where is Jesse...

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a very influential black man that has his finger on the pulse of "the what was, the what is, and the what is to be!" MrH reminded me that before there was an Obama, there was a Jesse. And before there was "the audacity of hope" there was Jesse's mantra "keep hope alive..."
And before a Clinton ever stood in the oval office there was Jesse's "Rainbow push coalition" calling for the change the world had never seen before...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people are standing in Jesse's shadow...

But, (and here is that big bodacious butt again) where is Jesse???

Culturally, Jesse's shadow is the place where the "conscious" found direction... In Jesse's shadow is where an African American kid from a broken home found a wave he could ride into a tsunami... In Jesse's shadow is the place where a people of color dared to hope when they did not have the audacity to do so...

Yes, and it was in Jesse's shadow where a white man from Arkansas was coned the first black president of the United States...

Wow, Jesse cast a big shadow...

But ( here is another one of those big black bodacious butts in the room) where is Jesse???

Where is the father of "hope" for a people lost on the road to consciousness... Where is the man that inspire a people to reach for something bigger than ones-self especially if no one of color had done it before... Where is the man who through his diplomatic rhetoric was able to negotiate the freedom of those imprisoned soldiers around the world...

Where is the man, Jesse???

Regardless of where he is, culturally there are conscious people still standing "in Jesse's shadow..." Conscious of the fact that "the what is to be" is a direct result of "the what was..." And "the what is" is engulfed by a shadow made by a man named Jesse...

Wow...

Now that's some good stuff...

You know me, I like to keep it exciting...

In Jesse's shadow you have a black man and a white woman on tour... What a blast this is going to be... History will be made right before my eyes... "Ms O" will probably dance out of her slip, Bill will keep his lips zipped, and we will all be in the cell phone video of a new generation... And lets not forget the millions of the zero year kids generation (black and white; male and female) who will be blasting their ipod to their new mantra

"Yes we can!!!"

Wow ain't this is some exciting stuff...

And the Dems will party like rock stars!!!

Wow...

All this an more...


Standing "In Jesse's Shadow..."


J. Angus John