"President Barack Obama and his team of writers... made refinements to his speech at Blair House on the eve of his historic inaugural address"
Barack Obama is a great man.
Before I tell you why allow me to share an email I sent to a group of my friends just now. It is reproduced in part below...
"...On a serious note though, we who have never experienced overt racism as a daily feature of our lives still have enough connection to the civil rights movement in the US through said stories, pictures and accounts of the period to feel awe, shock and dare I say it… hope that maybe, someday we could emulate this gesture at reconciliation and the catharsis of generations of injustices to a nation.
My words are chosen carefully because while an almost incalculable powerful symbolic gesture, the election of the son of an African immigrant to the most powerful job in the world is not an end in itself. As I heard on TV, Martin Luther King’s dream was not for the attainment of power by one particular race but a society where ANYONE can aspire to be anything he/she wants and be judged on the content of their character and not the colour of their skin.
Let us start to dream that Eche’s beautiful kid sister will announce her candidacy for the governorship of Lagos State and not be laughed out of hand. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria assures us she can. Realities guarantee it remains nothing but a pipe dream. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the civil rights bill in the mid-‘60s. It took another 2 generations for the ‘pipe dream’ and ultimate sign of symbolism to happen on the western side of Capitol Hill in Washington DC at 12pm Eastern time on January 20 2009.
Let us pray and hope that Barack Hussein Obama’s shoulders are wide enough for the responsibilities and hopes of future generations.
The hard work begins now for him…
My words are chosen carefully because while an almost incalculable powerful symbolic gesture, the election of the son of an African immigrant to the most powerful job in the world is not an end in itself. As I heard on TV, Martin Luther King’s dream was not for the attainment of power by one particular race but a society where ANYONE can aspire to be anything he/she wants and be judged on the content of their character and not the colour of their skin.
Let us start to dream that Eche’s beautiful kid sister will announce her candidacy for the governorship of Lagos State and not be laughed out of hand. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria assures us she can. Realities guarantee it remains nothing but a pipe dream. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the civil rights bill in the mid-‘60s. It took another 2 generations for the ‘pipe dream’ and ultimate sign of symbolism to happen on the western side of Capitol Hill in Washington DC at 12pm Eastern time on January 20 2009.
Let us pray and hope that Barack Hussein Obama’s shoulders are wide enough for the responsibilities and hopes of future generations.
The hard work begins now for him…
Barack Obama is truly a great man because he has caused me to come back to this space to start to share my ongoing journey in life once again. A journey with such a unique perspective. If I do say so myself.
I had almost forgotten what it feels like to express myself through words written on paper (or typed on a blog).
Musings of a Nigerian in Aotearoa is back!
1 comment:
Hey, great to read your blog again. A rather interesting one to re-start with. :-)
My personal view: Let's hope he does as well as he speaks. I don't want to take away any significance of Obama's achievement. My issue is people looking to him as the Messiah of the world. Let's keep in mind that George W. Bush also started his presidency 8 years ago with high satisfaction/optimism from the people (92%), yet he ends up as the "worst president ever" (for now).
Nevertheless, Obama has inspired the world with his words. I hope he keep on inspiring the world with his actions. Most importantly I hope he is able to negotiate long lasting peace between conflicting countries around the world, unlike the previous presidents who appointed themselves as police of the world, i.e. all can be solved with bigger guns.
Hope you stick to your commitment to keep on writing. I'll need to catch up too. :-)
Take care... from the Southern end of the great continent of Africa.
Julie
Post a Comment