Will We Exhale?
Barack Obama
This post was orginally an article in The Village Griot, my online subscription newsletter.
Recently, a young African-American coworker who is well educated and raised in the culture of colorblindness asked me if I was happy about the direction of the general election. My response was “only if I am able to exhale on November 5.” I then went further to say that perhaps even on the day after the election there may be some controversy, already brewing within the GOP, which may stall the final election results.
We are on the brink -in our history, of electing a black man as the president of the United States of America; a place where in my lifetime the overt oppression of people of color has been by design, fueling the iniquitous control of this country by willful conservative groups who in the end are the world’s minority.
[Definition: conservative-- disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.]
This year’s presidential election has brought out the worst in this conservative base. The GOP is trying every trick they have ever invented to win this election at all cost. They are using Malcolm’s mantra… “by any means necessary” after decades of bullying people of color should we attempt to even remotely follow his lead. In the end, conservatives do win the election the executive branch of government is not going to be that of an elected McCain/Pallin ticket, but one run by the subversive puppeteers who want to continue living their long ago lost dreams.
These people have led us into the abyss of an unnecessary war, a financial crisis that will take a decade to overcome, an economic system designed to pad the pockets of the wealthy, a higher education system growing out of reach for the middle class -not to mention our failing public schools. The world’s view of the United States has diminished to almost beyond repair while other important issues affecting us are washed over in any discussion.
These people have used tactics such as fraud, system abuse by encroaching on civil rights and hate mongering that in everyday life would justify bringing criminal charges and time in jail. There is not a day that goes by where news of some unbelievable “win at all costs” method surfaces.
Thinking back over the last eight years, along with the 2000 and 2004 elections, I can only pray that the people of this country have opened their eyes, focus on the future and vote in droves. We need a landslide! I fear that a narrow margin in favor of Obama/Biden will only justify the means already set in place for the GOP to steal this election.
Will we exhale? God help us all if we cannot.
© 2008 Sharon Moore Stenhouse – All Rights Reserved
