My State of the Union Address

My fellow Americans, November 4, 2008 is a date that will live in infamy in the minds of all African-Americans. That, my friends, is the day that Barack Obama, a black man, became elected the 44th President of the United States. This event is something that will serve as this generation of Black Americans’ defining moment. Our parents can remember what they were doing on August 28, 1963 when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, or even on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated, but we’re not going to wish the latter on our President elect. Yes, today (last night) is that day for us where we will all remember where we were and what we were doing when we first learned the news that Obama had gained the necessary electoral votes to officially become THE FIRST black man to be elected as the President of the United States. His rise made me realize that “Change” and “Yes We Can” are more than campaign slogans; they are inspirational words that will also etch November 4, 2008 into the legacy that I am still in the process of building.

Black America, we have to realize that 2008 isn’t really that different from 1963. The ugliness that is racism, whether we choose to believe it or not, still exist in our great nation, and we have the nerve to call ourselves progressive. In a time where we are seeing that anything is truly possible, we cannot afford to sell ourselves short. Society has become so technologically advanced where we can have news correspondents interact with each other via hologram, where we can instantaneously receive news, gossip, and messages, yet a wise man named Alphonse Karr once told us; “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

If you were following the results as closely as I was, you would have seen the results that I saw at http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/. I was disturbed, although not really shocked to see that most of the Confederate South voted Republican. This is why we heard voters express their concerns for the Republican ticket, but say that they would not vote for Obama without giving reason. We all know the reason. I’ve long remarked that being Republican works if you’re rich, but most of the poorer states including my beloved Louisiana, were engrossed in red on those result maps. Let me ask of you CNN, MSNBC, FOX and many other media outlets, if we as a people are that blind to the facts that we would logically reason that only the state of the economy and the war in Iraq were the two major issues in the 2008 Presidential Election, without including race? This is the same election where we have had McCain supporters boo at the mention of Barack Obama during his concession address in Arizona. This is the same election where comments full of the same ignorance and hate as experienced in the 1960s can still be seen on many webpages including FOX’s (http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/04/wrap-polls-start-close-frenied-day-voting/comments/). And I’ll refrain from any mention of the Jena 6, Jenarlo Wilson, and many other media circuses that let us know the ways of the South. However, this is the exact same election where many others commented that if Barack Obama were 100% white McCain would have conceded the election weeks ago.

For me, November 4, 2008 was the realization that Kevin Garnett had it right all along in June; “anything is possible.” I am not regarding this date as many in our race may, that this is our free pass to do whatever we like, but I am just as pleased as the next man. Yeah the marchers of the 60s had it right, change has come, but it has indeed come and will continue to do so at a price. And the subjects of my previous postings including Pampy, Jesse Jackson, and Rev. Wright, amongst others, should act accordingly. Responding to comments about my status; “Kellen Daranda J.D. is hoping that Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the U.S. will not make him say; ‘they should've never gave u niggas a President!’,” I am just as happy as all of you to see Obama in office, I just hope that our people do not choose to “show their color” simply because they can no longer cite “when a Black man becomes President” as their time frame for getting things accomplished. And furthermore, in our quest to check off our objectives, we should realize that nothing will be given to us. In a time frame much shorter than our arrival to this nation we have seen special interests groups such as the gays acquire rights much faster than those of us who have had no choice in what we are. (Hey, these are MY thoughts; I never said I was “politically correct.”) Here we are still waiting on our 40 acres and a mule, and now were supposed to expect that everything will work itself out because we have a black man in office?

The good that I have learned from Barack Obama is that Democracy in America is not overly influenced by improper motives such as race, and because of that is not dead. The niggers, spics, and chinks did not elect Barack Obama, America did. Besides if we look at the ethic makeup of the United States, we will see that the minority ethnic groups combined still do not equal the majority and that Black America is no longer the largest minority group. So we cannot be lead to believe that it’s the Blacks who are on welfare and that it’s the Black male who is in prison instead of college. Maybe now that society has seen a piss poor campaign get the results it should have expected from day one, it will be more willing to lend an ear to our plight. But we cannot just expect it to happen, we have to make it happen, believing that “yes, we can.”

Barack has also shown me that my previous blog posting was all wrong, I should not beat myself up regarding my shortcomings, that’s not disrupting the trend of what I had previously viewed as mediocrity, that is giving up. Despite not being where I want to be physically, mentally, financially, or emotionally, I have to take things one step at a time and see that I do have the testicular fortitude to know that I am able to change things. So what I don’t have a job at the moment, I’ll get one. So what I’m nervous about my bar results, everyone else is just like many have been before us, and many will continue to be after us, despite where they obtained their legal education. So what I’m single, it’s the time for me to fix myself. Today I’ve seen a black man become the first person to do something, being defiant enough to earn acceptance, yet conducive enough to have it given readily. I have seen a vision of my own future, far removed from the rut that I have dug myself into.

I want to thank my friends, family, and fraternity for their words of encouragement in my downward spiral and would like them to welcome back the man that has earned their love and respect. I hope that you all regard November 4, 2008 in the same respect that I do, realizing that change begins with one, and that you too can do it. So today, November 5, 2008 please remember; Carpe Diem, I know I will.

My $19.11 on the Debates

My line brother, Myron, has a quote that he has incorporated after reading somewhere the "statistical" reason as to why African-American tend to do traditionally poorer than other ethnicities on standardized tests; "You know why black people don't do well on standardized tests...because they don't answer the question asked!" A statement that I'm sure the Spring '04 initiates of my chapter grew tired of hearing during MOIP, but statement that nonetheless applies to everyone, ESPECIALLY politicians.

After watching the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates, I have become more and more adamant about the state of American Education and Politics. Maybe I was simply fortunate enough to have parents who actually gave a damn and read to me, or made me read to them when I was able, or maybe because I was a product of the 35th best public school in the nation (as of Newsweek's 2007 rankings), but I didn't know that a response that has no relevance to the question posed could ever be satisfactorily received. Had I known that, I would have focused the rants that are the subject of my blog postings to answers on tests since I was old enough to express my own thoughts. But that scares me. I've seen an election stolen the first time I was old enough to vote for a President, and I fail to believe that this country has progressed enough to allow its Commander-in-Chief to be an African-American even if he is half-white.

I was inspired by Obama's nomination acceptance speech, it made me cry, but common sense is starting to kick in make me question the true motives of the Republican Party, because it really can't be that simple. When your #1 and #2 hopefuls constantly dodge the issues presented, read from index cards, give "shout-outs," and sympathetically appeal to this country's infatuation with the Kennedy's, I fail to see how any opposing party with a brain could lose, hell even Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. could win this election (SHAKE AND BAKE '08, lol). I'm still struggling to see how the energy crisis even remotely relates to the mess on Wall Street, how Joe "Six Pack" and a "Hockey Mom" are the average Americans, and how the hell we are fighting a war against terror/Al Queida in Iraq when both sides admit that Al Queida is in Afghanistan. But that's what Sarah Palin wants us to believe. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin's constant priase of Gen. Patreus (sp?) makes me think that he should have received the Republican nomination because he is clearly the "real hero" here. I kinda wish that our country, or the world for that matter, was still in the days when armies were lead by a Commander who was unafraid to be on the field of battle with his/her troops, and then we'll see how fond we are of senseless wars.

I guess my main issue with the Republican Party can be answered by phrasing a response to the question "are you serious?" Sen. McCain, do you really think the American people are that stupid that you can coach a decent looking former beauty queen who is probably experiencing her 5th or 6th time in the continental United States in to being Vice-President. Or is this an obvious attempt to woo away Hillary Clinton supporters? (I feel that an Obama/Clinton ticket would have easily won, but Hillary was just too damn greedy and desparate to allow that to happen.) That is why I was unimpressed by the debates, I expected more of a fight, and now do not know what the '08 Election will bring. Like Lauryn Hill said, "it could all be so simple, but you'd rather make it hard." Just throw in the towel and save the embarrassment, hey, we'll accept the offer to concede. The fact that they won't worries me that we may experience another stolen election. So I'll say this, if I'm not Singing "My President is Black" in January 2009, I'm moving to Europe, and I'll return when Sallie Mae goes under...