Have not her weary feet come to the place for which her enslaved ancestors sighed?
--Have not our weary feet come to the place for which our fathers sighed...
--Lift every voice and sing, 'Til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the
harmonies of Liberty...
--Facing the rising sun of our new day begun...
Lines from a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1944) in 1900 commonly known as the Black National Anthem.
Read on below the fold...
Amanda Jones, daughter of former slaves, http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.... alive at 109 years of age, gets to see the wonderful culmination of all the years of struggle, abuse, privation and humiliation of American Blacks sealed beneath the victory of a young black man for President of the United States.
Hear Amanda in a NPR interview: http://www.npr.org/...
Yes, Amanda voted for Barack !
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun...
Acappella - Lift Every Voice
http://www.youtube.com/...
Kim Weston - Lift Every Voice & Sing
http://www.youtube.com/...
Glorious Classic Version: Leontyne Price "Lift Every Voice And Sing" all verses, full text
http://www.youtube.com/...
There is high hope and optimism in this time of deep trial and real threat that Barack Obama will lead the nation on a path of restoration and reconciliation.
Obama Will Be One of the Greatest (and most Loved) American Presidents says Frank Schaeffer, well-known author and former strong advocate for Far Right causes, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right & Lived to Take All ( or almost all) of it Back.
Schaeffer lays it all on the line:
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
Many other thinking members of the wider political community, many conservative, civic leaders, have also endorsed the election of Obama. As former speech writer for both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and a major mover and conservative shaker, Jeffrey Hart, wrote for the National Review for more than three decades, explains his support for and how Obama is more truly historically conservative than G.W. Bush and John McCain. Hart approved the thinking of Barack Obama early on:
...(W)hile he was still a state senator in Illinois, he said: "I know that a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, of undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without international support will fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I'm not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."
Schaeffer amplifies his praise of Obama:
• He is a man who, in an age of greed, took the high road of
community service.
• He develops strong and sincere personal relationships,
"consistently kind and personally humble."
• He puts service ahead of ideology.
• He does what works.
• He has a reservoir of personal physical courage knowing he "is in
great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of
unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant
hatred."
• He is up to the "dozens of crisis" facing our nation, "each big
enough to define any presidency in better times."
• He is "a sober voice of reason in a time of unreason."
• He brings "a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our
politics at the very time our worst enemy is fear."
• He has a quiet "reasoned manner" facing hard choices and real
challenges.
• He brings "moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who
have had to work for everything they’ve gotten and had to do
twice as well as a person standing next to them because of the
color of their skin."
• He is a "brilliant man, with the spirit of preacher and the
humble heart of a kindly family doctor," the kind of man needed
in this our hour of need.
• He is the man who will historically prove word certain: "It’s
good to live in America where anything is possible."
--Complied from Schaeffer posting
@ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Congratulations to Amanda Jones, you have lived to see a dream come true.
Long hoped for: "Your new day has begun!"