I told you change is loud. Loud like the sound of locomotives coming right at you. The up close sound of a buzz saw. It has so many voices. Time to pick one. To listen to.
Life every voice and sing
Lately I've been tuning in. Listening. There is an enormous amount of energy. It is all change. Change played in a lot of different keys.
Til earth and heaven ring
There is no dissonance in change that is welcome. It is hard sometimes in a culture where control is considered both necessary and a measure of one's ability to hold power, to embrace change. If holding power is how you sing in the key of life, then these might seem to be dark times. Yours is the voice of fear. I will have no part of you.
So much wonder at how racist a country, America. The idea of everyone being equal ain't working for some folks the way it used to. You know, when it wasn't as true as it seems to be lately. Back in the days of 2008 B.O. Before Obama. It is the New American Era. We are in it.
See, the folks calling themselves Teabaggers, Birthers or whatevah figured out that they are not in control anymore. Things have gotten real bad for white folks in America when a man born of Africa and America beats a white war hero and an Annie Oakley wannabe. Iconic and uniquely American symbols.
We were fed the strong silent type. This was for a long time the only reason many confused silence with strength and failed to notice it can also be an indication of stupidity. I looked in my mind for a different way of saying that, but the others I came up with were not truly what I meant. I meant stupid.
Stupid people ran stuff for a long, long time. Long enough to run it to the ground.
Ring with the harmonies of liberty.
In November of 2008 America found a different voice. You know, the America of brown and black people having the vote and using it. We had help for sure but it was our voices that spoke loudest and with much unison. Fact is, the majority of white Americans did indeed vote for Dumb and Dumber. Big props for those of us who ushered in the New Era in American politics.
The voices of those who spoke of a new era in America spoke about hope. Hope is the thing that binds together all oppressed people. We have spent centuries waiting for a different time. Black folk and Brown folk and Native folk survived for long periods sustained by the belief in change. A heart thing. It is for me. A heart thing.
Let our rejoicings rise high as the listening skies
It has always been at the darkest times, the times that leave a mark on your soul that we find a reason to hold out for a better day. It is a mighty love. This love of life. Black folk ought to be the biggest sellers of positive thinking in the world. We've spent so many generations moving inch by inch believing we could one day get there. Where ever 'there' is. We sing songs about it.
We may sing the blues, hell we might even for a time, live the blues. Even so we do love our happy songs. That's what gets us through the blues.
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
The funny thing is, when I am out in the world and talking to other black folks, I have yet to run up on those folk who are black and mad at our Preident. Quite the contrary. I wish I had a nickel for every time I met someone and said 'Howya doin'?' and heard 'Still broke but I got me a black President'.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Whereas it seems to surprise quite a few whites, the behaviors of the haters are no surprise to black folk. At all. They never went away. We worked with them in corporate America. Ignored the snide remarks that a fairly commonplace all across America. No one I know thought for a nanosecond that we had entered a post racial America.
They just came out of hiding. Not measurably worse for black folk just not as invisible to those who would be our allies. I am glad that they have made themselves visible. Maybe now they can go away.
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Hope has created a real problem for some folk. It scares them. That is why they mock it.
We are the people who gave blues a voice, turned hormones into rhythm and blues, heart sounds into jazz, and funk into a beat you could dance to. We are the same people who found a way to turn urban poets into millionaires, spawned the voices of the Harlem Renaissance and asked us to Do the Right Thing in film. Of course we have a song for hope. Have had it for a long time.
Facing the rising sun of a new day begun
See I know the lyrics of Signed, Sealed, Delivered. I heard Mr. Obama. Every black person I know heard him. Sure there were haters. Still are. Doesn't matter. I am thrilled to have lived to see something my ancestors never even dreamed of. No amount of political bickering changes that for me.
I would love it if my President would back away from the I don't believe in Gay Marriage position. I am holding in my heart that one day he will sign a Federal Marriage Act recognizing all marriages into law. I am certain he would not hesitate to do so. Might be a need for more activism not only on the part of gays and lesbians but all who believe in equal rights. Congress makes law. I'll be glad when we focus our attention on getting the right folk in Congress and less on what we don't like about Mr. Obama. As if the alternative would have made anyone happy.
For me and the black folk I know Mr. Obama is a symbol of possibility. I am not having a quarrel with a man whose life and the shit he deals with I understand.
I am not singing the blues these days. I am singing the words of James Weldon Johnson. It is the song of Hope. It's own self.
Let us march on til victory is won.
Now run and tell that.
SistahSpeaks the News with Amazinggrace SistahSpeak News Editor
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