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Back in 08 My friend Charlamagne wrote this blog and this blog still to this day touches me to my core! So I decided to repost this!

 

The Magic of Barack Obama…..

I have never witnessed history firsthand.  I’ve read about countless historical moments and realized the effects these moments had on my present and will have on my future.  To actually witness and feel the energy of Barack Obama accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination is almost surreal.  Barack Obama, the man and his message are bigger than government, bigger than race, bigger than religion, and bigger than hip hop. What he represents is a New America. The America that MLK talked about when he said he hopes to see a time when a man is judged by the content of his character and not the color of there skin. When I say the color of their skin I don’t mean just black because the majority of the time we as black people tend to judge white people before we even get to know them. We label them as devils and being against us before we see what their true character is. I am past that stage of my life. I don’t see Black, White, Latino, Jewish or Italian. I see good or evil, right or wrong, period. If I was hung up on stereotypes and prejudice I would have missed out on getting to know some of the best people I have ever met in my life! People that have assisted in my growth as a man on this planet.

If we as a people don’t let go of our prejudices and stereotypes we will stunt the growth of the people as well as American politics.  

We all know politricks in America is fucked up and it’s time for change, but what is change? Change is the basis of growth, growth is the basis of life, and if you are not constantly growing and changing then you are dying slow. Is that not America right now? The blood that flows thru America’s veins is money and right now the blood of America is thin and it’s not flowing through America properly causing us all sorts of pain.  When I was watching the DNC the other day with one of my 50 something OGs, he said the economy sure was a lot better when Bill Clinton and the Democrats were in office. I had to do the research and find out for myself and what I learned was while under President Clinton’s leadership, the economy created 23 million new jobs and working-age households saw their incomes rise by $7,500.  

President Clinton’s presence was the total opposite of President Bush’s trickle-down economic philosophy, a philosophy which basically means the rich keep getting richer and the poor hope that some of the crumbs of the wealthy fall down in the slums where they reside. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have an economic plan premised on fostering bottom-up growth like Bill Clinton. They would help get the economy moving again by relieving the burden on families with energy rebates of $1,000 and by saving more than 1 million jobs with $50 billion in immediate measures.  They would foster security and success for America’s families by making sure every family has affordable health insurance, investing in America’s energy independence while creating 5 million green jobs, cutting taxes for small businesses and 95 percent of workers and their families, and by ensuring that Americans have world-class education from pre-school through college. Economic plans like that directly affect the have-nots first and that would make the blood thicker and get it flowing again which would bring life back to America.  

Earlier I said Barack Obama, the man and his message are bigger than government, bigger than race, bigger than religion and bigger than hip-hop. What I meant by that was the inspiration that Barack Obama provides to a whole generation is huge!  A recent study shows that 66% of all African American parents believe that their child can one day be president. I can almost guarantee that statistic was just as high or higher going in the other direction 4 years ago.  That means a new sense of self belief has been instilled in black people. A belief that we can achieve anything we truly put our minds to here in America and that ladies and ghettomen is priceless. Everything positive starts with the belief that you can do it. If your mind can conceive it, you can achieve it.  That is the beauty of the message from Barack Obama.  

I hear the doubters of Barack Obama. Rap group Dead Prez referred to this week’s Democratic National Convention as the “Demon-cratic National Convention” and urged listeners to remember “one man can’t change hundreds of years of corruption.” I agree that one man can’t change hundreds of years of corruption, slavery and segregation.  The truth is no man can.  Its history, it happened, we are all fully aware of it. I love Dead Prez, but sometimes I wonder if they and other members of the black community practice victimology? What would Dead Prez have to rap about if they couldn’t constantly talk about the problems that exist here in America? It’s always easy to bring up problems, but what about solutions? Barack Obama and his message are a solution that can’t hurt us so why try to throw any dirt on his situation. “One man can’t change hundreds of years of corruption,” but I urge my listeners to remember the past but embrace the future.  

Barack Obama is not a Civil Rights activist. He is an American politician who understands the struggles of Americans who don’t have a voice. I think a lot of us want Barack to be Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad or Minister Farrakhan, but he’s not. What I don’t think we understand is politicians like Barack might be more important than the movements these great brothers I mentioned represented.  Do you want to know why? The civil rights movement of 1964 was a turning point in American history for one reason and that reason is because Lyndon B. Johnson overcame southern resistance and convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation. Lyndon was just finishing something that John F. Kennedy started. Do you think they compare Barack to JFK for no reason? Why do you think JFK got shot in the head? He was striving to create a new America, an America where we treated people equally and dealt with people on the content of there character and not the color of there skin.  

If Lyndon B. Johnson hadn’t passed the Civil Rights Act then all that marching and protesting would have been for nothing. Abraham Lincoln was another president in the same vein as Barack Obama.  He established The Emancipation Proclamation.  It was Lincoln’s personal belief that it was morally wrong for any person to own another person as property.  Though the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free all slaves it was a step in the right direction. Just like Barack Obama and the policies he wants too implement are steps in the right direction. I’m no political activist, I’m just a country muthafucker raised on a dirt road in Moncks Corner, SC who knows something special when I see it and I have never seen anything in my lifetime that can be more special and beneficial to America than Barack Obama.  

It’s a damn shame that over 8 million African Americans are not registered to vote because this is the election where we need those votes, not because we have a black candidate running but because we have the right candidate running.  If the Republicans get back in the White House we might not have another opportunity to get it right. The sun shines on a dog’s ass every once in a while and for an American public that has been getting dogged for the past eight years, I think it’s about time we enjoy and extend our moment in the sun.