The Dream

A year ago today if I could have told myself where I would be it might not have been here. One year ago, I was sitting in an office half sleep anticipating polls opening to make something truly special happen. I remember handing out pamphlets, doing call banking, and knocking on doors. Eating cold pizzas and mapping out territory yet to be flooded with information about a small time Congressman from Chicago who would one day become the First African American to be President of the United States of America.

I remember how nervous I was for a victory that I knew would be shared around the world. In such a dire period in our nation's history we decided to stand on the promise of a brighter tomorrow on the merit not of the individual's skin color, but the worth of his moral foundation. And while many people still doubted I sat in my apartment and spirited defended my candidate from the time we went to the DNC in 2007. I never even thought it possible, but here we are a year later. I have ascertained my college degree and a significant amount of life experience that I have not yet been able to transition into substantial employment.

It has been a roller coaster of emotion for me as I watch one dream get up each day and try to decide what's best for our country to the best of his ability. And though there are many people that still have their issues and their own doubts to deal with, here I am a year later. And I still believe. I still think that a man who grew up looking just like me, dealing with the same burdens of being an urban youth, an educated man, a calloused intellect, an explosive activist, and an unabashed optimist. This man who has already touched the lives of so many just with his victory is still fighting to remain true to promises made to all those stood with him.

I know not how the public satisfaction rate affects him each week. Furthermore, I haven't the slightest idea of how much of a burden he must bare each day. But if I had to quantify I would say, Barry has to confer upon a few hundred million people in one tiny country everytime his alarm clock goes off in the morning. I still remember the 3am ad that ran saying that we shouldn't trust this man to answer that red phone, and here we are a mere 365 days later and he's racking up a buttload of long distance on that thing and here some people are tryna talk about all the wrong numbers he seems to be dialing. I am sorry America. Actually, let me rephrase that. I am sorry naysayers, but I still believe he is the best man for that job. Lord knows if it was me sitting in that elliptical casing of bureaucracy every day and night I would have been told the military to just drop devastate some places and we'll clean up the mess later. And Lord knows some of yall might have done the same thing.

I just think we should consider the amount of pressure one might be under every moment there doing what he is doing. The fact that you literally don't get a day off. And while you have a pretty good healthcare plan, if you ever did get sick and try to take a day off the media would probably say that you were the target of a bio warfare attack that your administration is trying to cover up. Okay, I know some of you are just bored with my rhetoric about the Negro President, but I just wanted to say that it's okay to still believe. It's okay to still hold on to that Hope that his election was suppose to represent. And though there may be many things happening right now, you can't let those things distract you from what your heart begs for to endow it with the Strength to beat as one with those whose epithelial layer may differ from our own.

While I'm not saying that this man is God, or that every choice he has made over the past year have been perfect, it has been what he thought would help make the world a better place. And it's definitely, if nothing else changing the perception other countries have of the United States. It certainly made it a little bit easier to discuss some of the tougher issues of our society that would have otherwise been swept under the rug. No man can do everything exactly as the general public would have him to.

And no president can do everything that makes everyone of his supporters rally around, because these were the same people who couldn't stand together before he was the head of the whole operation. Racism isn't just going to go away because a colored man is the Boss of the Executive Branch of a government not designed in his favor. Homophobia is not going to evaporate just because one homo and tranny ruffled a few feathers in the governor's mansion. And no, Iraq is suddenly going to forgive us for blowing up half their country b/c they have a little bit of surplus money. These things take time.

But we already knew that.

And we already had established that too. It's time we put aside the petty differences that splinter us from the truth and choose to stand on a foundation that we can all be brethren in this newly United States. Barack can't do it alone. He's a mere mortal. It's when two and three gather in His Name that great things can truly happen. Learning to recognize your brother and recognize your sister beyond what the physical sees, is when we reach a level that is truly Divine. Let's start dreaming with our eyes closed.