Yes We Can

Yesterday, I was so excited about the whole election process, and the anticipation of what could happen.That caused me to reflect on the life of husband's 85 year-old grandmother. During Grandma Georgia's lifetime, she's seen a day where black people couldn't vote, where they marched, were jailed, attacked and lynched for the right to vote.

Today, Barak OBama is President Elect, of the United States of America!

I was moved by the sea of people that gathered in Grant Park, in Chicago, as a showing support. There were not just Blacks in attendance, but Whites, Asians and others... people! America identifies with OBama not just because he's black, but that he understands who we are, and has been where situations, counting pennies, making arrangements on bills, and having more month than we have money.

Like many of us, OBama knows someone without health insurance, and is struggling to pay for life sustaining medicine. He understands that “No Child Left Behind,” is leaving our children behind, frustrated, and without hope. Understanding where I’m coming from means much more than him being a black man. I’m not saying it doesn’t matter, because it does.

Listening to OBama's speech Tuesday night, I couldn't stop grinning. His "Yes We Can," rang so deep within me.

He spoke about Ann Nixon-Cooper, and that “…She was there for the busses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher in Atlanta who told the people, ‘We shall overcome.’ Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon. A wall came down in Berlin. A world was connected by our own science and imagination. And, this year, in this election she touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote. Because, after 106 years in America, through the best of times, and the darkest of hours, she knows how American can change. Yes we can…

…While we breath we hope, and where we are met with sinicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up a spirit of a people, Yes we can.”

I couldn't wait to tell my children this morning that Barak OBama had won. On our way to school, I took that opportunity to explain the impact of him becoming the first Black President. Barriers are being broken, and the tides are slowly changing. No, ignorance has not been wiped out over night. But because Rosa Parks sat on a bus, Martin Luther King marched on Washington, and Barak OBama was ELECTED President of the United States of America, November 4, 2008, my child, or any child can become what ever they want. Yes they can!