Barack Rocks

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Obama comes up huge!

Have you heard Obama's speech yet? The parts of it that I've heard (thanks, mostly, to Randi Rhodes who played much of the speech this afternoon) "Nailed it perfectly!", meaning that he fearlessly and honestly talked with, and to, we the people,his fellow citizens, about race, racism, prejudice, slavery, his former minister and his (Obama's) respect and affection for the man that Reverend Wright is, the ambience found in many churches with a membership that is predominantly black, and so much more.

To me, his words are moving, they are honest, they are heartfelt, and they undeniably radiate the fact that Obama has it within himself to be a truly great leader who is able to unite the people of our country who are so sick and tired of the usual and customary politics of personal destruction and hate.

His speech was insightful, inspiring, hopeful, courageous, and absolutely awesome. He spoke with passion, intensity, integrity, honesty, and wisdom. The parts of it that I got to hear inform, educate, and moved me to tears.

I feel such a longing in my heart for him to be elected by a landslide. If we, as a nation, are smart enough to elect him as our President, we shall be truly blessed. Not only is he a man who is psychologically "congruent", who is "inner-directed", meaning that he is clearly someone who is comfortable in his own skin. He is also uniquely poised to speak to both black and white Americans, for his father is from Kenya and his mother from Kansas. Who else is so uniquely qualified to speak, out loud in the public forum, that which white people may say in private only to other white people and that which black people may say in private only to other black people? As Barack so wisely noted, one biracial (black) Presidential candidate and one campaign season cannot accomplish the "More Perfect Union" envisioned by our Founding Fathers, but his speech today begins the necessary national dialogue about America's "original sin"; a dialogue into which our country must enter if America is ever to truly become color blind.

His speech reflects a man unafraid to truly be himself, who spoke to us and shared with us, in crystal clear words, his understanding that we are, each of us, imperfect and flawed; people who are capable of saying really divisive things and yet who are, nonetheless, still deserving of friendship and love and acceptance within the human family. How many of us can say that we don't have a family member or a close friend who has said out loud things that are racist that have made us cringe, just as Obama shared that his grandmother had done?

His comments about his church, which is a part of the United Church of Christ denomination, made me proud to have grown up in that faith community and to wish that I could find a church up where I am now that would "hum" for me.

I was so moved, hearing him upon turning on Randi's show, that I HAD to call people up and tell them about it! I hope Keith Olbermann plays it in its entirety, and if not, I plan to look for it on the net.

If you haven't heard it, you absolutely must! It is, as Randi said, a speech that will be taught in Universities in the future. And, I'm betting, that he wrote every single word of it. It rings with conviction and truth.

All of you, of course, already know all of this about him! Do hear it in its entirety, if you haven't already.