Thanksgiving

Does this not bust open your heart?

A lot of what I post on this blog references other sites and other writers. I'm trying to bring a wide range of commentary and opinion and reporting to this site and to my legions of followers. I've spent the last two years digging up various points of view and thought it might be useful to call upon them as we look at how Obama makes the transition from long shot candidate to President. But today I'm just going to post up some thoughts of my own on this "defining moment" in our history.

First I never thought that Obama could be elected. I think this had less to do with the fact that he's black, (you've heard about this right?) but that he was smart and thoughtful - actually, super-smart and thoughtful. And that he went to all the right schools and was an extremely well spoken, articulate politician. We just don't seem to elect people like that to the Presidency. Or, it might be that people who are like that don't seek the Presidency because they are, well, so damn smart. Why would they do it? They know too much. Then of course there is the issue that super smart, thoughtful people don't know how to throw hard elbows which is mandatory for a successful national campaign. But! This super smart, thoughtful presidential candidate plays basketball - AND he's from Chicago. So if anyone knows how to throw an elbow it's going to be him.And throw them he did.

I used to live in a place - Baltimore - that had more than its share of the black underclass. I can't help but wonder what it feels like in that community to see a guy like Barack Obama as the President. The black underclass in America hasn't had a piece of good news in a long, long time. Not only that but the so called Black Leaders - the Jesse Jackson's and Al Sharpton's of the world were almost worse than useless. They were excuse makers -- cynical manipulators who were more interested in themselves than in telling the truth.

And the truth was (and is) that any chance that the black underclass has in America is not going to come out of articulating long-held grievances and government programs. It's not going to happen by telling people what's wrong or what has been wrong or who fucked things up.

My own two cents is that the black underclass has to see what is possible and to see themselves inside that possibility. Which is true for anyone of us. And so now they HAVE seen. They have seen that any fucking thing is possible if a black man in America can be elected President.

It is going to be beyond fascinating to watch this man take power and wield power. I don't care how old you are and how many political seasons you have attended; this is new. There has never been anything like this before. Are you fucking glad to be alive or what?