Congratulations, President Barack Hussein Obama
Our elders have looked for you in the faces of our Little Ones down thru the Generations
“Are You the One? Are You the One?”
And now - here you are – by way of Kenya and Kansas.
You make us proud, and we hope you are proud to be one of us.
We have held tight to our hopes and tears as we hid away our dreams;
scattered, decimated and dried to Raisins – yet, still we waited with shaded expectancy - for your arrival.
We understand that you alone cannot be our Greatest Hope. It does take a village, we know. But on this, Your Special Day, you touched our sacred spot – reserved for heroes and sheroes - as you honored our oft forgotten treasures, from the Tuskegee Airmen to Muhammad Ali, at the forefront welcome seats!
My God, it gave us a Blanket Pardon Day: allowed us to release forgiveness and forgetfulness for unrighted wrongs: from near-genocide of the Middle Passage to the current brutalities inflicted onto us by others and by our own. That’s the specialty of Blanket Pardon Days: we forgive others and ourselves. The weight lifted is almost unmeasureable. Our smiles rival those of our brother hero: ALS patient, Astro-physical genius Stephen Hawking as he experienced NASA weightlessness that freed his body from the ravages of disease. On this day, we too believe we can fly!
Thank you for your courage and insight. Thank you for your intelligence and willingness to share your love of family, duty and country.
Your Family – by way of Africa and America
