Barak Hussein Obama as the President of the US

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With Barak Hussein Obama having taken oath to the office of the President of the oldest and the most powerful democracy, the United States of America, we see the fulfillment of the dream of one of its great civil rights advocates, Martin Luther King Jr.,

I have a dream…

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

Here is something I was able to glean from an Afro-American who narrates the kind of life and struggles he had to go through that nation:

“I am a 69 years old African/Native American raised in Mississippi, a product of segregation. I thank God for my mother who taught me to love everybody. Her job was washing and ironing for “white” people, who delivered their clothes to the house and they were nice people.

I remember when Emmet Till was killed and when Dr. King began the campaign for justice, at the time I was 16. It changed the course of my life, you see I had planned to go to Meharry Medical School, in Nashville, but my mother knew I’d be a part of this campaign for justice and being so young and away from home, she feared for my life. So I was sent “up north” to stay with my aunt. I said all this to say, my mom was right, because when Dr. King came to Detroit, I marched with him and I was also in Washington DC when he made this speech.

My friend and I shed tears on Monday the 19th remembering because she lived in Memphis and was there when Dr. King was killed. The Dream is fulfilling, as I watch TV and see blacks and whites and children enjoying each others’ company on the Mall in Washington waiting for the Inauguration of President Elect Obama who is a man that has shown remarkable character, the words of the song come to mind,

“We shall overcome;
We will walk hand in hand;
We shall live in peace;
We are not afraid,
God will see us through,
Oh deep in my heart,
I do believe, we shall overcome some day–Someday is TODAY!

God bless us one and all for we are Americans.”

The above gives us a picture of the kind of racial prejudices prevalent in the USA until a few years ago. President Obama has ascended to the Presidency overcoming such discriminations and prejudices.

I wish and pray that President Obama, as the first Afro-American President, would be able to walk the talk and re-write the history of that nation and that the US would continue to be a strong nation that stnad for the values its founding fathers once cherished. God bless us. [Ben]
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