January 20, 2009. To you, this may be just another day in a new year but it was more than that. This was the day that history was made in America. The day that this country first African-American president, Barack Hussein Obama, was sworn into office. What a joyous and emotional day for many of us.
As I sat watching the inauguration ceremonies, I found myself on this emotional rollercoaster of joy, despair, relief and pain. I couldn't help but to think about our country's racial past.. I thought about the savagery of the slave trade, the sometimes fruitless endeavors of those who resisted and those who opposed this institution.
I thought of the internal conflict that arose from that "business"; a conflict which eventually evolved into this country's first and only civil war. Images of the struggles we endured after emancipation, flowed through my head. I relived the many moments of research I had done on the oppression of the newly-freed citizens of America. Images of lynchings, beatings and intimidation wisked by like so many images on a rolodex.
The images on the television, brought me back to the moment at hand. Our new president "going through the motions" of inauguration. It happened. An African-American has finally been elected president of the most powerful country in the world. We were proud. The world was proud. Picture after picture, video after video showed people from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, celebrating "America's accomplishment." The eyes of the world were truly set upon our nation.
I sat there, thinking of a million things at one time but what stuck in my mind was the fact that a small faction of the country had serious objections to what had happened and what they now viewed on television; some maybe not be viewing it at all. Yes, this was a joyous moment but those that opposed this would eventually make themselves known.
I thought of the internal conflict that arose from that "business"; a conflict which eventually evolved into this country's first and only civil war. Images of the struggles we endured after emancipation, flowed through my head. I relived the many moments of research I had done on the oppression of the newly-freed citizens of America. Images of lynchings, beatings and intimidation wisked by like so many images on a rolodex.
The images on the television, brought me back to the moment at hand. Our new president "going through the motions" of inauguration. It happened. An African-American has finally been elected president of the most powerful country in the world. We were proud. The world was proud. Picture after picture, video after video showed people from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, celebrating "America's accomplishment." The eyes of the world were truly set upon our nation.
I sat there, thinking of a million things at one time but what stuck in my mind was the fact that a small faction of the country had serious objections to what had happened and what they now viewed on television; some maybe not be viewing it at all. Yes, this was a joyous moment but those that opposed this would eventually make themselves known.
Racism wears many suits. It's wardrobe is infinite. From the judge's robe, to the senator's and congressman's attire, to the nurses and policeman's uniform and the farmers overalls. The identity is limitless but the belief lies undisturbed, until "provoked." I watched this inauguration ceremony and I watched the disturbing images that still flew through my mind.
The issues confronting the new president were many but the main one was predictable from the start. The reemergence of racism. I watched this as it slowly evolved into what it is now. It began with subliminal messages of "incompetence" on and evolved into what we have now; a divided nation and an almost unexplainable and ignorant situation of noncooperation.
Fox News was instrumental in developing and "releasing" the mind set of the "closet racist" and they've accomplished much by doing so. I once read that if you repeat something over and over, people who once didn't believe it, would eventually start to believe. They were geniuses in doing this and what emergered from those actions, is the Tea Party. Now as I look around me at what has become of this nation, I'm not surprised that the mind set of the Tea Party has spread to others to the point where nothing else matters but the opposition of whatever President Obama stands for and wants to do. Not even the safety and prosperity of the nation matters.
How far and how bad this gets, no one knows but I truly believe that it won't get any better than it is.
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