Obama: A Reason to Hope, A Reason to Try

Although I don't think that President Obama will solve all the problems in the world, I believe that his message today that we all must work stays with me. The successes and maladies of this world should not rest on one person's shoulders. Obama and his administration will give many of us who work for justice and equality and opportunity for change.

Today, I watched the inauguration with an auditorium filled with members of a grassroots group called Community Coalition in addition to junior and high school students from Foshay Learning Center in South L.A. It was inspiring to be in a room full of mostly young people who were so emotional and hopeful and ready to WORK for our new reality. It makes me hopeful for all our futures especially the family that Eugene and I will be starting soon.

Since we just celebrate MLK, I looked back at his famous speech "I've been to the Mountaintop" which he made after standing with AFSCME sanitation workers who proclaimed "I am a Man" in 1968.

The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a
strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough,
can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth
century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding — something
is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever
they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa;
Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson,
Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same — "We want
to be free."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been
forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that
men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn't
force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years
now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just
talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this
world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence.

For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing
to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

This is an exciting year to celebrate love, hope and struggle.