Keep Running

...The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all...


It's time to have faith.

Not because Barack Obama is a savior or a messiah or even a great man; every day it becomes abundantly clear that he may not be any of those things, especially not the first two.

No, it is Obama's blatant humanity that should be causing us to search for faith. Some of you may not believe in God, but that doesn't stop you from having faith. The Bible says that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I think there is room in that definition for atheists and agnostics.

The Ambush has made folks angry, and that anger is justified. But, I've always been a believer in the idea that anger is typically the byproduct of either fear or surprise. And, while I'm sure some black folks were surprised at what happened on Wednesday, I think most of us were afraid.

It's hard for most black people to watch one of our own suffer. We feel those hurts, we wince at that pain. I know that while watching Obama deal with the attacks of Clinton and the two moderators my strongest reaction was sadness. I was sad to see a brother go through what has now become a familiar experience for any black person seeking true power in this country, and I was afraid of the larger implications for all black folks. If Obama fails because of the same old tactics by the same old people, I am afraid of what it would do to the psyche of my people.

But, my fear didn't cause me to pull away from Obama, to be become disillusioned at this whole election process. Instead, it drew me closer to a brother who I suddenly realized I have very little in common with. True, we're both educated, eloquent and handsome (I had to throw a joke in their somewhere), but this brother has qualities I will never possess.

He may not be a saint, but he is an incredibly patient and principled man. I could not have tolerated the snide comments and obvious insults he has perservered through. Maybe some see that as a weakness in his character, but I do not. His path is not my path, but his path is deserving of respect because it is the path I believe was truly forged by his life experiences.

I write this because I see a few folks losing hope, becoming discouraged. I see us losing faith in Obama's ability to win the general election if he manages to secure this nomination. We have become convinced that the fight is not longer worth it, that this country is too rotten to every truly change it's ways.

I have come to reject that logic in many ways.

My faith in God will not allow me to believe that this is the best we can expect, even on this flawed planet called Earth. While there is a reward awaiting many of us in the afterlife, there has to be a reward here on Earth as well.

This is the same reward the stalwarts of the abolitionist movement sought. Ida B. Wells risked life and limb for that reward, and DuBois faced many humilations to secure it. The possibility of that reward strenghtened those men and women who sang and marched for miles in the face of virulent racism just asking to be treated as equals. I need that reward, or at least I need to believe in the possibility of that reward.

Obama is no shining hero, no magical knight here to save us all from our petty differences. He is only one man trying to do his best to achieve the goals he has set for his life. Those goals have led him to seek the highest office in this country, and while his motives may not be pure, he still deserves respect for pursuing that dream despite all the people who have rushed to tell him it was impossible.

These were people he surely respected and loved, but who could not understand his ambition. He ignored these people and remained focused on a future that he truly believes is possible.

We need to borrow that focus, borrow that faith.




(See, Barack's already moving forward)