Mandate From Heaven

Greatness beckons us.

You and I.

It strode across a massive stage on a cold Chicago night. It wasn't just embodied in the skinny, black man in the dark suit, but also evident in the smiling face of his adoring wife and beautiful children.

Greatness.

In ancient Chinese culture, the emperor was seen as a deity in human form. His reign was considered the will of the gods and he was granted the "mandate from heaven." He reigned supreme over all.

We do not consider our political leaders to be gods in America. Too often in our history we have seen just how human and fallible politicians can be. But, Tuesday night, we saw a man receive the modern day equivalent of a mandate of heaven.

Not because of the size of his victory. That was only a minor issue. No, even if Obama had won by one vote his victory would still be a mandate.

See, the people of these Divided States of America have elected their eternal bogeyman to be the symbol that represents us before the world. A country that once hung black men from trees for smiling at white women, now has a president who is the product of miscegenation.

That is greatness.

I have been a reluctant American. There is no other way to put. Through an accident of birth I was granted the privilege of growing up in this country. Many times I have scoffed at that right, I have minimized the importance of that privilege.

Not now.

I listened to a man speak words of power, of hope, of idealism that touched a core within me that I often forget exists. It's a core I've protected, that I've hidden, that I have purposely forgotten. It was something that could have only happened in this country.

He touched my personal greatness.

I'm sure he touched many of you in the same way. As I saw tears stream down the faces of people in that enormous crowd in Chicago I was certain that others had been touched.

President Barack Obama, (Good God that felt good), makes you want to be a better person. He makes you want to believe in those myths that you were taught in civics class and American History. President Obama gives you hope.

It is not a hope built on lies or deception. It's a hope built on the cold hard fact that each and every human being has the potential to be more than just mediocre. We are not bound by our most base impulses, nor are we beholden to the evil that so often invades our minds. We can be more, we can do more, we have more inside of us.

We all have greatness.

We all have a mandate from heaven.

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I Baracked that Bitch

Man, I finally got my class schedule and validation sticker.

Oops, my bad. Based on the lines I stood in this morning I thought I was back at Howard University trying to get registered at the "A" building and the Banneker building. Guess I was a little confused.

Do y'all know I stood in line for more than three hours? Seriously, I thought I had mistakenly gotten into a line for food stamps or disaster assistance. When I got to the polling place at 6:20 a.m., the line was wrapped around the corner and cars lined the streets. Inside the actual building, it was complete chaos with lines all over the place and nobody exactly sure where to go.

Like many of my fellow voters, I was more than a little pissed that the election folks hadn't planned for a big turnout. The whole operation was just lacking. I could have planned things better than that with only two hours notice, let alone two years.

But, this isn't a post for complaints. It's a post for being happy about finally getting a chance to cast that vote that many of us have wanted to cast our whole lives. Now some of y'all might be saying that you never dreamed of voting for a black president. That's a lie. Even if you didn't realize that you wanted to vote for a black dude, it was in your heart. Deep in the dark recesses of our collective hearts, all black people were waiting for this moment.

And it finally came.

Now, I would have preferred if the moment came with a 30 minute wait and free donuts, but I'll take what I can get. In fact, standing in line offered me a lot of time to people watch and come up with material for the blog.

The diversity of black people voting today was just amazing. You had your old people who couldn't really manage the long lines so they copped themselves a seat near the front and told you to hold their place. Then you had your folks in their 40s and 50s who were complaining about all the old ladies working as commissioners who could barely see. Also, lots of fine women vote. Lots of fine women indeed.

There also was quite a smattering of the "WTF" vote. Those are the people who look like voting is typically the last thing on their minds at 6:30 in the morning. Neck tats, sagging pants, back tats, forearm tats, head wraps and rollers; these were all in fairly high rotation at my polling location. I know that as a black person I should be more sensitive about stereotyping, but I must admit that I spent a lot of time wondering "Is this y'all's first time voting?"

And y'all know all these black folks were voting for Obama, right? First of all, I only saw like two or three white people in line the whole time I was there. And the only time I heard John McCain's name was when folks were wondering what his old ass was thinking when he tapped Sarah Palin as his running mate. It was like a big family reunion complete with the cousins nobody really knows and the one crazy uncle who entertains everybody with his funny stories.

Plus, waiting in line allowed me to develop some voting slang for those of y'all still waiting to cast your votes:

1. Line envy: This is the feeling you get when the line for your precinct is so long that it wraps around the gym six times, but the line for other folks is only 10 people deep. This feeling will cause you to wonder why you chose to live in such a heavily populated community when you could have easily moved into a neighborhood that had been hit harder by Hurricane Katrina and hadn't rebounded.

2. Voter remorse: Have you ever waited in line outside a polling place, waited in line inside a polling place, finally voted and then gone outside to find all the lines gone? I have and I now have voter's remorse. This feeling involved wishing you hadn't tried to beat the crowds by getting to your polling place early and instead had come during the middle of the day when everybody with a job was guaranteed to be at work. Yep, voter's remorse.

3. Line truth: Line truth is a collection of the random election rumors that you normally would ignore, but that sound plausible when you've been on your feet in a hot ass gym for two hours. You know, rumors that the reason why there aren't more voting machines is because "they" want us to all get upset, starting fighting and riot. Or the "truth" that John McCain actually wanted to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate, and settled on Palin because she was just too fine to ignore. Finally, my favorite line truth was that Obama was running neck and neck with McCain in Louisiana and all it would take was a big turnout by black folks to push him over the top. I knew it was a lie, but it was a good lie.

Anyway, I hope those of y'all who voted today had enjoyable and memorable experiences.

And if you haven't voted yet, you better take your dumbass to the polls.


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I'm Probably in Line

If you're reading this before 11 a.m. Central time I'm probably still in line waiting to vote.

I plan on getting to my polling locations early, but judging by the lines during early voting, I'm in for a long wait. So, y'all pray for clear skies and warm weather.

I am so happy this day is finally here.

I'll holla at y'all later with some more in-depth thoughts.



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Holding Pattern

Sorry about the late post.

I was sick at the end of last week and didn't get time to blog.

Anyway, right now, like many of you, I'm sitting tight and hoping that after two years of waiting, we will finally make history on Tuesday. I can't think of too much to say right now because I've really been avoiding political coverage the past few days.

I'm tired of listening to these political analysts, pundits and reporters. I know what all of them think and I've decided they don't have any real information to offer me about who is going to vote for which candidate.

So, I'm chilling.

It's made my wife and father a little mad since both of them are still heavily invested in the campaign. They can't understand why I refuse to watch the shows I used to love watching. (Of course, it doesn't help that the NBA season has started and I also recently copped NBA 2K9 for my PS3. My priorities are definitely in order now.)

Honestly, I don't have any words of wisdom to offer y'all today. I might write a blog later this week about the recent push to change the campaign finance rules now that Obama has shattered all fundraising records, but that can wait. I'll definitely talk about my experience waiting in line tomorrow morning to vote. So, y'all have a good day and stay calm.


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