21st January 2008

To: Vote Barack Obama, 44th President the USA

The Hope and Dream of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America and when this most significant event comes to pass in our contemporary history I want us to be an integral part of this amazing American story.

I want us to be able to tell our descendants that we played a vital role, with our support and votes, in realizing this major step in our collective sojourn of progress. In time to come when they may do some school assignment or write some college term paper on the 44th President of the United States, I want us to have no regrets in the position we took in relation to Barack’s run for the Presidency.

Barack, a name that means “one who is blessed” is indeed blessed because he is fortunate enough to be called to high office to serve the people…his people…all the people of America. He must also lead and in leading he must also reach out to the world and seek to bring about a more equitable global reality, as any good American President should.

In this momentous year of 2008, forty years after Martin Luther King's assignation in a deeply divided nation, we have the opportunity to participate in Barack Obama's ascendancy to the Presidency. Scripture tell us that the children if Israel wondered in the wilderness for forty years before getting to the Promise Land. It is important to note that they did indeed get to enter into the Promise Land. In the same way, African Americans have not had a globally renowned transformational leader of the ilk of MLK for the last forty years. But we have such a leader now; forty years on we have a new leader with the spirit and moral character of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the Spiritual Moses of his generation. We now have a Spiritual Joshua in the person of Barack Obama and my sisters and brothers it is time for us to enter into the Promise Land.

Martin Luther King, Jr. went to the mountaintop and he saw the Promise Land and he told us that he might not get there with us, but that we as a people would get there. We see Martin stood on the mountaintop beholding the Promise Land and having his prophetic dream. It reasonable to imagine that among the many progressive visions he saw in his dream, he would have seen a Black President in the White House...A Black Commander in Chief, forty years on, leading the Nation in the direction of his beautiful vision.

We are a people often labelled as being 'always late', let us smash that negative stereotype as we remember Dr King's words: We are now faced with the face that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late.

Tracy Chapman, another amazing African American echoed this sentiment in her song If Not Now, her delicately strong voice urging us:

If not now then when; if not today then why make your promises
A love declared for days to come is as good as none

You can wait 'til morning comes
You can wait for the new day
You can wait and lose this heart
You can wait and soon be sorry

Now love's the only thing that's free
We must take it where it's found
Pretty soon it may be costly


If not now what then
We all must live our lives
Always feeling
Always thinking
The moment has arrived

(Tracy's words here have an even greater impact when you listen to the actual song.)

My brothers and sisters we have a responsibility to play our role in making Martin Luther King's dream become a reality; we have the opportunity to live this wonderful dream. The time has come...the time is now…let us embrace this moment...let us support our brother Barack Obama and give him a helping hand up in taking his position in history as we take our own respective places in securing our great legacy.

One Love & God's Blessings,
David Neita