You have to admit that even if you don’t believe all the hype about the coming year 2012–Armageddon, the apocalypse, global warming shifting earth’s axis, a giant asteroid crashing into the planet, a massive spiritual awakening that transforms humankind, or my personal prediction, absolute proof of life from intelligent planets visiting Earth–even if you don’t believe them, you have to admit that the last four years leading up to the infamous date have been–to say the least– miraculous!
It all started, of course, with the monumentally pivotal election of the first African-American to the highest office in the country, in the world for that matter, the President of The United States. Before my Mother passed away that same year in 2008, she, my sisters and brother and I watched the polls bringing in the news at her home. My Mom was transfixed by what was taking place and remarked with her eyes glistening, “I can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime! I got the chance to see the first Black man elected to be the President of the United States!”
My Mom was dying from cancer and was in a lot of pain that day but she sat up with her children to watch the electoral returns into the wee hours of the morning while we listened to Harlem revelers in the streets below blowing party horns, honking car horns and shouting out windows, “O-BA-MA!, O-BA-MA!, O-BA-MA!”. I cried at the thought that she was given the oppurtunity to be a witness to this and I cried for myself and the rest of the world on that phenomenal night. And the one thing that I attributed greatly to the magic of that night was all wrapped up in a word… CHANGE.
On its own ‘change’ could be overlooked because of its subtle, constant running in the background of all our lives. But the idea of ‘change’, imprinted on the minds of millions and millions of people day in and day out can and does produce a corporeal reality; the frustration felt while pumping overpriced gas into our cars, the fear over whether our jobs are secure, the anger while shopping in the supermarket when discovering that the price of milk has doubled in the past two months, the stress felt over ballooning mortgage payments on our dream homes, the worry over whether there’ll be enough money for our kid’s college tuition, thinking every night while we watch the news, what will it take for there to be real peace in the world. All this has us asking “Is there anyone out there who can change the way things are?”
“You see, the challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night. It will not be resolved on even a Super Duper Tuesday.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.”
– President Barack Obama.
Is there anyone out there? Yes–you are. WE ARE THE CHANGE THAT WE SEEK!
