Category: take action

Today will be an historic day. Last night the Democratic Party officially nominated Barack Obama as their party’s presidential nominee. Tonight, he will accept the nomination with a speech in Denver — exactly 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Today will be a great day in American history – and yet a sad day as well. Just this week, men were arrested in Colorado for plotting an assassination attempt on Obama – simply because he’s black.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

A VP in our office just walked through excited about Obama’s nomination but also noted, “looks like its going to come down to black vs white (in November).”

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” – the American Declaration of Independence

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

And whatever happens in November will already be historic. The downside though is that no matter what — we still have a long way to go.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“America has given the negro a bad check. A check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'” – Martin Luther King Jr.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

And this goes beyond just white and black. It goes for red and yellow, black and white. For all are precious in His sight.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“I remember reading the stories of white Christians telling King to be patient. Black Christians were told over and over again, black and white alike, to wait for God’s kingdom in the arena of racial justice. The right to vote was not the end. It was seen as a means to participate in democracy, to work alongside fellow citizens to aide our society to fulfill its own sense of calling.

I live with a tragic history that remembers the failure of churches to be more determined by color than baptism. A reality we still wrestle with today. But a part of that tragic history is how fellow Christians, on this continent, refused to let people of color in on the conversation called America. What they didn’t know was that we already had our own conversation, and we wanted them in on it. Even though we had our own conversation going since the beginning of sojourn, we still wanted to join in as fellow citizens and broaden the conversation. We wanted to bring out gifts to the table. We wanted equity along racial lines. A piece to the puzzle to achieving such equity was the practice of voting.” – Anthony Smith (aka Postmodern Negro)

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.