Yes We Can

Si, Se Puede!

Happy Black History Month everyone! And in the spirit of we who have historically and consistently made a way out of no way, let us take a moment to think on the fact that this year we have our first viable African American presidential candidate. Sen. Obama's candidacy allows even the most cynical of us to believe in the promise of our country - that all (wo)men are created equal. When Carter G. Woodson launched what became Black History Month - Negro History Week back in 1926 could he have foreseen that 78 years later we would have a real opportunity to vote a black man into the White House? Could Fredrick Douglass have known when he was the first black man to campaign for the presidency that he was blazing the trail for a Senator from Illinois to come behind him? Could our ancestors who toiled on the cotton fields of the American South have known that one day another person of African decent would run to lead the nation that made it legal to hold them as chattel propety?

I believe that Barack Obama's candidacy is part of the dream of those who have come before - Ida B., Fannie Lou, Medgar, Bayard and the countless foot soldiers lost in the annals of history.

Obama understands in the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, "the fierce urgency of now". And on Super Tuesday and Beyond lets let the old guard know that our day is today and that yes, indeed, we can.