| Tribute to President Obama |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Right now I imagine King in the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. I observe the
setting of this old church that nurtured King in his youth. I imagine the boy preacher
King exhorting his “. . . sermon” (Baldwin 280). I hear Dr. Martin Luther King’s voice; it
serves to human rights, and it shapes my memory. I merge myself into the baptismal
water of King’s voice.
Of course, the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s suggestion in 1955 that the folk with
“fleecy locks and dark complexions would inject new meaning into the veins of history
and civilization” will be realized when President Elect Barack Hussein Obama is sworn
in on Tuesday January 20, 2009. I envision Dr. King sitting on the stage with President
Elect Obama: The cultural/ religious prophetic visionary nods to the son. I imagine the
tears of prophetic pride and solemn restoration gathering in the corner of Dr. King’s
eyes. I imagine him remembering the enslaved African, the men and women—black and
white-- who walked those 381 days in Montgomery, Alabama. I imagine him
remembering Abraham Lincoln. I imagine him praying for Michelle and the girls, Malia
Ann, and Sasha. I imagine him thanking God for the folk responsible for holistically
birthing President Obama—his dad, his loving and committed mom, Ann Dunham, his
sister, and his beloved grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham
That is, of course, what all Americans must do on January 20, 2009. We must
remember to merge ourselves in baptismal waters of American hopefulness. We must
offer thanks for those who came before us, those Americans—all of them—who have
participated in nourishing the American dream. We do not always share a unified
American ideology; however, we have all yearned to be American and to live within the
context of the American dream—whatever we believe it to be. Tuesday, January 20,
2009 is a representation of the best of the dream, the best! Let us gather, wherever
we are, to support the Obama family as the presidential family and as an American
family who must have our support, our prayers and the restorative love owed to each
one of us called American, called human.