Joint Contrast

By – Craig Mazer

I just heard the Rev. Joseph Lowery drop rhymes to end his speech at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. (Holy shit, I can’t believe I just got to write that: President Barack Obama.) It was funny, clever and did anyone four years ago think for one fucking minute that a black man would be in the White House in 2009?

How fitting that a man who marched with Martin Luther King got to kick a couple verses as the first black president kicked our worst (white) president ever out of the White House.

(I had visions of Laura dragging George by his feet Tuesday morning, as over one million people gathered at the Mall, trying to drag him from the White House, kicking and screaming about forgetting his toys in the West Wing and never getting to attack Iran.)

Barack is so captivating. He’s so forceful. He’s hard to argue with. Those who disagree with him, I believe, do so as a kneejerk reaction to a black man having more power than anyone ever anticipated could be “allowed” in a country of such rich hate-filled history, despite such a short existence.

What don’t you like about this man? Is his blackness really so scary? Are stereotypes so overwhelming to one’s own sense of sensibility that you can put aside how absolutely fucking incredible this man is?

Maybe you’re an anti-abortion freak or a religious nut job. I don’t really care about you. I care about the people I know. The people I might even call friends. The people that surprised me when they failed to recognize how fucking awesome this man is, that he is more able than anyone could ask for, more wise than many of us can comprehend, more captivating than any single person I know of and more inclusive than I thought this country was capable of electing. Never mind the guy is fucking black!

I’m just riding the electric wave of Inauguration Day. I hope the wave brings prosperity and real change. It’s going to be a long, rough ride for Barack, but if any single American can handle the shocks, he’s the one.

So, in the spirit of this great day, I’ll offer up a small bit of change of my own, ignoring my tendencies to curse everything religious, by quoting the aforementioned reverend who spoke on this historical Tuesday:

“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.”