So Obama won the election, I stayed up that night till 2.30am watching and waiting.... then the Ohio votes came in and I knew that Obama had won... and done it real good... i went to bed....
Next morning... there was so much excitement, so much noise, so much jubilation, funny text messages selling Obama Aso-ebi and various facebook profile messages....
and some of the profile messages i noticed were "the audacity of hope", "yes we can" "now i know all things are possible" "now i know i can achieve anything i dream" "the doors have been thrown wide open" bla bla bla and more bla....
"Fascinating!" i said to myself, "so now you know all things are possible abi? now you know you can achieve all things right? oh really?"
I opened my facebook and on my profile i wrote the following words
"if Obama can do the Black house, then i can do the palace, buckingham here i come"
That statement might sound funny to you, or preposterous like it sounded to many, cos in the short space of 5 hours i received such replies like "in your dreams" "get real" "Britain is not America oh" these comments were coming from the same people who said "all things are possible"
This same people were now saying "all things are possible but not something crazy like that..." Their responses proof of the barriers in their minds, the existing structures that keep us from going after those dreams...
As long as those structures exist, we will say a million times "all thing are possible" and then continue to be mediocre!
I am convinced that Obama's dreams were greeted with a similar response 10 years ago by many people who heard it then... but suddenly they dont look crazy anymore...
Now we are all screaming "Obama has opened new doors and showed us all things are possible!" really?
Dont get me wrong...I laud Obama with all my heart, however Obama did not fling any door open... he merely chose to see a open door where others see a wall...
The first black secretary general of the UN, the first woman in space...etc... saw doors... Obama and others like him are those who have chosen to break down the structures in their minds... to see open doors where to others there are walls... and the Obamas of this world will continue to walk through to success, fame and fulfilled dreams while the rest who see walls or locked doors will continue to stand outside, waiting for the Obamas to come and fling open doors that are already open... if only their chose to see and believe.
what am i saying?
while we rejoice with Obama and America, either as black people or as people who see a dream being lived, we shouldnt just scream "the audacity of hope" "yes we can" "all things are possible" let us scream it, believe it, dream it, live it... and make our dreams reality
