Where are they...?

Where are all the people whose overwhelming support of a then visionary candidate helped catapult him to the White House? The young people in whom Obama aroused a passion and fervor not seen since John F. Kennedy ran and for office? The 95% of black voters without whose support Obama would not have been elected President? The liberals who thought in Obama the nation had finally found someone who was going to take on the 'business as usual' mentality in Washington? Where are the GLBT family members who found in Obama someone who embraced and supported their causes. All those groups and so many more had such high hopes and expectations for the President. And they are all frustrated and disappointed in a man who held such promise and instilled such hope in the masses. President Obama has a short window of opportunity to 'right his ship.' As he attempts to right the ship it is incumbent upon those many groups of people who supported him to encourage him to find the right way, demand of him the excellence he is able to bring, tell him he must stand for something. Walk in protest and support and pray that he is able to once again connect emotionally with the people. Be vocal in that support so Obama knows we will expect nothing less from him and his brand than what he promised during the campaign. There will be little hope for his Presidency otherwise.

Mondern Day Harlem

As the life of Percy Sutton, the "Chairman" of Harlem past and the gifted businessman and 'father to many' was being celebrated at his Riverside Church memorial, the headlines in the NY Times were letting us know that "In Harlem, Blacks Are No Longer Majority." That's right, that place that was once home to a renaissance that gave birth to so many brilliant artists, writers, musicians; that place that became home to so many blacks who migrated to the industrial North from the cotton fields of the South; that fertile melting pot that spawned black nationalist and separatist and back-to-Africa movements; the home where minority owned businesses grew on every corner and provided nourishment for every family. Yes, that Harlem is no more. Gentrification has changed the landscape, whites moving uptown looking for more affordable real estate and recent immigrants have painted Harlem a different color than before. But as its new history unfolds let us not forget its rich and storied past. Let us hope it will be shared for generations to come;teachers will teach it in schools, ministers will preach about it in their Sunday sermons, storytellers will sit on the stoops of brownstones and stand on the street corners and share those stories so that the legacy of Harlem will be preserved and remembered for generations to come.