From Peon to President
The Importance and Symbolism of President Barack Hussein Obama

In countries where people often face persecution because of race, ethnicity, religion and a myriad of social constructs intended to divide and rule, I often wonder how many brilliant minds have never come to blossom. Historians bemoan the knowledge that was lost when unenlightened foreigners invaded ancient lands burning books and reducing to ash what had already been known about the universe and about our progress as a species. The sightings of unexplained phenomenon, architectural marvels which to date can not be duplicated and cave drawings of astronaut-like images in the far corners of the globe, suggests more than the fertile imagination of a “primitive” people. Despite the absence of statistical data, rest assured that these losses are incalculable. President Obama represents only an infinitesimal fraction of what is possible when minds are intellectually nourished, creatively stimulated and opportunities are unconditionally available to all and sundry. Under these conditions, the sky is the limit or in this particular case, the presidency of a great nation. The lesson we must learn from history, is that attempts to subjugate a people for any reason must always be vociferously denounced and stoutly resisted.

The story of Obama’s meteoric rise to the most powerful office in the world is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. The difference is that this is real. It happened in our time. Satellite pictures and images from around the world shows one black man capturing the world’s imagination and defying the odds in a nation founded on slavery, steeped in bigotry and bent on domination. President Obama has inspired a generation that was once feared lost. He has given hope to millions and assuage the doubts of those who witnessed the oppression of blacks in America and were convinced that hell will freeze over before America elect a Black man for president. It must be a cold day in the good old USA.

President Obama did not create the mess that his country and the rest of the world are now facing. Unbridled greed for short term gain is what led to this abyss. I have no doubt that he will rise to the challenges and slay the fearsome dragon that threatens to collapse a historically skewed economic system. That, nonetheless, will be the least of his accomplishments.

After countless years of hopelessness and despair, President Obama has succeeded in liberating the minds of a generation of young people who hold the future in the palm of their hands. He has unleashed the “Yes We Can” generation, for whom old world politics, discrimination and oppression will be relegated to the past; a legacy of which we should never cease to be ashamed. The walls that enclose the mind are more formidable that the combined strength of the Walls of Jericho, Berlin, China and those of Zimbabwe. President Obama has managed to demolish these mental walls and opened up a world of possibilities for young people around the globe. More specifically, for young people of African descent, he has assured them that they are not chickens but eagles with the capacity to attain great heights. Not only did he give them wings, indeed, he taught them how to fly. In the land that promises liberty and justice for all but to date has failed to deliver, a new day is at hand. Obama has opened a magic bottle and released the minds of young people from around the world who now believe that anything is possible. Yes! He will once again defy the odds and get America and by extension the rest of the world back to prosperity, but that significant achievement will be pale in comparison to freeing the minds of so many millions.

megale@hotmail.com