Blood on the Ballot Box...boy

On this past evening I attended a most powerful "Get Out to VOTE" Rally, and I must admit I was overwhelmed. I was actually on the program, with the likes of folks from the show The Wire, and National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial...it was quite riveting to say the least. I performed a recently written piece entitle "Blood on the Ballot Box." I did not know it would register with people the way that it did and I am proud of the response. My critique of myself is it could have been tighter-muffed some lines-but at the end of the day the message is the most meaningful aspect and the audience got that.

I think the audience, the nation really, understands that concept better now than ever before. We are indebted to the ancestors, for it is their blood that was lost so we could gain-so we could have just this moment to seriously ponder a black man as our president. The fear in all this is that the race is far from over, and there are forces that will try to negate the power of this moment, and others that will try to reverse this tide of change. However, that which has been ordained by God, no man can deny.

Barack Obama...from great speech in '04, to longshot, to presumptive nominee, to party leader to this moment. The ride has been remarkable, but it is not simply his rise to party prominence and international notariety that I pay attention to but the emotions of our people...citizens of this democratic America whom are ready to make a difference in their country and the world. I do not think that it is ironic that I was in Williamsburg, Virginia for the entire week before the rally. I was assisting with a government fellows program entitled Excellence in Government, and our kickoff celebration was in the historic and presently colonial Williamsburg.

The beauty in the fact that I was there came in the form of past reality. In the term past reality, I mean that I was forced to examine the construction of this nation, in its most raw form. Slavery was discussed as a necessary-economic phenomenon in the same breath as equality of man. As I sat there inhaling the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence, I simultaneously thought of all my ancestors whose blood, sweat and tears held this nation up during its most formative years. Then...as I returned to my hotel room I would turn on the TV and sit and watch the nation debate the legitimacy of man-a man whose own ethnic heritage is the combination of all that is great about this country-to be President of these United States.

I was very emotional when I sat down to write the piece, Blood on the Ballot Box. It is my term, I have coined it and perhaps I heard it somewhere before but it was in the emotional state of my Williamsburg visit that I gave life to a poem that may very well define our moment-and the responsibility that we hold as citizens during this most critical time in our history...

My granddaddy said there is
Blood on the ballot box boy
Best not to take your right
So liberally
When you turn 18
Many laid down their lives
So you could be free
And that freedom may not be
Infinite-
So your only guarantee is to make sure
You are represented
In those nation conversations
Up there on the hill
It would be to your
Benefit
To pay close attention to current events
At least most of the time
Read both sides of the arguments
So you can pick through the lies
Delete the deceit
And develop a personal understanding
Of what America is supposed to be
America is supposed to be
Something different than what I see
At present
Seems we put war before diplomacy…
Got us losing little children
In the sandbox overseas
Seems our fear of terrorism has led us
To become that which we
Despise
Can’t tell me the amount of lives mistakenly
Taken during our occupation
Of sovereign nations
Not to mention the suspension of civil rights
For all those
At Guantanamo
Yes, there is blood on the ballot box boy
But seems we bleed black
Our people so addicted to oil our arms
Filled with tracks
Shooting up SUVs and luxury sedans
With that premium petro
While profits stack for the Exxons and BPs…
And you-
You have to choose to drive to work
Or eat
Merely survive or meet defeat
Must be blood on the ballot box boy
Homeowners homeless because
Banks bleeding families…
And they both dying off the sub-prime beast
That is eating its way through
Capitalism…
But who unleashed its wrath
Legs of the stock market so weak
The entire economy about to crash
And burn
Like the money you thought your
IRA would earn
So no one can retire and if you get fired
You join the millions
Already in line
Unemployment rates climb
High atop these mountains of debt
Half a trillion dollar deficit…
Weighs heavily on the taxpayers
Backs…
But there be blood on that ballot box boy
You best to know the facts
For you step inside the booth
Make sure the truth is not what you lack
This race is not about
Race…
Analyze the candidates
Study their platforms and agendas
Listen to the debates
Who is real, and who is the
Pretender?
But regardless of whom you choose
It is this you must remember
There is blood on the ballot box boy
Ancestors died to protect
The constitutional right for
You and I to select
Representatives dedicated to making
America what it is supposed to be-
Pray we do their blood justice
And rewrite our future history

Copyright 2008