Urban Thought Collective

Wow.

We’re actually here.

It actually happened. In our lifetime!

I don’t have a whole lot to say right now. The historic nature of Barack Obama being elected President of the United States is simply too big, and my thoughts and emotions are too overwhelming, for me to try to sum up this mighty moment. So, I’m going to call on someone more articulate than myself. 109 years ago James Weldon Johnson put pen to paper and expressed the depth and breadth of our collective experience — our joy, our pain, our faith, our perseverance. Those words, written in 1899, and introduced to the world by former slaves at a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1900, articulate perfectly the magnitude of the moment on which we stand today.

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Yes! Let us sing and shout in a celebration that literally moves heaven and Earth on this unprecedented day! And as we celebrate, let us draw power from the pain of our past and inspiration from the present. Let us re-consecrate ourselves to the struggle for justice and equality.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.

We must march on! For today represents not an ending but a new beginning, a continuation of our journey. So, as we begin and continue, let us keep close in our hearts and clear in our minds the memory of those who came before us. Those who suffered and sacrificed so much in order that we, their children, might inherit a better world. They endured the horror of the middle passage, the dehumanizing nightmare of slavery, the degradation of and Jim Crow, the barbarity of lynching and immeasurable humiliation, denial, exclusion, oppression and deprivation. Yet, as a people, they never gave up. They pressed on, for our sake if not their own.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

To the millions who died in the unspeakable horror of the middle passage. To our ancestral mothers, sisters and daughters degraded by the vile lust of slave masters and thugs. To our fathers, brothers and sons who were lynched by the thousands. To those who were murdered because they demanded freedom and human dignity.

Listen! Can you hear them? Countless voices, silenced on Earth, yet thundering across eternity and crying out in unison the words Dr. King spoke on the night before he died: “I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

The last verse of “Life Ev’ry Voice and Sing” is a challenge to us, the present generation. Formatted as a prayer, these closing lines remind us that faith in a higher power strengthened us, comforted us, unified us and got us over. God, whatever you perceive God to be, has always wanted our people to overcome and as each generation inherited the fruits of our forebears’ sacrifice, God reminds us that it is our duty to build upon the freedom and opportunities that they secured for us.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

We must remember where we came from and work together to make life better for all of our people. We cannot allow class divisions or individual interests to turn us away from one another. We cannot allow new access to material wealth to make us forget those of our brethren who are struggling in the underclass. Nor can we allow the pursuit of pleasure to distract us from education, critical thinking, self-discipline and hard work. We must not give in to the world’s socially, culturally and spiritually-destructive belief that life is about money, cars, clothes, bling and social status.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

So, let’s celebrate today! Lift EVERY voice and sing! And tomorrow, let’s harness all of our newly kindled optimism and energy to continue the work that was begun so long ago by those on whose shoulders we stand.

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.

THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Cameron Turner is a Los Angeles-area native whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.