Of brambles and brilliance

Barack Obama spoke at the Ebenezer Baptist Church here in Atlanta on Martin Luther King Day yesterday, and his speech was an oasis in an otherwise scorchingly ridiculous pre-election environment. Even though there are subtle hues of politics dusted throughout his words, it feels much less political than everything else that has sprouted from all this presidential fervor.

Maybe it's because it was in a church. Maybe it was the holiday. Maybe it was the intended audience. And maybe it's my own subjective view of it.

I'm not black. I'm not an "African American". Hell, I'm not even Christian. And nevermind what my partisanship is. I was still touched by Obama's exhortations, and it wasn't because I felt guilty of the things he was ranting about. It wasn't because I sympathized with Ashley or identified with the old black man in her discussion circle.

The state of the nation was so starkly illuminated that it made me uneasy. It's the same feeling most people get when they're on stage for the first time, or are caught nude in a public place. It was disturbing to realize that what Obama was saying about the black community could also be applied to nearly every other racial minority. The "yellows". The "browns". They all experience the circumstances that he brought up to varying degrees. I had always told myself that race was a non-issue in today's world, but I had been fooling myself. I live in the big cities, the global centers. Most people don't. There's a different culture in Seattle compared to the one here in Atlanta. Different slang, different values, different needs. And I'm not implying that certain folks are more inclined to racism. The point (and overarching implication) is that it's so hard to connect on a real level with every single one of your countrymen. Sometimes the differences and rivalries make it so easy to ignore the similarities and amities. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't care.

And that's just race. Nevermind the social classes, cultural identities, and economic demarkation. With so many permutations of American citizens out there, just how easy can we expect the fight against "Divide and Conquer" to be?

"I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny."

Again, I don't know how pertinent this is to election politics. A part of me will always be suspicious of those who seek to capitalize on the unifying power of nationalism. And I will always believe that social change has to start with and within the people. Politics should not be the means for this. The true litmus test for real social change is if adjudication isn't necessary.

Still, it doesn't diminish the anticipation of the warm fuzzies.