Thank You, Obama Family!

I have been dreading this day since the man I will leave nameless won the 2016 Presidential election.  Of course, we all knew President Obama and the First Family’s time would be coming to an end, but it’s hitting me especially hard now that the time is actually here.

Saying that I am going to miss them is a gross understatement.  While depression and sadness are setting in and hitting me like a million tons of bricks, there are some things I am thankful for.

I am thankful that my parents lived long enough to witness the election of the country’s first Black President.  My parents were born in 1938 and 1941.  Both were born in the south.  Both came of age and lived through the 1950s and 1960s during the height of the Civil Rights movement.  Never in their wildest dreams did they think they would live to see Barack Obama.  My father passed away just a couple weeks after the 2008 election, but my mother was front and center at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.  She lived to see and experience Black history.  What a blessing!

I am thankful that young Black girls all over the country had a positive role model in our First Lady Michelle Obama … a beautiful chocolate sistah from the southside of Chicago that sprinkled Black Girl Magic everywhere she went and to everything she touched.  She stayed slaying, and we love her for it.  I have said it a million times, and I will say it a million more.  Michelle Obama didn’t just break the First Lady mold.  She shattered the ding dang thing. 

The Obamas survived.  I’m not just talking about all the vicious personal attacks they have endured over the last 8 years.  They are leaving the White House with their lives.  I can’t be the only one who said prayers of protection over the Obama family, who held their breath when President Obama first got into office, and who gave much-deserved side eyes for all the security breaches with the Secret Service that never seemed to occur with past presidents.  They made it out … alive.  Thank God for that.

We loved Barack and Michelle’s love.  Time and time again and over and over again, we saw countless examples of how much they love each other.  Their love is a beautiful thing that gives us all the feels.  Who can forget this picture of President Obama admiring Michelle?

And when he gave her a shout out during his farewell speech last week?  I made it through his whole speech without shedding a tear until that moment.  

We were able to watch Malia and Sasha grow to be beautiful, intelligent young women right before our very eyes.  No scandals.  No issues.  Even though they also had to endure their unfair share of personal attacks, they did it with dignity and grace.  They make all of us play aunts and uncles all over the country very proud. 

Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you to the Obama family.  You are loved.  You will be sorely missed.  We are forever grateful for your service, for your patriotism, for your perseverance, for your dedication, and for your courage.  

Somebody pass me a box of Kleenex. 

We Have Failed Dr. King

Today is the MLK Holiday.  Normally, this is a day that I set aside to celebrate Dr. King’s life and legacy or it’s a day of service to the community.  But today, especially with the inauguration of Donald Trump just days away, is more of a day of reflection.

As a country, we have greatly failed Dr. King.  Greatly.  I have wondered what would he think if he could see the current state of affairs in these Divided States of America.  Would he wonder why he marched, protested, took beatings, survived a stabbing, had his home bombed, his family threatened, and his life taken for things to be just as they were decades ago?

Would he wonder why there is still a problem with police brutality in the Black community?  Would he wonder why unarmed Black men and women are killed by the police at a rate far higher than other racial groups?  Would he be surprised that the reasons the police give to use deadly force now are the same ones the officer in Selma back in 1965 used after the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson … that the officer feared for his life?  That the Black man was threatening?  That the officer thought the Black man had a weapon?  Would Dr. King’s heart skip a beat when he watched videos of school resource officers forcefully slamming our Black teenaged girls to the ground and not face any punishment?

Would Dr. King be saddened that after all these years it’s still necessary for us to remind the country that Black lives matter? 

Would Dr. King be disappointed that groups of people are still fighting for their rights to equality?  Fighting for the right to basic healthcare?  Fighting for the right to marry whom they chose?  Fighting for the right to equal pay for equal work?

Would Dr. King’s heart be broken to know that nearly 54 years after the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church that church still can’t be a safe space for Black folks as evidenced by the shooting at Emanuel AME?

And after the election of America’s first Black president and all the hope for a post-racial America we saw after President Obama’s time in the White House, that the country has elected a president with a history of racial discrimination that is decades old?  That the country elected a man endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan?  That this same president-elect is trying to fill his cabinet with known racists … including one his wife Coretta wrote a letter on why he shouldn’t be appointed to a federal judgeship?  That we are turning over the White House and our government to a man who had the audacity to disrespect John Lewis, a man who marched and fought on the front lines with Dr. King time and time again for a better America and continues the fight to this very day?

What is this country coming to?

So on this day that is set aside to honor a great man, his legacy, and his dream for his country, I can’t help but feel sadness that we still have such a long way to go before the dream is realized.