...tonight, I'm finding it hard to sleep

At 3:00am on a Tuesday night, I, Monique Liston, Queen of Beauty Sleep, can not remove herself from this evening's events. Tonight, as I partied with my Spelman/Howard/Morehouse peers, I saw the CNN Electoral projection change from 207 to 290 at 10:00pm EST. Barack Hussein Obama, son of Kenya, was elected president of the United States.
I can not take this moment as a surface level moment of victory, because I do not believe that is what it is. I can not take this moment lightly, because most definitely it means more than some can fathom. My mind is wrestling, creating a war of ideology in my own head, about what this day, this election, this presidency means to me. From today, till January the country will be in political limbo. Bush has all but disappeared from the major news media outlets, Obama has to create his cabinet, and two months is a long time (not in history, but in the present).
I claim this moment as inspiration. I cannot deny that his attempt at the presidency is admirable and can definitely (I pray so) inspire people. Not just to become successful as defined by this economic and political system, but to become people of admirable character, conduct, and emotion.
I do not want to sound like a sore McCain supporter, because, however blunt this may sound, if I didn't vote for Barack, I would write in my own name for President of the United States. I do not believe that the American system of democracy is perfect, I do not believe that in this country ANYONE can do ANYTHING they want to do, I do not believe that Barack Obama is a superhero, savior, or anti-Christ.
I do believe that black people have a lot of community building to do, from the inside-out before any type of revolutionary change (which is what is needed) can be achieved. I do believe that within the next four years, very little will change on large-scales due to Obama's position. I believe that more than anything I want him to envigorate the population, and I will say THE BLACK POPULATION, to seek all the opportunities to educate themselves, to take the opportunity to define themselves and their place in the world on their own terms, and to become better stewards of God's gift of humanity.

.... confusing. I know, my mind at this time is racing a million miles a minute... I just had to get a little bit of that off of my chest.

Exercise the vote.

There ain't nothing new under the sun

This morning, I read an article on ABC News.com about a "thwarted" assassination attempt of Barack Obama. It is one week before this "historic" (depending on your definition) election. The pundits across the networks have basically handed the election to the Obama camp. They believe that the exit polls do not lie and Obama's lead in these statistics is enough to assume that he will be come president of the United States of America. So today, October 28, is the day the media finally decides to shed the light on the fact that people are plotting killing sprees and assassinations of this "transformational" leader. Like I said before, it ain't nothing new under the sun. This should not come to a surprise to anyone who has remotely studied American political history. Transformational leaders always have threats for thier lives. Especially, transformational black leaders. We want to firmly believe that times are different and that this shallow outward racism no longer exists, but that is simply not the case. People hate. People hate. People hate. There is a video of confession back from August here.
A Seattle PI blog reported that 'assassinate obama' was one of the top 100 google search phrases. An artist even took the liberty of creating the following art exhibit entitle the assassination of Barack Obama: http://www.theassassinationofbarackobama.com/.
Even outside of the United States people envision it happening:

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, "would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him," Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily. (Huffington Post)

There isn't a damn thing new under the sun....

The reality, the harsh reality, a compromise of ideology it seems to me is that Barack and Michelle must discuss on the regular basis how real his assassination could be. An ultimate sacrifice, for a worthy cause? I do not believe so, but that has to be rationalized on their terms... and as far as it is displayed it has to be in order for them to continue so valiantly towards to White House....

i just couldn't help myself.

Queen Latifah is the only person who could play Gwen Ifill. I wonder if she wondered that as she was preparing for the debate...."Who are they going to get to play me??" Oh SNL.... I'm glad that thoughest hath returned to hilarity.