On This Day…In This Time – Between the Lines

Barack Obama has risen to national prominence, advocating that the American people must take its nation back – that it must change Washington. Obama not only talks about “the time,” he talks (and walks) in time with what Americans need, staying in the moment which is what many Americans want – though they may not admit it. Obama’s oratory has been compared to America’s last conscious messenger, Martin Luther King, Jr. Both were on time as much as they were in time. The real comparison should be that both men walked in time with “the time” when nobody else could see it, and tried to unify the nation at critical junctures where the nation faced war, class/race conflict and economic instability. America needed King and his message, whether it knew it or not – and rejected it in the most vile manner. As correct as his message was, and has been glorified in martyrdom, America couldn’t get past his race. America needs Barack Obama, and his message, whether it knows it or not – but I’m still not convinced that it knows it or prepared to embrace it.