Why Not Barack?

Of course, the question refers to Obama's 2008 campaign for President of these United States but there's a larger question that relates to our society of the new millenium which is, has the state of "race relations" evolved far enough that this immensely charismatic young African American in the truest sense of the word with the refreshing candor actually can become the leader of the free world?

It's quite a quandary due to the mixed bag of conflicting signals that speaks loudly about the quality of life and justice for Black America. As I write this, it's nearly two years after from the onslaught of devastation that hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrought on the Gulf region, and yet for the Black and underprivileged residents of the area, it might as well be last week. It's not enough that the government entities that are supposed to be the lifeline for these as well as all American citizens has failed them greatly but this same government, infested with bush-cheney cronies, continues to allow the Halliburtons and Kellogg Brown Roots to further abuse these people under the auspices of enriching the corporate coiffers. Just last week, the so-called justice system overruled a previous ruling in favor of the insurance companies and against the Gulf residents seeking relief via their existing policies. Without going into hair-hurting details, suffice it to say they split hairs over the definition of "flood"!

Or there's the case of the Jena 6. In Jena, Louisiana, six youth are jailed for having what has been effectively seen as a case of a pretty common high school fight between a two groups of teenagers, one white and one Black, but resulting in the prosecution of the Black teens only. A white prosecutor who bragged to the youth about his prospective power, has overzealously committed to seeking the maximum penalties on exagerated charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second degree murder. And in June, the first of the six teens who came to trial was found guilty of the suddenly reduced charges of second-degree battery and conspiracy by an all-white jury.

So what does all of this have to do with Barack Obama's presidential hopes? Everything! The real question is will a country that allows the type of the outrages mentioned here to occur without shouts of indignation raining from the highest mountaintops, have the ability to look beyond ethnicity at the man? It remains to be seen...