No, it was not the "flub" of the oath, it was not the speech as amazing as it was, it was not the poem, which was also great. It was at the end, the benediction, when the Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery stood at one of the largest pulpits in the world. When he began his speech by quoting something that we all know well, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," The Negro National Anthem.
As a child you learn the words to this anthem:
- Lift every voice and sing,
- 'Til earth and heaven ring,
- Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
- Let our rejoicing rise
- High as the listening skies,
- Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
- Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
- Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
- Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
- Let us march on 'til victory is won.
- Stony the road we trod,
- Bitter the chast'ning rod,
- Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
- Yet with a steady beat,
- Have not our weary feet
- Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
- We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
- We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
- Out from the gloomy past,
- 'Til now we stand at last
- Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
- God of our weary years,
- God of our silent tears,
- Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
- Thou who has by Thy might
- Led us into the light,
- Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
- Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
- Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
- Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
- May we forever stand,
- True to our God,
- True to our native land.
Today was the first day that I cried during the course of President Obama's run to the White House. Not when he was elected and I hugged my Step-Mother as tears streamed down her face. Not on MLK day when it was stated by Jesse Jackson Sr. that we are now "in the final lap" of realizing his Martin's dream. But when the reverend, who co-founded the Southern Leadership Conference with Martin L. King spoke those words that we had reached our sun, that the new day had begun, the tears started streaming.
And as I sit here now reliving that feeling, that unmistakable feeling that that someday is here. When I can walk down the street and be seen as a stranger, and not a black girl. I can't wait to be inconspicuous, I can't wait to be just plain me... and for the first time in my life, in my mom's life, in my grandmother's life, I can say... realistically... that day could be tomorrow.
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