by Kim Rogers

Created on: November 06, 2008

Without excuse . . . A Social Commentary
If you live long enough, life has a way of if not making you a liar, at least invading your comfort zone and making you view things in a different light.
With the election of Barak Obama as the 44th president of the United States those of us who used the excuse to obtain mediocrity; "the MAN" kept us down must now face the fact that WE are "the MAN".

We've collectively elected a true representative of the people to the highest office of our land.
Those who have used the excuse of the impossibility of becoming anything of value because we weren't born into riches, or affluence, or the elite of society now find that our 44th president wasn't born into any of those things either. Not only that, he came from a broken home, dysfunctional family, and was bi-racial in a time when miscegenation wasn't particularly popular and still isn't; just like many of us.
In addition, he basically "nickeled" and "dimed" his way through a rigorous campaign to achieve what was considered only yesterday, an un-achievable goal.
His election shows not only Black people that "yes we can", but it shows Latinos, Asians, Jews, Italians, Native Americans, and anyone else who feels themselves to be on the fringes of acceptable society that "yes we can"!

We have become witnesses to the fact that with determination, anything is possible. We have seen that a person can maintain their values, ideals, and intergrity, and still succeed even when the world appears to be against them.
No longer will we be able to blame our finances, our education, our skin color, or our present position in society as the mitigating factor for our own inability to overcome. We will only be able to blame ourselves.
The election of Barak Obama has, whether we like it our not, initiated America's Age of Accountability. All of us must now be accountable for ourselves. Does this mean that people will have enough to eat everyday, or adequate housing, or enough jobs - no, it simply means that when we engage in drug dealing, thug-ery, white collar crimes, and other crimes against humanity, our personal and social circumstances will not be the measuring stick as to the acceptability of our behaviors. There is no longer anyone else to blame. The gates of the impenetrable fortress of "the man" have been stormed, and the populous now rules.
Will we do a better job of it, or will we in turn become "the man" - only time will tell.
I can only hope that we will finally become the nation that our fore fathers envisioned when the United States was founded - a nation of greatness!

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