And when I say that we have come a mighty long way, my reference is to all of God’s children: the red ones, the yellow ones, the black ones, the white ones and those other ones whose shades and colours are myriad inter-mixtures of all others imaginable.
We have come a mighty long way.
A taste of how far we have come is to be had were we to listen in on Frederick Douglass, one of humanity’s most distinguished rhetoricians, as he blasted America on the occasion of one of its July fourth celebrations that took place a long, long time ago.
As Douglass fulminated:
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced…
"There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
"Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."
[Frederick Douglass
- July 4, 1852].
But even as I remember Douglass and his fiery words, I also remember the slave’s triumphant shout, O freedom
O freedom
O freedom over me
And before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
My brothers and sisters, what a great day of rejoicing it was this Tuesday past.
Today I give thanks and send out a hallelujah praise-shout to Barack Hussein Obama and the American people.
They have clearly chosen life over death; cosmopolis over necropolis; and love rather than hate.
And clearly, they have chosen in their – yes we can – kind of way, peace rather than war.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
If you sing, preach or merely speak, remember with me – as I learn you a prayer:
Now say after me, 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.
Hallelujah!
And surely, 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.
And together you want to know the truth in the word, 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.
And finally, 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.
Hallelujah!
Now this truly great news: Barack Hussein Obama is president of the United States of America.
Now also know that this Tuesday past, I was invited to say a few words to an audience that had been called forth by the men and women who own and run a major television, radio and print works conglomerate.
Without going into any details about these people, suffice it to say that I considered it all joy when I was asked to say some of my few remaining words to some of this nation’s good and great sons and daughters.
I was particularly delighted at the invitation when I heard and saw that some good, true and great Bahamians were set to be recognised for their contribution to this land of ours, The Bahamas.
Among the names I saw: Captain Palmer, Ronnie Butler, Gus Cartwright, Bishop Michael C. Symonette, and the Sands and Pinder business duo.
And then there was none other than the impresario, Mr. Al Collie.
And then, to think about it, they asked Miss Sylvie’s boy to say a word or two. And I said to myself, thank God for Miss Sylvie and the myriad of people who together prepared the way for the man who was once the boy who lived Out East in the old days.
The food was good, the fellowship was fine and for sure, the time spent in the company of some good and true Bahamians was also fine.
But finer still was the ambience that pervaded the place where honour was to be piled upon the heads of those who were there for their share of honour and praise.
And even though I never did get as far as the Boys’ Brigade or the Scouts [this perhaps because I had to put away childish things at a tender age] I still commend Mr. Palmer for the sage advice he imparts when he suggests that it is far better to mold a boy than it is to mend a man; or something such which is the moral equivalent of advice to the effect that, a stitch in time saves nine.
But be that as it may, this Tuesday past – in the evening hours – was one fine time for us all.
Finer still was the fact that everyone present and in place knew that the moment was a sweet one; sweeter for the fact that Barack Hussein Obama was the president of the United States of America.
Hallelujah!
