We have Fallen off the Horizon.

Imagine if you will, the people of Spain as they watched the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria depart from their docks and head off into the abyss. Imagine the debates about what would happen when he got to the end of the ocean.  Imagine how curious minds looked out to sea and watched three ships fall off the horizon.

Fast-forward to this day.  A day much like that day in Spain, where we watched The United States of America do what was once the stuff of drunken bar jokes and “what if” conjecture.  Those that shrugged off the idea of a black predisent never thought it could happen so quickly.  America, with it’s history of enduring racism has voted for Barack Obama.  Just when I thought America had had sold it’s soul to the devil, it has showed remakable faith.

Imagine if you will, in Spain, the moments after the last ship slipped into oblivion.  Imagine the naysayers and the hopefuls standing at the docks looking out at nothing but blue on blue wondering. . .what now?

Imagine Christopher Columbus, on his ship, looking back, watching the old world disappear. Imagine the moments after the last glimpse of the world he knew, disappeared behind blue on blue.

It took only 40 years from the time when black people were allowed to vote, till white, black, asian, indian, and arab alike, have voted for a black man to lead America.I have seen America change. I saw the America of Clinton. A happy America, a prosperous America. And I have watched it turn into a vampire. Sucking the black blood of other countries under Bush. A Tragic character in this most epic story.

The people have spoken. Finally, I have seen Democracy work the way I had been told it should. The People have laid out a carpet of blue on blue. The Presidency and the Senate like sky and ocean. And here we are, watching the old, familiar world disappear beyond history’s horizon.

Imagine if you will, the men on those Spanish ships, having been led to this moment, as they look out to the unknown, realising that they had not slipped off the Earth, but were still on it. Realising that they had thought so much about “what if”, that upon reaching this moment they must ask, “what now?”

We are those men. We never thought it would happen. We remained skeptical of the possibility despite ernest hope that we were wrong. Could a Black man really become President? We have crossed over into a new world. The entire planet is resonating with the significance of this time. A new time. A time when conventional wisdom no longer works. Where experience means stagnation, and innovation must come from the young. We have thought so much about reaching this point in history, that upon reaching it, we must ask, “What now?” as we look out to a future unknown.

We didn’t expect someone like Barack Obama to come along. What could have made this possible? I now know that there is at least one thing that means more to Americans than race. It’s money. As the American economy suffers, People have realised that A war hero and a hockey mom won’t cut it.

The youth, having been marginalised by politics, have experienced a quickening. Alive and sentient, they have not waited to inherit the future. But have risen and taken the world owed to them by their parents, now. The old way just won’t work anymore.

This election was less about race, and more about Age vs Youth and the nature of wisdom. Is the old man, armed with history and experience wiser than the young, intuitive and creative? As we look out at the blue sky on blue sea we need a leader that has shown the intelligence to take us through these unchartered waters. Not the man who is an expert on Spain.

We have fallen off the Horizon. Welcome to a new era. Where a black man is now the most powerful man in the world and the people look to a future, blue on blue, asking themselves, what now?”

A Grandfather Moment

As a child, I grew up with a vague but respectful sense of history.  I found the subject boring in school, mainly because I hated memorizing names and dates.  But I liked the stories.  The events.  I would imagine what it was like to have lived in the time of the Vietnam War, or in the time of Martin Luther King.

I remember hearing my mother recall the time when Man had landed on the Moon.  During that time, she would look at the moon, amazed by the reality that there were actual people on it.  I have read diaries written by my father in Jamaica 1969.  The Civil Rights Act had been signed just a year ago in the USA.  I read personal stories that brought home the significance of that moment in history.   I felt a strange type of envy, wishing I could have a moment like that of my own.  A Grandfather Moment.

9/11 was my first of these moments for me.  The shock of it all put me in a fit of depression.  But the time we are in now may eclipse everything else. I can already imagine telling my future grandchildren about a history making figure called Barack Obama.  Never before have I felt like I am witnessing a paradigm shift in the making.

It’s not just Barack Obama and his potential to be the first black president of the USA.  It’s the fact that all of this is happening in a time of war.  In a time when “money” is evaporating into thin air.  The ‘new’ great depression may be upon us.  It’s the grandmother of grandfather moments.  To watch the news is to watch a most alarming spectacle: The presidential race.  Never before have I seen a more unifying candidate or a more divisive candidate.  Never before have I seen such petty debate amidst such grave circumstances.  Never before have I seen common sense battle rhetoric so keenly.  The Tiger Woods of politics has arrived.

This is MY Grandfather moment, and it’s all happening now!.  Regardless of the result of this election, there is no doubt in my mind that the world will not be the same in the days to come.  What will today’s history reveal next?  Stay tuned.