rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

toni morrison letter to obama and de geas of rickydoc: guide and guardian: magical negro redux

TUESDAY

hello world, well i was wondering when toni morrison would check in
she of the infamous bill clinton as 1st black president fame

i knew she was going to have to get on the right side of history:

----------------------------   

Dear Senator Obama,

This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

-----------------------------------      

MONDAY

hello world, its showtime you know, super tuesday coming up and it does
not play to obamas strength, and hillary has advantages in the most

delegate rich states of ny, nj and california, now is the time to do
whatever it is that you do, ima call the obama folk in syracuse and

sign up to do transport duty on election day and whatever else i can
do to ensure some newyork delegates for obama

i been struggling to keep my artistic/intellectual/magician distance
and perspective but i keep getting caught up in the fire

the iching say its two modes of influence for the superior personality
you can either influence the court by mixing it up in the arena

or withdraw to work on yourself as an example for the future

i translate that as a spiral of engagement and withdrawal to assess
renew and reposition, - i guess its time to engage in the arena this year

showtime

in struggle
rdoc

SUNDAY

hello world, im going to have some things to say about this post later
working right now and cant really focus but joe kleins recent swampland blog entry

on obamas win in south carolina called blackfolk the "democratic
partys canary in the mine when it comes to injustice"

magical negroes like me really like that line
made me tingle

---------------------------   

Make no mistake: What happened in South Carolina today was a moral reprimand delivered to Bill and Hillary Clinton by a united Democratic Party--but especially by the African-American segment of that party.

I chased the Clintons around South Carolina yesterday and the absence of black faces at their rallies was striking--eerie almost, the absence a palpable presence, as if the rooms were filled with ghosts. In Penn Center on St. Helena Island, which has been a historic nexus of the civil rights movement going back to the civil war--a place where Martin Luther King Jr would sometimes go to live in a rude cabin, and to write and think--Bill Clinton looked out on a lily-white crowd and he must have known what he was seeing: a silent, decorous protest against him by a segment of the Democratic Party that was always there for him in the past, the churchified African-American middle class, a group that represents the Democrats' canary in the coal mine when it comes to injustice.

------------------------------   

this exemplifies why i got to focus on what his campaign does for america
instead of what it represents in terms of black strategics, which is what really interest me,

black america been drifting and looking for a cause for some time now
never thought it would be electoral politics that would catch the spirit of the moment but

here it is

was talking in the last post how the kwani folk were
trying to shapeshift the cultural energies that been

unleashed by the dirty elections there, thats all you can do as a cultural custodian
is shape energies released by cultural phenomena, good or bad,

so that something good comes out of it, so that you are
a stronger people than you were before the hammer fell

this is a momentous occasion, this is a crossroads
where destiny lies in the choice of the moment

old rootdoctor got to study it, find the root of it
minimal effort maximal impact

the power unleashed in the moment
just too much for an old player like me to ignore

got to make a move
got to work the roots

somehow

and its clear that the power here, is in how
this influences the american culture and soul

thats the way its always been for afrcian american activists

black activists have always known if an issue becomes a 'black' issue
that basically kills it in terms of bringing the great american middle along

so black activists have always chosen issues that help the whole country
in hope that by lifting all the boats, blackfolk get lifted right along with them

championing progressive policies like public schooling during reconstruction
living wages, compassionate health care, and other assorted progressive policies

a vision of a what america could be

lord know african american culture is a curious blend of the
dysfunctional and the illuminated but at its best, ah at its best

i am proud of the african american history of being the conscious
and consciousness of americas soul (and that of the world)

guide and guardian
de geas of rickydoc

in struggle
rdoc

an african prayer: binya piece on kenya election: no country for old hatreds

hello world, havent been much commenting on kenyan situation
you like to think that your words have potential of influence

and i dont see any potential for influence on kenyan tragedy, least not by me
the following binya post is part of an effort by kenyan writers to shape

the cultural energies that have been released, much
like this kenyan priest trying to stop rioters

and this relentless process of ethnic cleansing going on
one hopes the two politicians see the light and work something out

odinga was robbed but unleashing tribal passions is a genie thats hard
to stick back in the bottle - times like this the old hoodoo man

wish he was a true magus of storybook power, able to exert power and influence
and change things - rootwork

if there is one spot on the continent i can call my african home
its kenya - got to see what i can do

probably all i can do is promote the efforts of kwani
and kenyan writers to shapeshift this thing

this i got off the kwani blog, binyas piece
that was in the nytimes recently

the tensions between tribalism and nationalism have been an issue in most
african countries - pray that kenya comes out of this a stronger country

and while you at it pray
for a united africa too

-------------------------   

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD HATREDS

BY BINYAVANGA WAINAINA

This thing called Kenya is a strange animal. In the 1960s, the bright young nationalists who took over the country when we got independence from the British believed that their first job was to eradicate “tribalism.” What they really meant, in a way, was that they wanted to eradicate the nations that made up Kenya. It was assumed that the process would end with the birth of a brand-new being: the Kenyan.

Compared with other African nations, Kenya has had significant success with this experiment. But it has not been without its contradictions, though they had never really turned lethal until now.

Our Kenyan identity, so deliberately formed in the test tube of nationalist effort, has over the years been undermined, subtly and not so subtly, by our leaders — men who appealed to our histories and loyalties to win our votes.

You see, the burning houses and the bloody attacks here do not reflect primordial hatreds. They reflect the manipulation of identity for political gain.

So what was different about this election? What brought Kenya’s equilibrium to an end?

Five years ago, we voted for a broad and nationally representative government. Inside this vehicle were the country’s major tribes: the Luo, the Luhya, the Kikuyu, many Kalenjin — all the people now killing one another.

We wanted this arrangement to quickly introduce a new and more inclusive Constitution, deal firmly with corruption and start a process of defining the nation in terms that include everybody.

Tragically, President Mwai Kibaki instead steered a course away from the coalition and cultivated the support of his Kikuyu community. He did a good job rebuilding the civil service and managing the economy, but he did it within a framework that was not sustainable.

When it came time to conduct our most recent election, Raila Odinga had built a movement on the back of President Kibaki’s betrayal of the spirit of 2002. His political party, the Orange Democratic Movement, was the big ethnic tent similar to the one that had first brought President Kibaki to office.

On the day we cast our vote, we thought that our optimism and desire for an inclusive and broad government would prevail. Instead, three days later — after reports that votes were being “cooked” in Kikuyu strongholds, after skirmishes in the room where the results were being announced, after the news media were ejected — Mr. Kibaki was announced the winner and a haphazard swearing-in took place. And Kenya exploded.

Mr. Odinga and President Kibaki are not really ethnic leaders, but in the days since the disputed election they have stoked tribal paranoia and used it to cement electoral loyalty.

Mr. Odinga and his fellow party leaders are now determined to avenge the wrong they believe they have suffered. Sadly, this leadership now appears to believe that the violence spreading across the country might be a valuable bargaining chip.

My further suspicion is that Mr. Odinga wants to sell to Kenyans and the world a sort of Ukrainian “people’s revolution” — where protesters take to the streets and change the order of things, and are seen to be throwing happy pink petals on television, so America can say, ah, the people have spoken.

But rather than matters leading to a popular but peaceful uprising against a flawed election, we are likelier to suffer an escalation of retaliations and a descent to that special machete place that nations rarely recover from.

Yet all is not lost. Nations are built on crises like this. If there is such a thing as Kenya, it should be gathering energy right now. Two leaders can sit down, form a power-sharing agreement and put together a system to handle elections and transition. A Constitution that names and recognizes the tribal nations within our nation, that decentralizes some power and that includes us all in the process is possible.

For 40 years we have been dancing around each other, a gaseous nation circling and tightening. The moment is now to make a solid thing called Kenya.

--------------------------------   

Binyavanga Wainaina, a writer in residence at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., is the founding editor of Kwani?. This piece first appeared as an Op-Ed contribution in the New York Times, January 6th, 2008. Genocide Watch have a PDF version

bill and hillary redux, babajohn killens and the afrospear

 

TUESDAY

hello world, washpost had an article yesterday on black blogs an obama

had a link to the afrospear in wikipedia and it was news to me, out of the loop again
its just so hard to keep up these days, but i got to get in the mix

man, who got the time, but thats where its happening and all those links i got to incorporate

when i started blogging there just wasnt that much happening and its partly my insularity that keep me out of the loop, got to step up

washpost article named blackprof, jack and jill, africanamerican political pundit and field negro

wikipedia article named a bunch more but since i had links to these already
i went and checked them all out, but it was field negro tickle my fancy

man this race is getting ugly, and it dont look like obama gon win this one

the clintons have played the race card, knowing it will work against him to remind folk he black - and now obama getting down and dirty with the king and queen of down and dirty

it was probably inevitable, if he was to win he would have to be even more down and dirty - if you gon be president of the united states, its a dirty job

but this race has scratched the surface of civlity and so much rancor coming out
you wonder if maybe now is not the time, but that aint gon stop me from

trying, followed a link to obamas website the other day, i might sign up for one of the
newyork syracuse area obama groups, do some duty, help put newyork in play

and i need to get that edwards quote up in here, his little sneaky im the only whiteman
quote, his way of reminding folk that he is a good old boy at heart

something along the lines of as the only whiteman in the pack
he is the only one who can compete anywhere in america

got news for you john: some places in america being a whiteman aint that much
of an advantage, i need the quote, but who got the time for piddling stuff

lot of speculation in the community about whether black folk will
support hillary if she wins, some say blacks most loyal of

democratic groups and will hold their nose and vote for the clintons anyway
dont know about this black, cant imagine sitting it out and letting republicans

have another 4 unearned years but dont see how the massa and missus
clinton can make nice after this one, at least not nice enuf for me

oh im sure they and their trained negroes will try to mend
their political bridges but the clinton machine has turned me off

wonder sometime how toni morrison feel about her black president comment
i keep waiting to hear what she got to say about this - ishmael reed checked in

will post his comments very soon, its kinda long so its gon get
a post of its own, but this what rickydoc flowers got to say:

if america truly wants change, if this is the election of change, clinton redux is not it
if bubba clinton is all over the election like he been he will be all over

her presidency too, ms independent has not been showing much
independence, it looks like the bill and hillary show all over again

and if there is one thing that will energize the republican base
its the bill and hillary show all over again,

instead of looking to the future
weve decided to return to the past

and a continuation of the cultural wars that
bush, clinton, et al personify

im all for a woman president, but maybe we should wait for
a real independent woman instead of a political wife

and a much too classic two for one deal
the clinton marriage is very compicated

perhaps too complicated to allow it to once again
to shape our history and our destiny as it has before

do we really want to go thru another  8 years
of wondering what the definition of is is

do we really feel like 4/8 years of bill clinton
in the whitehouse with nothing to do but meddle

in struggle
rdoc

MONDAY, MARTIN LUTHER KINGS BDAY

hello world, took these quotes off a fox news blog of all places
i keep trying to back out of this thing, but it keeps calling me

just so many issues playing out, post race empowerment, africanamerican identity
in a multiracial world, post partisan politics, 21st century progressivism, etc etc

i keep trying to step away, i keep hearing echoes of the warhorn
this is a significant and possibly even seminal historical moment

this here the crossroads
when destiny lies in the choice of the moment

dont know these quotes hold up so i dont testify:
ima call it on the nature of fairytales:

----------------------------   

“…any vote that may lead to war should be hard — but I cast it with conviction.”

– Hillary Clinton, October 10th, 2002

“That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason
but on passion, not on principle but on politics.”

– Barack Obama, October 2, 2002

--------------------   

in struggle
rdoc

SUNDAY

african voices just put out their special sekou issue and
im not in it, thats a bummer, i remember deciding i didnt

have time to refine a comment, hate i missed that one
check it out if you get a chance

in struggle
rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, back in syracuse and trying to swear off commentary on the primaries
its kinda depressing, obama just lost nevada and hispanic support/vote, thats a bummer

but obama got more delegates somehow so he still in the game but losing hispanic support hurts,

the repubs anti immigration rhetoric has soured that repubican initiative

but conflict in the trenches has left the black/hispanic  alliance in shambles - gon take a lot of mending on the part of black/hispanic progressives to fix that

so now obama focusing on that black vote, which is a two way street for somebody who selling himself as post racial racial

not walking away from fact that he is a black candidate but not selling himself as a black candidate either

its a twisty little minefield and some of his efforts to walk thru it have been awkward

other day i read where he lauded ronald reagan as an agent of change, must be going for the reagan democrats - apparently he was trying to say that the repubs have driven the political idea market for

some 20 years now and we got to usurp that, at least i hope that was what he was trying to say
but you got to be careful man of how you say it, might as well written the clinton machine an invite

im still supporting him, still hoping blackfolk come thru for him if nobody else does
but lauding reagan might be a little too nuanced

old rickydoc stepping back into observer mode on this one
he got my head, but ima hold on to my heart till i see how this plays out

south carolina will be a chance to judge his stealth game, will this ex voter activist
turn blackfolk into a powerful voting block or wont he, we got the numbers, just aint had the will

we could be as powerful a voting block as the jews we play it right

whatever i got to get back in my novel groove in spite of semester having started
spring semester always rough which mean work gon be a struggle and posting gon be spotty

my readership been falling lately, maybe because my posting been spotty
or folk dont particular care for my style, whatever, im tired of worry about it

i got three issues i deal with, literature, hoodoo and politics, all fuctions of the longgame
been political lately, which might bore the hoodoo folk and the literary folk

not much i can do about that

this posting thing kinda like writing fiction
i do it because i have to, not because it pays

speaking of which i think im going to dedicate this week to john o killens, a true visionary
adam banks is doing babajohn as part of his rhetoric class this semester

so i got babajohn on my mind, nice to see him getting some respect
adam is one of keith gilyards troop and fact that keith has done a book on johns

rhetoric and is working on major bio of john has probably played a role in that choice
thats cool too, adam always does a community version of this class and my attendance

be spotty cause my discretionary time so limited, but this time i will be there
i got a lot to say about babajohn o killens and i want to hear what other folk got to say too

surely this will rededicate me to the work, thats what everything be judged by you know
and on that note let me  try to clock some pages

like babajohn taught me

all my love
rdoc

obama and the warhorn: rickydoc got your back

WEDNESDAY

hello world, already tired of hillary and obama
went to the local library yesterday to google up whats

happening and its so much chatter out on it old boy
just didnt feel like catching up with it

all that chatter indicative of the significance of the issues in play
im just glad hillary and obama moved back into the highground

we could still lose this one, if mccain becomes the republican nominee
and the voters are constantly reminded that hillary is a woman and barack is black with a funny name our best chance of winning the presidency from the republicans could go south

im praying for hucklebee or giuliani, idiots w/o a chance in hell
mccain i think woould be dangerous, he has a thin veneer of reasonableness

and all this roller coaster up and down of wins, losses and snafus have worn me down and im just tired of looking for the nuances

with politics you just cant afford to get too emotionally attached
got to stay in an observer mode and aint none of this worth the lost noveltime

aint done no novelwork in days, family and the delta got me by the throat and aint been no
rest for the weary

you know what that mean dear regulators, nothing else get done till im
back in my groove - rickydoc got a taste of the blues

in struggle

rickydoc rootdoctor

TUESDAY A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER

hello world, did a comment on a washpost article
that talked about efforts to turn the heat down

im getting there with the tone dont you think

----------------------------   

glad to see obama took the highroad

a primary shouldnt become a bloodletting - because when its over
we will all have to come together and not do the republicans work for them

and it doesnt work in obamas favor for this
to become a racial brawl

in the final analysis i could live with obama, hillary or edwards but i do believe
obama is the most viable choice of the moment

i believe that folk are tired of battlemode and would like to try to move beyond the politics of
personal destruction that have so harmed america both domestically and in the world

i believe obama most sincerely believes in bringing us all together, that the others
still in battlemode and we have to move past that

i dont believe it will work for us longterm any more than it worked for the republicans
and i believe that obama is capable of changing the perception of america in the world

i believe that is critical in this mortal conflict with global fundamentalism -
a conflict we cannot afford to lose

i believe hillary is capable of responding to polls and election dynamics but in her heart she kinda
oldschool (much like myself) as reflected in the unfortunate clinton political m o

and i believe obamas call for healing reflects the needs of our time and place, granted he is relatively
young but sometime thats whats called for - i can only hope that he will grow into the role

i think obama is the real thing and that he reflects a yearning for what america
stands for at its best, the vision of what america could be -

something we, after 7 years of bush and 20 years of the rightwing ascendancy,
so desperately need

----------------

rickydoc flowers: rootsblog

TUESDAY

hello world

was thinking about my last post, about being a warprophet
most black prophets have been war prophets because we been  a people under assault,

when i read the local memphis paper online back in syracuse im always struck by how much
everything is interpreted through the prism of race

i think sometime how glad i am to have escaped all that, but in many ways ive carried
it with me, because im always maneuvering for black empowerment,

everything i do say think be about empowerment of the black generations,
basically im always on a war footing

but i am very cognizant that the nature of the conflict has changed
im very conscious of the fact that the struggle has become internal

so when i speak im generally speaking to the black soul and self perception

and ive settled in for the longhaul, changing the black soul is going to be a generations long effort
so im much more conciliatory than confrontational in my political tone these days and ive often

sensed that im out of step with the younger generation when i blow the warhorn
the gathering of the tribes, is always a last resort, the warhorn is a failure

of strategy, when we been backed into a corner - the sudan for instance
the warhorn is always a problem for internal conflicts like the one in kenya right now

when all i can do is watch it deteriorate, without the ability to actively influence it
secret society effort is trying to get concrete power in the world for future hoodoo generations

as for myself i am what i am, ima live and die a warrior
i come from a long line of racemen and racewomen

going to fort pillow to remind myself thats ita aluta continua to the day i die
and then some

obama got a different type of warhorn
a 21st century warhorn

some folk denigrate the magical negro trope, but i think its a powerful trope
and i play it myself, black america has always been americas soul, conscious and consciousness

it is the geas of rickydoc, responsibility for humanitys destiny
and its march unto its ever greater self,

what obama at his best personifies
represent my brother, rickydoc got your back

i got to try to elevate my obama commentary
from black strategics to what it means to america and the world

aluta continua

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

MONDAY

hello world, clintons starting to piss me off
that last post of mine i realized i was dumping on hillary

and tried to draw back from that, but they keep on dumping
on obama with that attack machine of theirs and trotting out

their trained negroes to make sleazy attacks they want to be able to disavow, now they got bob johnson, founder of bet, signifying on obama for his masters

"As an African-American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book,"

called up on it, he claim he was just talking about obamas community organizing, well since when has community organizing been something to be shamed of

bob johnson been a sellout since day one, making millions off shake your booty programming
is his idea of community organizing,

him and massa clinton both need to go sit down somewhere
obama aint blameless, i agree that hillarys king comments were blown out of proportion

got to keep perspective that a primary fight should not become a bloodletting
to point it becomes a freebie for republicans

obama, brother you need to try to get above this, i know you got to knuck when
the knuck called for, but to let this become a racial brawl works against you

counter what you got to counter but try to stay on the highground
something i probably need to remember too, im basically a war prophet

i try to be an illuminated voice, spreading blessings and mojo when i can, like some
colored johnny appleseed, a dali lama type spiritual force, all beatific and all, jesusmodel

but its when the warhorn blow that i really earn my keep

in the name of the conqueror
rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world,

since im stuck down here in the delta another week or so, think maybe i will
trek on down to fort pillow, fort pillow a core scene in rest for the weary

scene already written so no real need to go back down there but fort pillow put me
in a serious state of mind, a remember fort pillow state of mind

whitefolk down here so proud of the fort pillow massacre they rebuilt it
and maintain it as a kind of delta shrine - its a shrine to me too

was thinking about a statement I made in the previous post about having marginal
power in the real world as writer/intellectual/shaman/would be prophet

my power is ideological, influencing how folk think and thats very longgame, effective destinic power but not very effective in influencing current events, crises and opportunities - but i would like to have that power too

thats why im always trying to organize writers and hoodoos, both two very invididually inclined players, herding cats surely must be easier but such is life,

you play the cards you are dealt and these are my two stomping grounds

very powerful stomping grounds actually and i wouldn’t have it any other way

I do so love the longgame

writers are easier than hoodoos, hoodoos are hard, i been trying to do this hoodoo
secret society thing, but secret societies are very hard to pull off in the real world,

and the possibility for missteps very profound, might end up like the catholic church or something

ah but the potential, the potential, this little task ive taken upon myself, guide and guardian of the tribal
soul and destiny, shaping the destiny of blackfolk and all humanity, is likely not doable in my lifetime

what i got to do is forge the hoodoo way into a spiritual tradition that will take up this task generation after generation after generation, a system that will constantly evolve and illuminate itself, a system that . . . .

ah, perhaps im telling a little too much of my business - i get to wailing and dont know when to quit

as a delta mythmaker, much of my commentary is self referential - i am my greatest myth
but that constant refrain of me me me mythwork often embarrass me (and perhaps bore you)

back in syracuse i got a little system for keeping up with whats happening in the world
but here in the delta its just me and my roots, family, spiritual, magical, literary

the delta mess with my head, i need to chill out
and just put all this in my novel, where it belong

all my love

rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world, still in the delta

more difficult to keep my 'finger on the pulse' here
(another one of sekous riff ive stolen over the years)

been keeping up with my boy obama best i can
was a little disappointed he didnt take new hampshire

but it bes that way sometime, aint no easy roads - but the idea has begun
to intrigue me, i would like to see what he would do as president

should be an interesting run, i believe he would be different - hillary, for
all of being a woman, is pretty oldschool conventional as a politician

and leader - clinton redux

if anything, hillary, stagecraft tears notwithstanding, is kinda macho
feeling a need to prove herself tough enuf

obama would be a new relationship with a world
and our relationship with the world is in radical need of adjustment

his beyond partisanship rhetoric seems sincere, as opposed to hillarys polldriven
devotion to change, likability and emotional stagecraft

after 8 years of bush divisionism and 2 decades of rightwing ascendancy
hopefully obama embodies a need in american politics but again that might just

be me projecting, same way i feel about obama, i once felt about hillary
and still do, can live with obama, hillary or edwards

thing to do is not let this become a bloodletting, a racial/gender bloodletting
because that just reminds the american electorate of what bothers them about both candidates

its because obama got to walk that post racial line im going to give him
a temporary dispensation to be strategic

as a literary man/shaman my power in the realworld is

kinda marginal, i can be a part of the public dynamic of definition thru rootsblog commentary, i
can give strategic advice, moral advice, call him out when i think he is drifting from what he could

be at his best - likely he/you wont ever notice my advice, but you never know, good work carries
its own power, i can try to be prophetic in my analysis, try to determine how dynamics

are going to play out and position myself and my constituency for power
try to guide and empower my 3 warrior clans (community, bougie and radical activists, in particular my ideological orchestrators)

basically continue to try to function as tribal shaman - guide and guard
trying to shapeshift contemporary power dynamics that affect the tribal soul and destiny

which at this moment and time
are embodied in barack obama

im outta here, family calls

been getting good novelwork done
i been in a very serious state of mind

all my love
rdoc