SHAME ON ME!

Yes, shame on me! Now that  proclamation was not meant to be self-deprecating but instead to create self-awareness and propel me toward self-transformation. I am a self-confessed skeptic about many things especially people and systems not that the two are mutually exclusive anyway. My skepticism led me to make a choice not to vote in 2008, America did not have a predilection for someone whose cutaneous hue was as such but people proved me wrong. The sense of hope was palpable then but it was more than just electing a president it was the hope that maybe just maybe the ugliness of the past could be put behind us. So today the ugliness of the past is not behind us, but the larger population wanted it to be realizing that in the end it’s about issues that affect all people and so they voted. Watching the president take the oath of office in 2009 made me cry for many reasons. Seeing how much people hoped and wished to get away from the past and chose to make their voices count, watching someone from an unlikely background hold the highest office, finally having a reason to maybe take a step toward believing in systems again, and also being reminded of how ashamed I ought to be of myself for not being part of the process. So from that point on I decided to get off my high horse that was daintily clothed in pragmatism and jump into the rigorous, time consuming and sometimes painstaking process of doing so I VOTED, yes- early voted yesterday. Much to my suprise the heavens didn’t open up but I felt a huge rush of kryptonite when I pushed the red button labelled “cast your ballot”. I had just unleashed my power, the power that made me equal to everyone in any cadre of life since we all have been allotted one vote, and mine had just been counted. I also did something else that I would never have done- I received a request seeking signatures to change legislature and make public lynching a criminal act in Nigeria stemming from the Aluu4 tragedy. I saw it, ignored it as I always do because I felt it was a road to nowhere considering this was being done in Nigeria. I soon remembered the commitment I made to myself to be a verb and not just a noun and I signed it. I didn’t have anything to lose did I? and the worst that could happen was what I already believed so my actions couldn’t cause further damage. And so even though I feel that in Texas I already have an idea of who will win – likely not my candidate I still did my bit and participated in the process; and even though the signatures for the Aluu4 may remain just that I vow to continue to participate not because I think I will make a change but because I just might make a change, and so that I don’t ever again have to say shame on me for not participating! Moving Forward, I urge you to live your life as a verb, and rock the vote.