This entry is going to be dreadfully off-topic, but there’s nothing I can do about it…<\/p>\n
Tuesday was my fiftieth birthday, and it was a day that went down in history. Not, of course, because of my birthday. As some of you may have heard, we had an election in the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0and the good guys won.<\/p>\n
As I watched the election coverage on Tuesday night, I was especially moved by the joy and tears of the crowd in Chicago,\u00c2\u00a0which seemed to me completely different from the usual joy that you see from the supporters of the winning side.\u00c2\u00a0It helped me understand something about this election that I had not quite gotten before. It was very interesting how the political experts, after denying that race was an issue, nevertheless talked most of the evening about race. I think that they missed the point, too.<\/p>\n
This election wasn’t about race<\/em>, it was about redemption<\/em>. In so many ways.<\/p>\n Over the past few days I’ve worked on a poem that tries to express what I saw in the faces of those people who listened to Barack Obama speak in Grant Park. Of course I’m not\u00c2\u00a0any kind of\u00c2\u00a0poet, but\u00c2\u00a0I’ve had a melody in my head for years that was waiting for words, and these seemed to be the words that fit. What Martin Said<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking about what Martin said, Now that forty years have come and gone, Forty years have come and gone, We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been traveling the pilgrim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s path, Traveling the pilgrim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s path, Now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come around the final bend, Come around the final bend, He said: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to the mountaintop, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to the mountaintop, Dana Mackenzie<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This entry is going to be dreadfully off-topic, but there’s nothing I can do about it… Tuesday was my fiftieth birthday, and it was a day that went down in history. Not, of course, because of my birthday. As some of you may have heard, we had an election in the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0and the good guys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[419,638,639,640],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-off-topic","tag-barack-obama","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-race","tag-redemption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nAnd how in the desert he found an oasis,
\nAnd never could I forget
\nWhat he told us so many years ago \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n
\n<\/strong>Thinking about what Martin said,
\nAnd I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in the desert long enough that I know.
\n
\n<\/strong>He said: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to the mountaintop,
\nSpoken with the angels and looked out in the distance
\nAnd I saw the Promised Land
\nAnd I asked them, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can we get there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes we can!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n
\n<\/strong>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to the mountaintop,
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the angels, and they told me that we can.<\/p>\n
\nWe don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a preacher, but we have a leader,
\nWho showed us a hidden road
\nEven though we did not know where it goes \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
\nWe found a leader who showed us the hidden road.<\/p>\n
\nWe started as hundreds but swelled into millions
\nAnd no matter where we went
\nOn this road, on this steep redemption road \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
\nBut one set of footsteps has always been there before.<\/p>\n
\nAnd shining in the distance, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the mountain,
\nAnd never again can doubt
\nWhat he told us so many years ago \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
\nCome see the mountain, remember what Martin said.<\/p>\n
\nSpoken with the millions who stood there assembled,
\nAnd I saw the Promised Land
\nAnd I asked them, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can we get there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes we can!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the millions, and they told me that we can.<\/p>\n