WAKE UP: YOU ARE NOW LIVING HISTORY

Who do you want to be today? What's so special about Thursday, August 28, 2008? When do you plan to thank God for the breath that's in your lungs? Where are you going in your life? Why should you be happy to be alive? How do we get even further than we are today?

All six of those questions begin with the starting words that journalists are taught to ask their subjects. Who, what, when, where, why and how. Allow me to add a seventh query to the list:

Do you care enough to be alive at this crucial time in history?


Today is the 45th anniversary of the deliverance of the so-called "I Have a Dream" speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a titan among all men, not just African-Americans. If my math is correct, he would be 79 years old today, if he were not assasinated by cowards who did not want to allow change to come about in American society. Unfortunately, like many great men and women who sought to make a difference in the way the world works, he was stopped short before he could see the future he helped develop with his own eyes.





Fortunately for the continuing development of African-American culture - and that is not to say that I don't wish that all cultures continue to develop, besides white supremacists - we have new heroes. Of course, Senator Barack Obama, who was nominated last night as the Democratic nominee for POTUS, is an outstanding, shining example. But there are others, oh my brothers and sisters.

You and I are included in that number of saints who can now march forward into tomorrow with pride, dignity, integrity and purpose. This morning is a great morning, and it is the foundation upon which the future will be built. So please, PLEASE, get your punk ass out of bed and join the rest of the new civilized world.

We are now evolved.