When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters-one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. Wherever there is crisis there is danger, but if you have a group of people that can do different things and have different strengths it makes it easier to accomplish seemingly impossible goals.

For Senator Barack Hussein Obama, the question as to whether he was black enough to be the first serious African American candidate to secure his party’s nomination for the President of the United States of America was the ultimate litmus test.  White America seconded the motion by handing Senator John McCain a resounding defeat.  So, what is better than a White House Pass?  For the Obama’s it’s living there!

As for opportunity, the pendulum in history swings this way and that.  On the other hand, we cannot just talk about it we must be about the change we need as a nation.  The bleeding hearts of America can no longer comfortably hold onto the past and what might have been.  Whether red or blue states, opportunities multiply as they are seized; they die when neglected.

We have seized this moment in our time, not to perish in the flames of non-relevance or irreverence but to rise, like the phoenix from its ashes, high above our past crises.  This history cannot be denied.  We must reach across the aisle to those legislators, who refuse to do business as usual and give America the change it deserves, a change to believe in.

“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men,” said Brook Westcott.  “Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at least some crisis shows us what we have become.”

America, the beautiful, with its cross-cultural counter-cultures has risen to soar beyond the amber waves of grain.  Gone are the traditional strains of familiar songs that defined the purple mountain majesty above the fruited plain in a non-contextual innuendo.  The reverberating Barack Obama victory has now permeated the air with a new song around the world.  It is a new song of America, a diverse America teaching the world to sing in a diversity of harmony—“Yes We Can.”

Character is not made in a crisis—it is only exhibited.  All America is in a state of emergency with its economic, energy, and environmental woes; and then there is the war.  However, it is possible that in spite of the four decades since the signing of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the end of the Civil Rights Movement, the strides that were made have been eclipsed by the obvious disparities that continue to exist.  Yet, we have survived the fallout and the bailout because our eyes are on a bigger prize.

The road sometimes to success is not a road after all, but a super-highway to panoramic change.  Our country has handed the torch of Lady Liberty to one who will sign fresh legislation with an indelible mark that can obliterate or otherwise render the color line opaque in politics as usual.  How will he do so?  He can do it by remaining calm and profoundly unthreatening as he navigates uncharted waters, and using his faith as a compass.

Robert McAfee Brown draws our attention to a late medieval manuscript in which appears these words: “The Church is something like Noah’s Ark; if it weren’t for the storm outside, we could not stand the smell inside.”  President-elect Obama and his transition team are to be commended for the task before them and the change they must construct for all Americans.  They have weathered the election storm outside, now they must not be overcome by the sweet smell of success on the inside.  It’s time to go to work.

For whatever indecent and negative advertising that was committed or even perceived to be so, there is no future without forgiveness. Although our human rights and social infrastructure has been weakened and badly damaged, we must take an active role in “damage control” and through forgiveness attempt to heal those who have need of healing.

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.  Obama was not seeking greatness he just wanted to be President of the United States of America.  This was no personal or political gain, only an opportunity to be a conduit for change and people underestimate their capacity for change until it finally arrives.  Is there ever a right time to pursue a difficult task?  If not, then a leader’s task is to help people have a vision of their potential.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.  A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.  Without vision, people will perish.  For this reason, we must be willing to walk the rubble-strewn path of intolerance and social injustice until it leads to the road of restoration—afterward victory and history that cannot be denied.  Thank you Martin, Barack and thank you God.  Yes, We Can.

Committed to Continue,

Rev. Jerome C. Chambers

Rev. Jerome C. Chambers, President

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