Angela Bacca

Lately I have been hearing a lot of talk about Barack Obama. It comes in tidbits of conversation, mostly from the mouths of TV pundits and once-source news readers who just aren‘t sure if America is ready for “change”. This “change” has gained a new and tacky meaning, one that assumes we are all inherently stupid. Nobody seems to be sure whether or not this country is ready for a Black president. I have even heard people say to each other, as if the words out of their mouths were an accepted fact “he would be assassinated if he ever gets elected.”

We only believe this flawed logic because we hear it on TV and repeat it, it has no basis in reality. These primary elections should be evidence enough of the change we as a society have already undergone in the last ten years alone. When we only had one portal of information- the radio and then the TV, information was easily filtered and manipulated by our government through mainstream media. Today we can find anyone in the worlds take on any given situation, we can watch footage of U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on you tube.com, and view pictures of Iraqi casualties. A million news and recreational entertainment sources have ingrained themselves permanently and quickly in our everyday lives.

We carry at least one computer, a potential news source, at ALL times in the form of a cell phone. The public library in every city has free fast DSL. Whole regions are being set up with free public wi-fi.

These primaries have shown also that, with the potential information we can gather at any time, we can make more informed and educated opinions about what is going on. The talking heads have miscalculated throughout this primary season, naming early winners and pulling statistics out of their asses.

When it comes to Barack Obama, they said he didn’t stand a chance with the White majority. The actual numbers have proven that wrong also.

And how hard is it that in this modern age we can hardly evolve past our primitive beliefs, beliefs in an ordered society of intelligence based on gender, religion, skin color, or ethnicity.

Do WE really believe that we haven’t evolved enough to reasonably be able to think critically, and make decisions based on fact and character rather than dwelling on the social orders we shackled ourselves and each other with in the past?

In short, some of the older, white, Christian men we have elected in the past were corrupted and they wronged us- and some of them weren’t and they didn’t.

It’s not about whether or not America is ready for a Black person, a woman, or a Mormon president- it is about whether or not we are ready to think critically about things that actually matter.

If the pundits really want to know what to believe or think, they should know this: we aren’t ready for a change, we already have.