What’s up y’all, welcome to the Yes We Will blog at BET.com, where a few of us will be serving up a regular slice of delicious blogitude for those of you with an appetite for affirmative analysis. Now I know it seems a bit counter-intuitive to welcome you with “A Fond Farewell,” but I think it is most appropriate given the historic nature of what is happening in our country.Yesterday I watched as our soon-to-be ex-President George W. Bush gave his Farewell Address to the nation. The most remarkable thing about this speech in my eyes, was it’s genuine lack of “remarkability.” After 8 years, 2 wars, 4,000 US soldiers dead, hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq & Afghanistan, 3,000 citizens of the globe lost on 9/11/2001 (including my Uncle Japhet, may he rest in peace), the gutting of American moral standing around the world, and a global economic crisis well under way…after all this the man at the heart of the greatest social, political and economic maelstrom in our lifetimes left by saying…nothing.Amazing. The speech was of such little significance that even Resident Gangster-in-Chief, Vice-President Cheney couldn’t keep his eyes open. Bush stood and spoke, and as he issued the same revisionist platitudes his minions have been dropping for weeks, my eyes and my ears glazed over as I reflected on what had really happened. I saw the images of bombs dropping over Baghdad, of suicide bombings in London, Madrid, Bali and Tel Aviv. I saw images of Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi civilians crying out in pain and anger as they carried the lifeless bodies of their loved ones, and of American citizens crying out in similar strains – those too young, too old or too poor to run as the waters washed their lives away.I reflected on all of this, then opened my eyes to see our Commander-in-Chief droning on about what he believes he has accomplished during his time in office. I said a bad word out loud…ok maybe I said a couple. And then I breathed in long and deep and exhaled a smile. Because on Tuesday this long night in American history will be over.

Why welcome you with a farewell? Because we are saying goodbye to the way things were and looking forward to a new day. Leading up to the Inauguration of our new President we’ll be shouting you out with our thoughts on life, the universe and the future of this lil’ world we live in. As we say “Peace” to the past and embrace a brighter day I’d say it’s worth reflecting on the images that defined the world as it was under Bush. Because in the America reborn under President Barack Obama, it will be incumbent upon us to stand up and be counted Every Day in service of the world we want to live in. The die is cast, an old day past and a new one beckons for us to give our very best. Will we be up to the task?

Yes We Will.

D.N.A

TAGS: Barack Obama, Bush, Derrick Ashong, Inauguration, Iraq, Israel, Katrina, Lebanon, Obama, Palestine, Politics, terrorism

Comments (37)