NIG**R PLEASE - It's the White House!

Today, I received an email with the photo displayed here. After reading and digesting the message emblazoned on the back of this biker's t-shirt, I could not help but wonder where the US of A will be on November 5, 2008. When I think about this honestly, it is a feeling that is hard to explain and quite perplexing. I'm confident however, that regardless of who wins, there will be backlash. After almost two years of campaigning, America ( in this election cycle) has been forced to examine gender, class and race like never before.

For many, the debates and resulting conversations have allowed us to examine the idea of being marginalized based on perceived group association, look at the victim as the one blamed for his/her circumstance while in other cases victims have been described as individuals who have not taken advantage of every opportunity to achieve, advance, or simply reach the heights of one's ambitions.

When you have two Presidential candidates like John McCain and Barack Obama who have both triumphed and are perceived by their supporters as people who could have fallen victim to their circumstance but have both chosen the path to Victory, how do we put things into context? How do we begin to analyze their accomplishments and/or failures?

In a global climate where so many people are being stripped of life as they have come to know it, the question is how will WE respond? For the first time as part of the global family, we are being forced to examine all those things that make us great as well as those things that make us small, while under scrutiny of the entire world.