Welcome/BIENVENIDOS LABUGA LIVINGSTON

On “Day One” of the next chapter in the history of the World, I take this opportunity to congratulate president elect Barack Obama and take great pride in having believed in him from the beginning, as demonstrated by a message I received recently stating,  “You were one of the first million people to own a piece of this campaign.

You helped build this movement when the odds were long and Election Day was far in the future. Now, in exactly one week, we have a very real chance of electing Barack Obama the nextPresident of the United States.” Last night while I sat with my fellow Garinagu watching the election results, I received another that stated We just made history. And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

It was on June 6^th, when Barack won the Democratic party nomination that I wrote this article under the title “Why I support Barack Obama” and mentioned that it was my brother Tomas Alberto who introduced me to Barack Obama first by talking to me about him and then through his 2006 Christmas present of Barack’s book “The Audacity of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”.

  
I also mentioned that my friends were surprised when they found out that I was a Barack supporter, after all Hillary is the Junior Senator from New York and everyone knows that NY is a blue state! You can imagine their reaction when I told them that I’m not even a Democrat but I am an independent Black man. 

  
As a Black man who knows the history of the struggle for the Civil and voting rights, I could not in good conscience betray our forefathers who fought for a better future for the next generations, therefore, supporting the only African American candidate, was a forgone conclusion. However, my support for Barack was not JUST because he was Black! It was also based on what I’ve always believed,  that given the opportunity to compete fairly in a level playing field, we are as capable if not more so, than those that have oppressed us for centuries. It is that belief that has allowed me to be impartial and rational in my decision making process rather than partisan and emotional.  
  
As a Garifuna from the village of Cristales who arrived to the US as a teenager and achieved HIS dream despite the racial discrimination that existed at the time, I understood what the audacity of hope was all about. It was what allowed me to succeed at Bentley College when minorities represented 2% of the student population and in my professional career, where typically, I’ve been one of two or the only minority. 

  
At the beginning I mentioned the “next chapter” and that is because we cannot forget that it was Rosa Park’s courage to sit in the front of the bus, that led to Martin Luther King’s walks,  that Edward William Brooke III was a senator for Massachusetts and the first African American to be elected by popular vote to the United States Senate and he was also the first African American elected to the Senate since the 19th century, and would remain the only person of African heritage sent to the Senate in the 20th century until Carol Mosley Braun in 1993.  We ca not forget that  Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm became the first African American woman elected to Congress and eventually,  became the first major party African-American candidate for President of the United State in 1972. Jesse Jackson followed her footsteps in 1984 and 24 years later Barack Obama has been elected to be the 44^th president of the United States of America!

As we celebrate “Day One”, it is great to see that first million became 62,521,378, Americans who sided with history and together wrote the next chapter in world history! Congratulations to President elect Barack Obama for proving that Yes We Can!

José Francisco Avila