A breath of air, however fresh, finds its way to the aftermath of a traumatic event, however traumatic. Protests are still shaking Ferguson, militarization is still haunting Iraq, and The Union is still franchising the workforce. America has a domestic case on its hands that resembles the days of origin where Manifest Destiny was just practicing an identity, yet America’s President finds his way into the rust belt where industrial concerns thrive to stimulate economic hope.
What was most impacting about President Obama’s visit to Milwaukee’s Labor Festival was not so much the convenience of the words workers want to hear on the first Monday in September every year or the personal compassion surrounding a motorcade blocking the street you travel to get to and from work everyday, but the true facts about how workers can maintain beyond Congress’ approval were revived. The fact is that there is still an incommunicable gap between the poor, middle-class, and wealthy. The fact is that there is still a question about whether that gap will ever be consolidated by raising minimum wage for poor and middle-class or raising taxes for rich and wealthy. The fact is that there is still a two-party system in majority control that have yet to ask the same questions, thus hindering an answer that will set us on common ground, let alone the moon, which the President joked as an example of how Congress views demands.
The President joked, “I am not asking for the moon,” but the truth is that Congress does not want us thinking of the moon or a moonpie until they are ready to send us to the moon whenever NASA is thinking of new technology that infringes on the mere idea of privacy. Another truth is that the factors behind Congress’ indecisive nature still travel back to the forbidden fruits of our labor called race, gender, and sexuality that can make or break identity, which is why we have a two-party system that infringes on the mere imagination of complexity. Another truth is that even when Congress is organizing tea parties and the President is on vacation, the American people are descendants of the values that are necessary to manifest our purpose beyond policy.
That truth was not only the highlight of President Obama’s speech in the city yesterday, but it served as a light to remind us of the power of the people. Though there is a government that regulates, how we initiate does not depend on the external matters that be the world. Our focus cannot be so much in overruling the government that we undermine our internal matters that become the changes in the world.
For the price of the value of hard work cannot go documented or undocumented by Congress because our vision for the meaning of hard work must exceed our facts about money in sight to achieve our faith about education in the future. Our vision must educate each other on what is being fed, and educate our children on how to feed. Our vision must raise the awareness of what America refuses to see, and raise our spiritual maturity to accept that America may never see what the American People can if we fight for the identities that create humanitarianism before patriotism.
Peace,
Sister Kahrima
dialogue 