let me be the first to extend my congratulations to a fellow chicagoan, and as a military member, to my new commander-in-chief:

congratulations president obama! you did it!

so as an army officer, i’m really not supposed to publicly comment on politics. so i won’t. (but as an aside, it’s funny that, having sworn an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, i may at any moment be called upon to give my life for it, yet as a servicemember i do not even enjoy the freedoms it guarantees! but that’s another story. don’t get meneley started on that one!) instead i’ll make more of a “social commentary.”

let me just say this: glass ceiling? what glass ceiling? it’s a great day to be black in america! for the first time ever, an african american has made it to the very top. this is an unprecedented opportunity to provide young blacks with a strong role model to look up to. the argument that you can only get so far as an african-american is gone, out the window. it’s about time! now i’m not saying that prejudice doesn’t exist. as a victim of it, i know well that it still exists! but what i am saying is that there is nowhere a person cannot go and nothing a person cannot achieve—no matter their skin color or what the obstacles—if that person truly put his or her mind to it.

the biggest challenge facing the african-american community today is not external; the biggest challenge comes from within. many blacks were put at a disadvantage historically. so were many hispanics, asians, native americans, and even whites—like the irish—for that matter. blacks are not alone. but the challenge is not how to level the playing field to allow blacks to succeed; it’s how to succeed in spite of it, and through this success, force the field to level. it’s easy to fall into a culture of blame and despair; it’s easy to point one’s finger at the “white man” and say “the white man is holding me down!” but that get’s you nowhere. it’s much harder to say, i accept that things are a certain way, even though i don’t like it, and i will succeed in spite of it. that’s what jackie robinson did. that’s what martin luther king, jr. did. that’s what so many blacks who paved the way did, and that’s what brought about real change.

i’m merely echoing bill cosby when i say that, within the black community, too many people are willing to play the blame game. too many people give up hope. too many people are seduced by the easy thing instead of the right thing. and too many people are seduced by a hip hop culture that preaches sex, drugs, violence, and money—a pretty despicable and degrading message. where are the fathers? why are there so many black children that don’t have fathers? where are the black youth aspiring to go to college, not become the next 50 cent?

don’t think i’m picking on blacks. i have some pretty scathing things to say about asians, hispanics, and whites as well.

but for all this, i’m excited. as an american, and as a person that hopes that one day all people can live together in peace and mutual respect—no matter what the skin color, place of origin, religious belief, gender, or even sexual orientation—i am truly excited.

barack obama gives us an unprecedented chance to rise above it all. he’s the role model black youth for so long have needed. he is the proof that in america, anything is possible.

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