"Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us" -- James Weldon Johnson

I remember where I was on the days when John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assasinated. Those were all historic days in this country, blots on our collective memory, ending earlier efforts to bring about tranformative change in this country. For the last several months I have fretted over whether or not elements of the ugly underbelly of America would take down Barack Obama.

Years ago, we sang "Which side are you on?" when we marched. At that time, we were registering unprecedented numbers of voters in the South. This year's voter registration efforts blow that effort out of the water. Though superstitious, I felt pretty positive today as I voted. No sign here of the late openings, machine breakdowns and lack of paper ballots that are being negotiated in other parts of the county. Surely this transformative campaign with a philosophy that is light years from that of the current administration -- and which has involved so many citizens new to the process -- will prevail over what is mean-spirited, regressive, and just not smart enough to get us out of this terrible mess we are in.

"Lift every voice and sing" by James W. Johnson reminds us that yes, we can. And that we will start today.