by Suzan-Lori Parks

NPR.org, January 16, 2009 ·

U Being U

U Being U
Mr. President-Elect
Makes me wanna get MY stuff
correct

I feel like starting with something RADICAL
Like,
Love my Neighbor
Like share what I’ve got
Like think for myself
Like ask the hard questions
Like lean toward the good and help keep the peace

U being U
Makes me wanna do something new
Like Go Green, or at least try to.

You being you, Mr. President-Elect
Makes me want to look on others with respect
Makes me wanna
practice Radical Inclusion, you know,
Open my heart wide, especially in the presence of folks who
Are not like me, you know,
work to see my Brother
In the Other
You make me want to entertain all my far-out ideas
Make me wanna represent the race, as in the human race,
And know that, like You, I too am Prized.

And to those who say yr a Magic Negro,
I love them just the same
And my love helps us weave a United States.

Mr. President,
Heaven sent
Since heaven is just a place where possibility
becomes possible
And where hostility
holsters
its hostile,
I feel like picking up the trash in the park or on the beach
I think I’ll teach, and learn, from all I meet
I think I’ll apologize in person for all our faults
and try to make amends for our shortcomings
And also, I think,
I’ll brag,
Just a little bit,
About how cool We The People are

Oh, I just had to sing you a little something
Because you,
Mr. President,
You are embarking with Us on an awesome and beautiful
And potentially perilous journey
And so I am giving you
All the Love
All the Love
All the Love
All the Love
Mr. President
That I’ve got
Because I believe
In the dream
And I am ready
To wake up
And live it.

Suzan-Lori Parks is a novelist and playwright. She is the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in drama for the play Topdog/Underdog.

All The Love For The President-Elect : NPR.

WASHINGTON — Framed by the Lincoln Memorial’s austere marble and facing a crowd of hundreds of thousands, President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday offered words of high inspiration about his forthcoming presidency that were interlaced with cautions about unrealistic expectations for quick remedies.

Two days before he is to take the oath of office at the Capitol, Mr. Obama addressed a crowd that began at his feet below Mr. Lincoln’s statue and stretched far down the Mall to the World War II memorial. The sea of people — scarf-wrapped and stocking-capped, shivering under gray skies and 35-degree temperatures — had poured onto the National Mall on Sunday afternoon to kick off three days of festivities to celebrate the inauguration.

In Washington, Uplifting Music and a Talk of Challenges – NYTimes.com.

The country’s top musical stars joined masses of ordinary Americans on the National Mall today to serenade President-elect Barack Obama, offering up an emotional and patriotic tribute to open the inaugural festivities for the nation’s first African American chief executive.

Onstage in front of the Lincoln Memorial, with sharpshooters clearly visible atop the marble roof, Obama told the gathered crowd that the optimism that fueled his historic campaign has not waned in the face of military and political challenges from abroad and an unprecedented economic crisis.

Obama Joins Crowd on Mall for Free Concert – washingtonpost.com.