Colors - The Premier Diversity Resource

ColorsNW is proud to present Toni K Walton-McMorris as December’s Reading Room Featured Author. A native of Detroit, the poet and children’s author has traveled extensively through Nigeria. Her poem was inspired by the speeches at the RNC Convention from Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani mocking Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer. “It was quite offensive, so I decided that it was time to pay tribute to community organizers of the past, present and inspire those of the future.”

 

The Community Organizer

by Toni K. Walton-McMorris

From the mountain tops of British Columbia                                            
To the waterfalls of Montezuma,                                                       
From the coastline of California to the Malindi Beach in Kenya,                
From the Kremlin to Rome, the Vatican and Pope Benedict                    
Even the White House secretly cheered                                               
“My God, Obama’s Won!”

The celebration can continue but the work must begin.
The challenges are great but with God
all things are possible and we are going to win.
So don’t sit down don’t turn off your lights,                                           
We need you to stand with us to reach a higher height.
It’s a celebration for Medgar, Martin and John.
It’s for Rosa and Harriet and Emmett Till’s mom.
That James, Michael and Andrew would lay down their lives,                    
For all to be counted, your vote and mine.                                         
Here we stand together, with gratitude and praise,                            
Honoring those like Viola who died paving the way.                                

It’s a victory Nelson, Jesse and Bishop Tutu                                         
For Oprah and Caroline and Maria Shriver too,                                       
For General Powell, Bill and Hillary Clinton.                                             
It’s for the CBC, NAACP and the DN Convention                                      
It’s a win for Hispanics, Cubans, bubbes and zaydes,                          
Africans, Arabs, Asians, Natives, youth, men and ladies                         
Seniors and veterans, from Florida to Michigan and Maine,                 
They’re shouting in the streets all over Spain.
From London to Sydney, Lagos and Edo State                                   
We’re building bridges, we’ll end the war with love and not hate.                

So keep hope alive and roll up your sleeves,                                         
Get involved wherever you are.                                                          
That’s the community organizer’s creed!

 

Queries for ColorsNW’s monthly Reading Room can be submitted to Nicole Kidder, Managing Editor, at nicolek@colorsnw.com. The selected Featured Author will receive compensation for their original, non-published work. A short bio and photo should accompany all submissions. 

 

ColorsNW 12/4/2008

 

 

Tags: auto:artsculture:opinion:1, obama, Toni K Walton-McMorris, tribute poem

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