AN EXAMINED LIFE.

As we begin the new year and I approach the anniversary of my entry into this dimension under the moons of Capricorn, I reflect on the the way things were, the way they are, and the way I continue to dream they will be.

On the one hand, I am old enough to remember when Ms. Shirley Chisholm dared to take on the American political establishment, American conventions, the American patriarchy, and all the naysayers, who maintained archaic, Victorian, oppressive, racialized and misogynistic ideas about women generally and Black women, specifically. Back then, I had no ideas of where I fit in the American racial divide that limited the spectrum of the vast array of hues comprising the human family, into only two categories, Black and White.

It was a time when my White maternal grandfather and Black maternal grandmother, my Indian grandmother and Indian father were still alive, all of whom, I shared strong consistent familial bonds for the greater portion of my childhood and young adult years. It was a time when I knew with no uncertainty, that while I looked phenotypically Indian, I was as Black and as White, as I was Indian; as Jewish and aHindu, as I was Christian. It was, and has always been crystal clear to me, that I was the vision of the Great God Almighty himself, Asiatic, Caucasic and Negroid; I am them all.

I remember as a teen, feeling forced to fit my multicultural, multiethnic, cross-National identity into the limiting and limited categories created by society and enforced through social engineering. I didn’t buy into it then, and I still don’t, now. You see, history notwithstanding, my family and I are the products of bonds of love that dared to defy conventions in their respective eras. We exist because of beautiful visions of unity and togetherness seized against odds, and nurtured. I can trace us back centuries to the various continents we have existed on. I share genetic ancestry and culture with all people; those who love and support togetherness, unity and the oneness of humanity, as well as those who are against it. They who are accept the scientific fact of the oneness of the human race and those who have bought into “alternative truths” and false narratives with no foundation in science or reality, that leaves them blind to the ties that bind us all into one humanity.

On the other hand, I am young enough to have witnessed Hillary Clinton’s struggle against the very same societal conventions, decades after Ms. Chisholm’s trailblazing, pioneering effort to disestablish and topple the oppressive ideologies with truths in the face of falsities that create divisive factions in our society, inciting the recent debacle at the Capital, where angry mobs led an insurrection against change and the disestablishment of the junk theories and the falsehoods that have undergirded our social, political, and therefore, economic systems in America.

Yes, I am young enough to have witnessed Barack Obama win the presidency of these United States of America in the 21st Cantury, bringing the “chickens” of the ‘Marbury v. Madison’ and ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’ Supreme Court decisions, home to roost in the White House, the symbol of American Citizenry. This is the power, the beauty, the dynamism of the American constitutional Democracy.

It was Socrates who said, “an unexamined life is not worth living”.

As I examine my life on the eve of another Birthday, and look to the future to the remainder of my existence, I look with the hope of Dr. Martin Luther King’s, “I have a Dream” Speech, for a better America, a better world. Dr. King dreamt that dream and selflessly implanted it in our souls when we could scarcely imagine the manifestation of its reality, so that I, you, we, can live today, in such a time as this; where we will witness a woman, who matured beyond the very same challenge of identity I experienced as a child, ascend beyond barriers, conventions, oppressive artificial ceilings, racism and misogyny, to hold the second highest seat in the land.

Kamala Harris, your journey, your victories, your shortcomings, the mistakes you have rebounded from, “YOU,” represent the manifestation of the dreams and aspirations of this woman who grew up from a scared, shy, young immigrant girl brought to these United States, who struggled to maintain an individual identity while learning to exist, navigate and become the proud American I am today. I thank you and all the ancestors who came before us, paving the path that you so deservedly walk today.