A Black Man Will Be President--Why Can't I Smile?

The first black man in history has been elected president of the United States. With my love for Africa, I should be out dancing in the streets. I have a black daughter and two black granddaughters. I should be shouting for joy. I know the encouragement this is to all my African American friends. Just to think that it could be done, that we've come that far, that such a thing is now possible. I should be dancing all night, like the schoolkids used to do in Congo the day after exams were over, as they did in Ghana when they defeated the American team in football. I went out and celebrated with them. We drove around town and honked and cheered and wrapped our heads in the Ghana football flag. For black people, the election of a black president is a far greater victory. Why can't I celebrate now?


I can't. Yes, it's wonderful just to know that a person of color can achieve such a status. Yes, I'm thrilled about that. But to have this specific black man as president causes me great distress. I'm distressed because he has promised Planned Parenthood that the first bill he will sign will be a Freedom of Choice Act overturning all present restrictions on abortion like parental notification and all of it. Yet what kind of babies are eliminated more frequently than any other kind by abortion? Black babies.



I'm distressed because I've been reading that he plans to immediately restore funding for UNFPA which would use US taxpaper dollars to fund abortions overseas, even funding forced abortion in China. But me, I love Africa. That's the special place in the world that God has laid on my heart, in addition to my own homeland. It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach to think that my tax dollars may be used to fund abortions of precious African babies. Yet it appears that such things are very high on O'Bama's agenda--so important that they may happen right away almost as soon as he is sworn in.



Well, if it happens, I intend to raise my voice. I hope that others will not be so caught up in their own economic problems that they fail to raise their voices as well. The Bush administration might be criticized on many points, but policies that disregard the human lives of the unborn are NOT THE CHANGE WE WERE LOOKING FOR.



I have a suggestion for Mr. O'Bama. All presidents find that it's easier to make promises than it is to keep them. We know you made pro-abortion promises, and the American people were so caught up in their own miseries that they hardly noticed. Please, you don't have to carry through on every promise. Don't carry through on this one. Please. Why destroy your own people? Please.