Barack ("the Blessed") Obama

My daughter Susie and me at a Barack Obama (Democratic) headquarters, CA

My blog on Obama, "The Joshua Generation has entered the Promised Land"
I grew up with the Moses Generation -- Civil Rights Era from 1950's to 1960's -- where I witnessed the march of freedom from Selma, Alabama to Washington D.C. and heard the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr. We envisioned his dream together in the late 60's and waited for the day when we would stand together at the mountain top and see the promised land of racial equality. I lived to see the day when the Joshua Generation -- 21st Century -- entered the Promised Land as the voice of the people spoke and selected Barack Obama as the President of these United States. I am proud to have voted for the man who spoke for all Americans when he said, "There are no blue states and no red states -- there's just the United States!" We have entered the Promised Land together!

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Campaign will Launch 'Joshua Generation Project' -- June 6, 2008

The name is based on the biblical story of how Joshua's generation led the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Obama spoke about the "Joshua Generation" in a speech he gave in Selma, Alabama in March of 2007. Read part of that speech below. It will give you a good idea of where the Obama campaign is heading with this effort:

Obama: "I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we've got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You'll see it. You'll be at the mountain top and you can see what I've promised. What I've promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I've fulfilled that promise but you won't go there. We're going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn't mean that they don't still have a burden to shoulder, that they don't have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what's called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?"


Obama's Speech to Congress on the American Jobs Act

President Obama Delivers Remarks at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Dedication, October 16, 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Dedication, October 16, 2011