The Editor, Sir:

Who would have thought that the 'skinny kid with the funny name' would become president-elect of the United States of America? Not so long ago Barack Obama would have been lynched or beaten severely for even speaking harshly to a white man, much less considering running for top political office in a predominantly white and still very racist country. God truly elevates those who trust and believe.

What does his win mean for Jamaicans? This win must be a wake-up call for all Jamaicans especially our young men. It does not matter where you are from, you can rise to greatness. The great crusade of Jesus Christ involved the elevation of ordinary people: the woman at the well, the man with leprosy, a prostitute, a poor widow.

We must begin to validate our young men. We must begin to really educate our young men. Only then will we change the pervasive criminality that threatens our freedom. The very freedom that our ancestors fought and died for.

Today the African Americans can sing a new song 'We have overcome' but when will we be able to sing a new song in Jamaica?

We cannot continue to slaughter our children from uptown, downtown, across town, rural town and hope to build a Jamaica with a prosperous future. When we murder and maim our children we kill the future Olympians, leaders, change-makers. How do we know that we have not killed a future 'Barack Obama' in the young boy butchered and placed in a rice bag, the young girl or baby who is sexually molested, the myriad of children who have been killed and whose bodies have been dumped like garbage?

Socially and morally bankrupt

We too, must use the win of President-elect Barack Obama to motivate our young to aspire for greatness. We must help our children to recognise that it is not the colour of their skin that is important but the strength of their mind and the deep desire to rise up and stand tall.

For too long in Jamaica we have allowed prejudice to dictate how we view each other and how we make political and economic decisions. Socially and morally we have hit bankruptcy. Our young and unaware are bleaching their skin for acceptance in a nation that still elevates people based on a narrow-minded perspective of skin colour and material trappings of wealth, as the symbols of the worth of a man, or woman. We must change our thinking to change our future or we will certainly perish!

Today is a day that Claude McKay, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr, William E. Dubois, Bob Marley, Medgar Evers, Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Henry Louis Gates Jr ... could only have imagined. Black men all across the world must stand tall and know that with God all things are possible. It is a great day to be alive!!!

I am, etc.,

LORNA GREEN

accompong@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica

'It is more than time for us to take the shackles off our minds and dream, take the shackles off our hands and reach; achieve, take the shackles off our feet and get in the race. 'Oh yes we can!'