Are you useful?

Barak Obama was on Oprah last week to pitch his new book: The Audacity of Hope. I haven’t read it, but I plan to buy it. But, not only did he talk about the premise and subject of his book, he talked about his family and ambitions to possibly to be President of the United States. I would vote for him based on these reasons alone: 1. Extremely brilliant (Harvard Law Review Editor, duh!); 2. Beautiful, black wife (hello, she’s a gets a touch-up every 6 weeks, can you feel me ladies???); and 3. Progressive thinker (he says “can we stop re-litigating the 60s”). But, what I found so interesting is his answer to one of O’s questions: What value do you want Americans to have most? His response: he wants everyone to ask themselves “Are you useful?” The gravity of that simple question is astonishing. What are giving to the world, to your community, to your family? If you have the means or the time or both how useful are you? The question comes to mind when you think of the silliness of the material world. Example: the world of music videos shows the downward spiral of society. A shift in the paradigm that is ushering in hyper-materialism, hyper-sexualization, and hyper-shallowness. I view rap videos from the 90s and 80s; and, I see people of all races, people of all beauty levels, people of all sizes. I see the real world. But now you see only one type of woman, one type of size, one type of ‘race.’ This leads me to think about how we are so self-center now as an American society; therefore, useless to others. There are white actors and actresses adopting kids from all over the world. And, contrary to the tricknowledgy news, so are average Joes and Joannes. But, I don’t see any Black celebrities doing this? Maybe they are but its not being covered. Doubtful. Black celebrities, besides Oprah, seem to care about building more wealth for themselves (possibly the family members & friends), than giving to the world. What if a group of celebrities adopted the ‘urban’ areas of major American cities? O you got Chi-town. Diddy and Jay-Z hold down NYC. Spike & Denzel take care of LA. What if all the rappers got together to make a pact that in 10 years every Black person of majority age will have a diploma or a GED? (small steps) I question how useful am I? I mean, how useful are you?

I ramble, please forgive me.