By Michael P Coleman
There’s a buzz around presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s pick for a running mate. He’s rumored to be preparing an announcement for next week. Biden has pledged to pick a woman, and most believe she will be a dynamic, history-making woman of color.
I’ve an idea for Biden’s perfect running mate: Dr. Maya Angelou. I’ve even got their campaign slogan:
Biden / Angelou — Let’s Do Better
No, I’ve not lapsed into insanity…yet. I know Maya transitioned six years ago. But I am suggesting that whoever Biden picks (and my vote’s on Sen. Kamala Harris), the Democratic ticket has to embody Angelou’s indomitable spirit in order for all of us to cross the finish line on November 3rd.
While Angelou’s most famous friend is Oprah Winfrey, and her most popular published work is her seminal 1969 memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the doctor entered the zeitgeist due to pithy phrases that stuck with readers.
I had the blessing of meeting Angelou over 15 years ago in Detroit. I was an emotional wreck at the time, beating myself up over perceived failures and drifting from my life’s purpose. As I approached Angelou at a meet-and-greet after one of her sold-out talks, I felt like the woman in the Bible who knew that she just needed to touch the hem of Jesus’s garment. If I could just get to Maya, I knew she might set my spirit free, so I pressed my way to her.
In a few short words, Angelou delivered me from my self-inflicted doldrums and set me on a path that led me from Michigan to California, and quite possibly to writing this column.
She’ll do the same thing for the country, putting us back on the right path, if Biden, his running mate, and the rest of us listen to what are, perhaps, Angelou’s most quoted words of wisdom.
Thanks to Winfrey, we all know Angelou’s “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Over the years and since the doctor’s passing, many have amended her words, adding “…the first time” and other superfluous stuff that Maya didn’t need to make her point.
But while that one could certainly be applied to the Oval Office’s current occupant — we need to believe Trump when he’s spewing hatred and insanity — that’s not the Angelou quote that will lead us to victory this fall.
Angelou also said “When you know better, do better.”
For almost four years, since I sat in a bar one mild November evening and watched state after state hand the most powerful position in the land to a self-absorbed, failed businessman and reality television host, I’ve been beating up on the American people. “How could we be so stupid?” I often rhetorically asked, as I grimaced and endured Trump’s three ring circus — uh, inauguration — and four years of the most convoluted, tone deaf administration imaginable.
I had simply not been able to wrap my brain around how American voters could have sent Hillary Clinton, who (email servers aside) was possibly the best qualified candidate for president this country has ever seen, and elect The Combover King?
I don’t know…maybe it’s four more years on the planet, or maybe it’s coronavirus fatigue, but I am cutting myself — and all of us — a little slack as we head into this November, when we have a chance to fix our past mistake.
We didn’t know any better in 2016, I now believe. A lot of the country was angry about our having elected — and reelected — a black man (gasp!) in 2008 and 2012, and they wanted change. Others were bruised over Sen. Bernie Sanders failing to secure the Democratic National Committee’s nomination, and they just sat out of the election altogether, petulantly pouting.
Because of all of that, we got Donald J. Trump: a narcissistic, racist, pathological liar who we get to call “president.” Gary Hines of the Sounds of Blackness perhaps said it best: our nation has been devoid of leadership for the last four years. For proof of that, look no further than Trump’s ham handed response to the Black Lives Matter movement, or his half-assed response to COVID-19.
But while we may not have known better in 2016, we know better now, and that’s where Dr. Maya Angelou’s wisdom comes in. When you know better, do better! Let’s hope that whoever Biden picks as his running mate joins him in doing better, first during the next three months leading up to what I hope is a resounding victory for true patriots on November 3.
Then, the pair can assemble a cabinet that will do better in leading the country back to greatness, and out of the international shadow of shame in which we’ve been for the last four years.
In anticipation of that great day, we — each American citizen — can do better, too. First, let’s register to vote. Marching and protesting are fine, and they have a rich history in America. But so does voting, and that’s where our voices can truly be heard.
Then, let’s let go of past affiliations with former candidates, get behind Uncle Joe and that new Democratic ticket, put these United States of America back on a path to greatness, and send Trump packing.
Do it for me. Do it for you. Do it for Maya!
Michael's Mind's Eye 