Maybe some day...

An older person asked me tonight: "Do you think you will ever see the Caribbean united in your lifetime?"

He asked with a sense of both hopefulness and wistfulness. Hopeful perchance, that I was hopeful, that maybe in my relative youth (he is at least 40 years older than me) that I had gleaned some signs amongst my own generation that indicated that the dream long held by integrationists could come true. Wistfulness was also there, echoes of the opportunities lost that he has seen in his own life and the fall out that has occurred at each Caribbean territory stubbornly insisted on going its own way.

I paused for a long time. Honestly, I don't know. Even now with the Manning initiative II making its way through the headlines of the region, the atmosphere is not one that moves me to believe that Caribbean people will see the light.

But on the other hand, I look at the joyous and full-hearted response of the whole region at the victories of our Caribbean athletes at the recent Olympics. Is it the masses that is the real obstacle to Caribbean integration as is oft touted? Stubborn, xenophobic, resistant and suspicious of 'foreigners' taking their dearly held jobs and spouses?

I don't know. These masses were overjoyed at the Caribbean's success. They embraced it as warmly as their own. But then again, who couldn't or wouldn't?

Maybe then it is our leaders, prideful and ego-driven, determined to hold on to their little patch of power and remain the biggest fish in their tiny ponds?

I don't know. So I paused for what my heart wants and what my brain says is possible seemed to be two different things.

But then I turned on the television. The Democratic Convention was on and the delegates had just decided to dispense with the roll call and declare Barack Obama the official Democratic nominee by acclamation.

I never thought I would see this day. To be perfectly honest, the United States is so riven with racial tension and guilt and division still and with the black population shrinking as a proportion of the population and viewed with suspicion by all other races I did not think it possible that a man who looks as black as many people I know would reach this far. Certainly I did not see it coming at all, not even four years ago when Obama made 'The Speech' at the Democratic Convention.

It has made me believe again that maybe the seemingly impossible things are within our reach. Sometimes it takes years to reach a historical moment such as this, a watershed and at other times history happens all at once, in a series of quick bounds and leaps. Everything comes together, a charismatic figure ignites us and history happens. I believe they call these revolutions. :)

So maybe some day it will happen all at once. Maybe a figure will arise that will unite us and show us that we can truly achieve so much more together.