Frogger

These three words were the first slogan I remember from when I began
to volunteer for Obama for America in June.  All three sounded good.
What did they mean exactly?  And what did they mean to me?  You are
about to find out.

Over the next month, I am going to challenge
myself to write as many blog entries as I can about Barack Obama’s
views, vision, courage, and call upon us to engage in our underused
democracy.  I have been passionate about social change and progressive
values for a while, but I now find myself with a cause, and a person,
that I believe in more than anything I ever have. 

Let me begin
now and move backwards.  Today is Thursday, January 10, 2008.  Saturday
January 5 through Tuesday January 8 I spent in Hampton, NH, canvassing,
speaking with voters door to door, and calling them to encourage them
to vote.  As you may know, New Hampshire, like Iowa, saw record numbers
of voters for a Primary election, especially on the Democratic side. 

Labor Day

This
weekend was my seventh trip to New Hampshire to campaign for Barack.  I
had kept up a pace of about one a month since July, traveling to
Merrimack, Keene, Portsmouth, Dover, Manchester, and Milford (twice).
My first trip to Milford was to march in a Labor Day parade with
Barack.  We had an amazing band and the largest contingent present.  He
beamed as he weaved his way through us shaking each hand.

Anna Deveare Smith speaks of "presence" in her book Letters to a Young Artist.  That sense that you are within an unescapable aura of captivation.  That someone is filled with the totality of life, as a dynamic
concept.  Mr. Obama had energy.  He couldn’t wait to start marching.
He was FIRED UP and READY TO GO. (More on these words in a later post).

Earlier
that morning I had found myself at the Labor Day breakfast in Boston at
the Park Plaza Hotel.  I was carpooling to Milford with a Boston
political operative and before we left I had the chance to see Mayor
Menino, Secretary of State Galvin, District Attorney Coakley, Senator
Kerry, and Governor Patrick line the stage.  I knew that Mayor Menino
had endorsed Senator Clinton, much as he had Thomas Reilly against
Deval, choosing the candidate of the entrenched Democratic machine over
the grassroots upstart.  Today, January 10th, Senator Kerry endorsed
Barack Obama.  Of course, in October Deval bravely chose Barack as
well.  Both did so in the face of the Clinton machine, a machine had
helped them in their campaigns.  Deval had served as head of Civil
Rights for the Clinton Administration.  Why might you ask would they
take such a risk?

Hope.  Senator Obama speaks of it eloquently in
his speeches, harkening the wounded and the weary throughout our
country and abroad.  It is a term of idealism, but Senator Kerry,
Governor Patrick, both Democratic Representatives in  New Hampshire,
Senator Daschle, Senator Bradley–whom I met on Saturday; a m a z i n
g–all realize this is a moment like we’ve never seen.  A moment where
we have a candidate who attracts independent voters and some
republicans.  Who gets people to vote for the first time who have spent
much of their adult life not voting.  Who inspires young people to
become interested in service and civic engagement.

Action.
Barack had many fortunate moments in his young life that paved the way
for success, and he has chosen to give back.  One of the only black
students in his high school, Barack was able to attend one of the two
elite Hawaii high schools because a friend of his grandfather’s knew
someone who might help.  This was a long shot that came through.  Had
this not happened, he might have suffered the same fate that he wants
to eradicate for students now–an underfunded public education devoid
of holistic leaning and supported teachers. 

In college he grew
disillusioned, never accepted entired by whites or blacks because of
his mixed heritage. However, he connected to a few students working on
the South Africa divestment campaign and gave a speech he’ll always
remember.  The feeling of inspiring people to work against injustice
stirred something in his soul.

In the real world, he got a job in
finance in Manhattan, but longed to be a community organizer.  Finally
he found a position in Chicago…and the rest is history.  A history
that involved fighting for workers laid off by steel mills.  When I see
labor endorsements like the one from yesterday in Nevada, I know they
spring from these early experiences, bringing people together, choosing
hope over despair, courage over fear.  I know, when we were marching
together on Labor Day, exactly what we were marching for.

In
many of these key moments his mentors were woman.  As a child his
mother’s anthropological work in Indonesia, where he spent his early
formative years, and elsewhere informed his worldly perspective.  At
Occidental College, a female friend encouraged him to get involved with
fighting South African apartheid.  In Chicago a local woman organizer
fade him feel valued and the "answer to their prayers."  Ultimately,
Michelle Robinson, showed him the power of a secure, centered home in
contrast the his mobil childhood.  And you know that his two daughters
are his true teachers day in and day out these days.

Change. As
we move into Nevada, and I reflect on some of my time in Hampton, I
remember key women I spoke with, especially on the last day.  There was
Mary, an elderly woman undecided but "certainly inspired" by his words
and the epicly long lines that folks waited in to try to experience
this seizmic American shifting from negativity to positivity in
politics, from frustration to aspiration (aka fresh air).  There was
Tricia, thrilled at the prospect of voting, but home taking care of
three kids waiting for her husband to get home from work.  There was
Janet, first about to pick up her child from school and then about to
make dinner who I pleaded with to vote and be counted.  There was
Stephanie, whose son was supposed to drive her to the polls and whose
mother had already received a ride earlier in the day, whom we arranged
a ride for so she could cast.  And there was Patty, our team captain,
who had supported Edwards in 2004, but was won over by Obama’s
abandonment of the policies of Wall Street to become a Community
Organizer on the south side of Chicago and his turn away from lucrative
job offers after being the first Black Head of the Harvard Law Review
to become instead a Civil Rights Lawyer and Constitutional Law
Professor.  She, like I, could not get over the drastic policy
differences Barack and Hillary held and the conservativism of the
latter.

We are long overdue for a woman President.  Pakistan,
Chile, Britain, Liberia, Germany, Argentina and many others have shown
that traditional parchiarchies can welcome a female head of state.
Sexism in America is alive and strong, institutional and pandemic.  I
voted for First Lady Clinton in 2000 as a New York resident.  I had
liked her for a while and felt she got a raw deal by the media, by
Bill, and by men in general.  Giuliani and Lazio were both horribly
negative in their campaigns.  Gingrich, Dole, and every other person
who put out the Contract On America had been evil and unyielding.
However, soon after being elected, having never previously served in
public office, she sent a letter in response to a form I completed
online opposing the death penalty, describing her support for it. 

This
had been one of the ways Gore had let me down in 2000, during a debate
I thought he was winning. Having drawn stark contrasts to Governor Bush
on a number of issues, he said resignedly that he thought killers
should pay the "ultimate price." Newly elected Senator Clinton, a month
before September 11th, expressed a similar sentiment in her form
response letter that would serve as a harbinger to her hawkish views to
come.  She said that although there seemed to be a racial difference in
who ended up on death row, murderers should be terminated by the state.

I
wrote back a scathing eight-page, handwritten letter (because I heard
those are statistically more valued by political operatives and
pollsters).  As soon as I mailed it, I immediately feared the Secret
Service might come get me the following day because of my scathing
criticism.  I just couldn’t believe, though, that a person who had
championed the impact of people of color and written and discussed
issues related to the poor, could support a measure that has so clearly
and so regularly been proven to discriminate against those groups. 

I should have believed it though.  The next year Senator Clinton voted
to give President Bush the authorization to begin the second war with
Iraq under a Bush President.  Then she supported the war for four years
until it was no longer political wise to do so.   

One thing I
love about Barack Obama is that he won’t give an oversimplified answer
to a tough question.  I watched his interview with the Nashua Telegraph
and he spoke about the complex nature of so many issues, and how we
need to break them down piece-by-piece (www.nashuatelegraph.com/obama).
For some that inspires fear that his message won’t be clear enough to
confused voters.  When you have the courage of your conviction, you
don’t have to live within that fear.

Thank you for reading.  More to come, soon.

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