Monitor story on fugitive slave experience

What an awesome realization to think that my story about a reenactment of the fugitive slave experience should appear in a national newspaper on the day this country elected its first African-American president.

I am inspired and moved beyond words this morning. I awoke with a sense that it's a new day in America. My faith in this country and its wonderful people has been renewed.

Election eve anxiety

I may have to walk away from the TV and the laptop tonight. I'm feeling anxious about tomorrow and it's compelling me to read everything I possibly can in the hopes that I'll find the keystone to tomorrow's outcome.

Logically, of course, I know the tomorrow must be endured, but I wish I could snap my fingers and have it be Wednesday. Polls have predicted as best they can, robocalls are going unanswered, campaign ads have either worked—or not—and last-minute rallies and appearances have ended. The job is ours now. If you haven't already voted, give yourself extra time tomorrow to make it so. Wake up a little earlier, take a later lunch or leave work or school a bit earlier. Whatever you do, make your vote count.

After the past eight years, we cannot afford apathy about our government on any level. This marathon election has been a clarion call to civic engagement. Will Americans heed the call? I hope and believe that our dark days of disdain and disregard toward the world, shock and awe, greed run amok, Manicheaism, unresponsiveness, lapdog press, "values" voters, and linguistic gymnastics are coming to an end.

Mostly, I pray the outcome is decided early tomorrow night.

A first for me

Obama's new ad: serious talk for serious times

How refreshing to find this ad from Sen. Barack Obama on The Moderate Voice today. Yeah, it's dry and it pushes our attention limits by pushing to two minutes in length. But you know what? I think he strikes the right tone and as citizens we owe it to look deeper into the serious issues facing our country. I'm tired of hearing about how strong the fundamentals of our economy are when I know I need to stretch every dime right now.

Read the Obama/Biden plan for the economy and taxes here.

Things that make you, "Hmmm"

This little ditty came across the transom from my good friend to the rest of my peeps as we modern working moms try to make sense of what it means to be a woman and a feminist in this election. For your pondering pleasure...

Interesting piece from a NY publication:

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow , Trig, Piper and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, left your wife, and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now....

Obama on writing--and reading

Hattip to Mother Reader for posting this:

"There was one question in particular of interest to us book lovers, and
that came from a woman who asked what Obama would say to young writers. He was
surprised by the question, which he admitted was one he hadn’t heard before, but
didn’t hesitate to answer. He referenced his two books, and specifically
mentioned how he wrote them himself, along with many of his speeches. With a
light inflection, he said, “In terms of getting a job, knowing how to write is a
good thing.” He talked about how he kept a journal, and how it was important for
teaching him not only how to write, but also how to think. But my favorite part
was when he said, “Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the
Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for
president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That’s some of the most
special time you have with your children.”

On another unrelated note, my MacBook crashed this morning and I'm working here and there out of the library. I hate these clunky Dell keyboards. No other choice, though. Pray, pray that repairs are not too expensive and I've not lost too much since my last backup. UGGHHH!

"A more perfect union" speech is required watching and viewing

Yesterday afternoon, in between finishing a project and shuttling kids, I happened upon this transcript printed in the New York Times from Sen. Barack Obama's speech yesterday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

I finished reading the speech and knew it was historic, something I've not yet seen in my adult lifetime. Intent to write about it here, I felt it was important to let my initial thoughts simmer a bit. Why? Because I felt the most important thing Sen. Obama did yesterday was enjoin us to think. He held up a mirror to our country—black, white and brown (as he says)—and asked us to look at ourselves. He's demanding more of us all and isn't that what a great leader does?

Never have I heard anything come as close to this authentic a discussion about where we are in our national conversation on race. It was so ground-breakingly honest and heartfelt. He doesn't have all the answers. But he's invited us all to the table. And that's more than anyone has done on this issue since Martin Luther King Jr.

There are people who will question his timing, that his speech was a reactionary move, something he should have done long ago in this campaign. But to get mired in that distracts from what he was trying to say. He told us about himself—who he is as a man and not just what he looks like. That he—like our nation—is more than just a sum of his parts.

The impetus for this speech (full video here), which I suspect given its thoughtfulness, has been in the making for some time, was the hate speech shown endlessly on TV and You Tube of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama and his family are members.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way.

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Wright doesn't speak for Obama just as my priest doesn't speak for me. How could a Catholic priest speak for me? His life experience is completely counter to my own. I am a married, mother who has questioned the church at many turns and remains doubtful not of my faith but of the church's role in that faith. My pastor is a fatherless, celibate man who, I'm guessing though I don't know for certain, is quite grounded in his faith not only in Catholicism, but the church's role. We are at opposite ends of the Catholic continuum, and yet I do not leave the church. But he does not—indeed could not—speak of my experience as a Catholic woman.

Sure Obama could've left his church. But then he would be criticized for the doing the politically expedient thing and questioned on that judgment. His commentary goes further to show us how divided we remain.

There is a disconnect—a chasm, as Obama says—between the black church experience and the white church experience. But that is the reflection of a larger chasm of religion in America in which, "the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning."

Obama's speech gives us a context for not only the racial attitudes, but also the generational differences. The attitudes and realities that persist today are grounded in generations of people who have been denied quality education, segregated in housing, worship and opportunity, and subjected to an ongoing cycle of poverty and blight. "What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them," he says

Rather than stop at the black experience, Obama also talks about the "white Americans [who] don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch."

They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. (Bold is mine.)

"Opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense." I don't know that I've read a truer statement. I've heard similar words uttered in my reporting on education reform. "In bringing up all kids and providing for all what some have had, inherent in that message is that you're taking something away."

And yet he tells us, we cannot continue to be victims of the past. We can be informed by our past, but we don't have to let that past dictate our future.

Who among us hasn't been around family members who express stereotypes—whether gender, racial or ethnic-based—and not cringed. But as Obama said, do you disown those people whom you love? He separated himself from Wright's hysterical speech while recognizing that the man is still someone who has shaped him in other ways. Some will say he's equivocating. I don't think so. He's walking through the gray matter of race. To me that is a sign of an intelligent mind. To break our racial stalemate we must be willing to come together in ways we never have as a nation, to continue the work of perfecting our union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

His ideas are not pipe dreams, but are based in the reality. We have serious problems in this country that affect us all. Those problems cannot be addressed unless we come together as a nation to improve our lives for all.

"A More Perfect Union" will be required viewing and reading in my household. As I watched it for a second and third time, I envisioned high schools across America playing this speech for all students. Let students see that they don't have to be stuck, that they aren't someone else's problem. They can demand a quality education, they can take responsibility for improving their lives, they deserve safe neighborhoods with places to play, they have a voice and they are free—and, yes, encouraged—to use it. That they can start discussions in their classrooms and in their homes about how to perfect our union.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

Word of the day
verisimilitude: state of having the appearance of truth as in art or literature

The influence of mothers

Regular readers of Creative Ink will periodically get a glimpse of my three sons here. Those who know me well, however, know that they are more than just a periodic thought in my head. I am crazy about them, I mean really, truly in love with them.

When my younger sister was pregnant with her first child, I remember trying to explain to her the rush of love you feel for your children. A scary feeling because you suddenly realize how vulnerable you are to loss and devastation should anything happen to them. I try not to be morose, instead choosing to enjoy them—their humor, laughter, arguments, stubbornness, intelligence, sloppiness, athleticism and worldview.

Whenever I arrive home from a trip and I'm excited to tell them about what I've learned or the conversations I've had, the conversation quickly turns from anything I may have to share with them to the wonderful things they want to share with me. Who is going out with whom, the injustices of a basketball game at recess, the latest antics of a teacher or friend, what kind of homework help they need. Sometimes I get angry and hurt when they don't listen. People I meet on my trips actually want to hear what I have to say, I tell them. They look at me blankly in response because I am only mom right now, nothing else.

As they get older, however, I can see my influence on them in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Ryan is keenly aware of injustices in this world and he is not content to just let them pass. Patrick is an old soul, a compassionate person, who tends to withdraw into himself when he's feeling overwhelmed. And Mikey is so fiery in his passion that it can overwhelm everyone around him.

I'm not sure of much in this world, but I do know that I'm a good mother to my boys. It's the best and, frankly, the most natural thing I do. We were at a gathering once and someone was saying, "Just wait, when they're teenagers they will stop talking to you," as if this were something to look forward to. Later my mom told me that she doubted that would happen because my boys and I have always been crazy about each other. She didn't expect them to suddenly shut down.

For the most part, they do still talk to me. At 15, Ryan is very open to both me and my husband. Patrick, at 13, is a little less s0, but you have to get him one-on-one. He won't try to compete to be heard with his older and younger brother around. And Mikey is 9 and tells us that when he's grown up he will have a house big enough for mom and dad to live with him.

Mothers and sons and fathers and daughters. Most of the successful women I've interviewed have always talked about the influential role of their fathers in their lives. Maybe they draw a direct link, but more often it's a subtle connection. Maybe it was just the sense that their fathers gave them permission (verbally or nonverbally) to be anything. The same is true of mothers and sons, though I suspect men have a harder time articulating publicly the influence of their mothers. The sting of the "Mama's Boy" label must still pinch well into adulthood.

Despite the difficulty as a journalist of uncovering that influence, I am always fascinated by the ways in which a mother shapes a son's decisions and values, both good and bad. The New York Times today has an interesting feature story and multimedia segment on Sen. Barack Obama's mother and her influence on him. She died in 1995 so we don't see her standing on the dais with him and his family. There are no extended interviews with Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, so we're left to learn about the woman who raised a presidential contender from others. We don't know what her aspirations were for him, the very values she hoped he would carry on, but rather we must rely on the filtering of others for tiny glimpses.

“She felt that somehow, wandering through uncharted territory, we might stumble upon something that will, in an instant, seem to represent who we are at the core,” said Maya Soetoro-Ng, Mr. Obama’s half-sister. “That was very much her philosophy of life — to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions, to not build walls around ourselves and to do our best to find kinship and beauty in unexpected places.”

Obama would not be interviewed for this article, but evidence of his mother's influence is seen by his most prized keepsake: "a photograph of the cliffs of the South Shore of Oahu in Hawaii where his mother’s ashes were scattered." Maybe he is protective of her, even in death, as are many sons of single mothers. Maybe he feels it's too personal or even painful to discuss publicly. Or maybe those are just thoughts he chooses to keep for himself. Who can blame him?

She is described as a big thinker, someone not afraid to speak truth to power, an idealist, hardheaded, intense. "A weaver in college, she was fascinated with what Ms. Soetoro-Ng calls 'life’s gorgeous minutiae.' "

“She loved living in Java,” said Dr. Dewey, who recalled accompanying Ms. Soetoro to a metalworking village. “People said: ‘Hi! How are you?’ She said: ‘How’s your wife? Did your daughter have the baby?’ They were friends. Then she’d whip out her notebook and she’d say: ‘How many of you have electricity? Are you having trouble getting iron?’ ”

She became a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in women’s work. Later, she was a consultant in Pakistan, then joined Indonesia’s oldest bank to work on what is described as the world’s largest sustainable microfinance program, creating services like credit and savings for the poor.

She wanted to be remembered for her life of service. And perhaps that's her lasting legacy on her son. I'm sure he will someday take the time to explain or write about what his mother means to him. Maybe it's something that comes easier with age and perspective.

Yesterday, I received a copy of former President Jimmy Carter's memoir, "A Remarkable Mother," about the incomparable matriarch Miss Lillian Carter. She is described in the book flap as "a registered nurse, pecan grower, university housemother, Peace Corps volunteer, public speaker and renowned raconteur."

I look forward to reading it.

My Gram always told me that you can tell a lot about a man by how he treats his mother. When I'm gone from this world, I certainly hope my boys will look back and say, "She was everything to us, but she was more than just our mother. She was adventurous, intelligent, passionate, generous and keenly interested in others. We didn't always hear her when she needed us to listen. But without much fuss, she would set aside her own needs for the betterment of ours. She was always there."

Last is first

"The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put in first." — T.S. Eliot

Word of the day
prodigious: exciting amazement or wonder

Liveblogging election returns

"We're looking at fear trumping hope." — Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Now there's a depressing thought.

Why I'm supporting Obama

For several weeks now, I've been compiling a list of reasons why I believe Sen. Barack Obama should win the Democratic nomination for president. Normally, I don't weigh in so publicly on these matters, but I believe transparency is important. There isn't a thinking person in this country who doesn't have strong feelings about who would best lead this country. I'm just adding mine to the chorus. I don't cover politics in my daily work, I'm not working on any campaign and I'm still debating whether or not to allow a campaign sign in my front yard.

But the stakes are too high, the need for change to strong to remain silent. So with Ohio's primary coming up on Tuesday, I thought now was the time to speak up. Not for a second do I believe anything I say will sway anyone. That's not my intention here. My only purpose is to compile what I look for in a presidential candidate and what I see in my choice. You'll notice I don't talk particulars about issues. I agree with Obama's ideas for the most part. But what I'm more interested in as a voter and a citizen is how a leader thinks. So here's what I observe.

1) Obama talks about the politics of "we" versus "I."

2) He speaks beautifully, authentically and intelligently. At the very least, a president should be able to move citizens with his (or her) words.

3) He writes beautifully, authentically and intelligently. I've not yet read "The Audacity of Hope," but his memoir "Dreams From My Father" is poetic. Writer Alice Walker talks about his abilities are a thinker and writer.

4) He is of MY generation, sharing the experiences of MY generation. When he talked about having monthly student load debt higher than his mortgage, I can relate. Even my husband, who comes from a long line of Republicans, is enthusiastically supporting Obama.

5) Anyone who has read his book understands that he has come to be the confident, poised person he projects by having endured a poignant, painful and prolonged journey to find himself and his purpose in this life, to forge a relationship with God, to reconcile his identity and to make peace with a father who wasn't there.

6) He has energized young people by raising the level of discourse and by asking them to get involved. In other words, he believes in young people and in their contributions to this nation. He cares about what THEY care about and that makes him an authentic voice for America's future.

7) I know he's not a native of Chicago, but he embodies Midwestern values and a Midwestern sensibility.

8) He has struggled with faith and written about it beautifully. To me, that says he's a thinking—and feeling—person willing to work through struggles to find the good in this life.

9) I check his Web site daily.

10) I've come as close as I've ever come in my lifetime to clicking the "volunteer" button.

11) The poetry and treatise on democracy he has inspired among newspaper editorial boards, cultural leaders, political leaders and even the chattering classes is uplifting. Here are some examples that I find particularly stirring:

The Arizona Republic:

His oratory soars. While talk alone isn't enough, it has been a very long time since Americans had a leader who appealed to their better nature.

Los Angeles Times:

An Obama presidency would present, as a distinctly American face, a man of African descent, born in the nation's youngest state, with a childhood spent partly in Asia, among Muslims. No public relations campaign could do more than Obama's mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world, nor could any political experience surpass Obama's life story in preparing a president to understand the American character. His candidacy offers Democrats the best hope of leading America into the future, and gives Californians the opportunity to cast their most exciting and consequential ballot in a generation.

In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility. Clinton would be a valuable and competent executive, but Obama matches her in substance and adds something that the nation has been missing far too long -- a sense of aspiration.

San Francisco Chronicle

In a Jan. 17 meeting with our editorial board, Obama demonstrated an impressive command of a wide variety of issues. He listened intently to the questions. He responded with substance. He did not control a format without a stopwatch on answers or constraints on follow-up questions, yet he flourished in it.

He radiated the sense of possibility that has attracted the votes of independents and tapped into the idealism of young people during this campaign. He exuded the aura of a 46-year-old leader who could once again persuade the best and the brightest to forestall or pause their grand professional goals to serve in his administration.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The Obama campaign has been derisively and incorrectly described as more rock tour than political campaign and his supporters as more starry-eyed groupies than thoughtful voters.

If detractors in either party want to continue characterizing the Obama campaign this way, they will have seriously underestimated both the electorate's hunger for meaningful change in how the nation is governed and the candidate himself.

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board on Wednesday, the first-term senator proved himself adept at detail and vision. They are not mutually exclusive.

Chicago Tribune

By one measure, this endorsement is a paradox. We're urging votes for a candidate whose political views we often disagree with. But this is a more complicated contest, and a more complex candidate, than the norm. This nation's next president inherits a war -- against terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere -- that has found many ways to divide Americans. Capitol Hill is gridlocked and uncivil. Our discourse is hostage to blame.

Obama can help this nation move forward. A Tribune profile last May labeled his eight years in Springfield as "a study in complexity, caution and calculation. In the minority party for all but his final two years in the Statehouse, he tempered a progressive agenda with a cold dash of realism, often forging consensus with conservative Republicans when other liberals wanted to crusade."

Boston Globe

Obama's memoir, "Dreams From My Father," is divided into three main sections. The first is a reflection on his youthful search for identity. The second recounts his days in Chicago, which include the first stirrings of a religious life. The third is a roots pilgrimage to Kenya, to better understand his often absent father. It is hard to read this book without longing for a president with this level of introspection, honesty, and maturity - and Obama published it when he was only 33.

"I genuinely believe that our security and prosperity are going to depend on how we manage our continued integration into the rest of the world," he says. Obama's story is the American story, a deeply affecting tale of possibility. People who vote for him vote their hopes. Even after seven desolating years, this country has not forgotten how to hope.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Comets don't come around that often. In January of 1961, Ann Dunham Obama was six weeks pregnant with Barack Obama Sr.'s child when President Kennedy said at his inauguration that "the torch has been passed to a new generation." It's that time again.

New York Observer

Democracy is the greatest strength of this still-young nation. Its living enactment is our gift to the world. It is the product of our best instincts and most powerful ideals. But it has been polluted, sullied and compromised by an obstructive administration that seems to have to have no particular regard for its attributes.

It is difficult to remember the last national candidate who has charged and jazzed the democratic system as Mr. Obama has. Partly as a result of his candidacy, college campuses have remembered why they are proud of the United States, kids are going door to door, runners are handing out leaflets on weekends, racial lines have been culturally melted and the electoral approach to presidential campaigning has been reborn.

And, as more than one commentator has said, America is being reintroduced to the world.

Because of who he is and what he stands for, a former constitutional law teacher with few ties to the Washington establishment yet a sophisticated respect for it, Mr. Obama stands the best chance of restoring the essential relationship between power and the American people. He is not flanked and blocked by an existing, entrenched power structure; his words are not muddied by layers of handlers; he still says what he means.

13) He has the love, support and strength of his incredibly smart wife, Michelle, without the familial drama that accompanies the Clintons.

14) And finally, if you believe in emotional intelligence and the power of Primal Leadership, he is the choice to lead.

My Wednesday wanderings

The debate
I watched the debate last night with my hubby and intermittently all three of my boys. (The Cavs were playing and, well, they're boys with limited attention spans for wonkish arguments.) Here are my observations:

1) Brown is a good color on Hillary even if it's not a patriotic look. But there were times when she sounded like a shrieking wife and I cringed, on behalf of women everywhere, for her inability to tone it down and sound like the highly intelligent being she is. I don't think that does much to help her with voters.

2) Barack looks tired. Although his debate performances have much less fire and energy than his speeches and campaign appearances, I felt as if his demeanor—one of being unflappable—is characteristic of his presidential qualities. Basically, I like.

3) Both candidates bombed on the question about Putin's successor. I don't think that's any indication of their lack of foreign policy experience, but rather a byproduct of prolonged residence in the campaign bubble, allowing for little time to keep up with the latest global developments. I just read about Medvedev yesterday.

4) Tim Russert made a noble attempt to ask hard questions, but his insistence on definitive answers to hypotheticals made him look ridiculous. I'd rather have a president that considers the facts and surrounds him or herself with intelligent people than one who makes a promise in a campaign debate that neither the facts in the case nor the reality on the ground can support. Sheesh! Haven't we had enough of that with George W.?

5) I'd like to see both candidates talk about working together on universal health care. No matter who wins the nomination (and, hopefully, the general election), I would hope that the winner would bring in the other to consult on this very difficult issue.

6) Hillary spouts off places she's been as if that's evidence enough of foreign policy experience. Now I know she's done a lot more than just play tourist on taxpayer's dime. I wanted to hear more specifics. Conversely, I know that Obama is criticized for his lack of foreign policy experience, but I really like that he thinks completely differently. No less than that is required after years of failed policies. Does anyone remember the summer of 2001? There was an incredible culture of meanness—we were pulling out of every global treaty and going it alone, insulting governments far and wide. Suicide bombings in Israel and Gaza were a daily occurrence. And even in Ireland, a young school girl was harassed. We have to approach foreign policy in a completely different way in order to rebuild what has been destroyed.

7) On foreign policy and national security, I think Obama came off very strong and presidential.

8) On a 60 Minutes interview, Obama talked about how he is pretty even at all times and that helps to keep him sane on the campaign trail. "I don't get too high or too low." Sounds like a good quality in a leader to me.

9) Hillary has a great smile. Barack has a luminous smile. The guy lights up a room with that smile. John McCain, on the other hand, has that annoying tendency of laughing or smiling at inappropriate times and appearing altogether fake. After W, I just can't take any more of that ridiculous toothless smile and shrugging laugh.

10) No one believes for a second that Hillary and Barack are pals right now. But I think the graciousness that both exhibited at the end of the debate toward the other sets a tone for how reasonable adversaries can get along.

William F. Buckley dies at 82
The Times obit has some wonderful gems including this one:

"In 1985, David Remnick, writing in The Washington Post, said, 'He has the eyes of a child who has just displayed a horrid use for the microwave oven and the family cat.'"

Chester Finn on education reform
Education Week has an interesting piece from Chester Finn today. He's the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, in Washington, he has written his 15th book, Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik, which will be published next month by Princeton University Press. He writes about the difficult of education reform because of its need to be systemic.

"Political compromises also lead elected officials to enact Potemkin reforms—that’s as true of standards-based as choice-style reforms—that amount to surface changes unaccompanied by the more wrenching shifts that are needed for those reforms to succeed."

Word of the day is cherish
"cherish: to hold dear : to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely"

Obama on the questions that shape our lives

As Super Tuesday voting nears a close, I leave you today with one more passage from Barack Obama's book, "Dreams From My Father." It's in the epilogue and, I think, encapsulates his faith in others.

"The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience.

We hold these truths to be self-evident. In those words, I hear the spirit of Douglass and Delany, as well as Jefferson and Lincoln; the struggles of Martin and Malcolm and unheralded marchers to bring these words to life. I hear the voices of Japanese families interned behind barbed wire; young Russian Jews cutting patterns in Lower East Side sweatshops; dust-bowl farmers loading up their trucks with the remains of shattered lives. I hear the voices of people in Altgeld Gardens, and the voices of those who stand outside this country's borders, the weary, hungry bands crossing the Rio Grande. I hear all of these voices clamoring for recognition, all of them asking the very same questions that have come to shape my life, the same questions that I sometimes, late at night, find myself asking the Old Man. What is our community, and how might that community be reconciled with our freedom? How far do our obligations reach? How do we transform mere power into justice, mere sentiment into love? The answers I find in law books don't always satisfy me—for every Brown v. Board of Education I find a score of cases where conscience is sacrificed to expedience or greed. And yet, in the conversation itself, in the joining of voices, I find myself modestly encouraged, believing that so long as the questions are still being asked, what binds us together might somehow, ultimately, prevail."

Freedom to hope is a revolutionary act

Barack Obama's candidacy is bringing out some of the most beautiful treatises on democracy that I have ever read. The latest by author Michael Chabon and is in today's Washington Post. He acknowledges, and I have heard the same from many people, the fear that holds people back when they talk about an Obama presidency. I think his point about us fearing disappointment and broken hearts is especially poignant, whether or not we've been able to articulate it to this point.

"Fear and those who fatten on it spread vile lies about Obama's religion, his past drug use, his views on Israel and the Jews. Fear makes us see the world purely in terms of enemies and perils, and leads us to seek out the promise of leadership, however spurious it proves to be, among those who speak the language of that doomed and demeaning, that inhuman view of the world.

But the most pitiable fear of all is the fear of disappointment, of having our hearts broken and our hopes dashed by this radiant, humane politician who seems not just with his words but with every step he takes, simply by the fact of his running at all, to promise so much for our country, for our future and for the eventual state of our national soul. I say "pitiable" because this fear of disappointment, which I hear underlying so many of the doubts that people express to me, is ultimately a fear of finding out the truth about ourselves and the extent of the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. If we do fight for Obama, work for him, believe in him, vote for him, and the man goes down to defeat by the big-money machines and the merchants of fear, then what hope will we have left to hold on to?

Thus in the name of preserving hope do we disdain it. That is how a phobocracy maintains its grip on power.

To support Obama, we must permit ourselves to feel hope, to acknowledge the possibility that we can aspire as a nation to be more than merely secure or predominant. We must allow ourselves to believe in Obama, not blindly or unquestioningly as we might believe in some demagogue or figurehead but as we believe in the comfort we take in our families, in the pleasure of good company, in the blessings of peace and liberty, in any thing that requires us to put our trust in the best part of ourselves and others. That kind of belief is a revolutionary act. It holds the power, in time, to overturn and repair all the damage that our fear has driven us to inflict on ourselves and the world.

Obama turns the table on experience question

Here's an interesting item from the San Francisco Chronicle by editorial page editor John Diaz from last Sunday. Read Diaz's full editorial here and see the video here.

The questions were finished, but Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was not. He had one more point to make before leaving his meeting with the Chronicle's editorial board.

"Why don't we go off the record on this," Obama said as he was standing up and pulling on his suit jacket Thursday.

At that point, I usually stop politicians. Ninety-five percent of the times they go off the record in a large meeting of journalists -in this case, there were 16 of us - their comments are not any more provocative or insightful than what they would say for attribution. And if they do say something revealing, we want to share it with our readers.

No objections were raised this time, however.

Obama proceeded to challenge the premise of our questions about experience. In the process, he helped answer a question about one job requirement of the presidency: the ability to confront people in a direct way.

"One thing, when this issue of experience comes up, I always ask the editorial boards to consider: Most of you spend enormous amounts of ink complaining about how broken the politics of Washington are; how sordid and inefficient and ineffective it is. And yet, during the course of campaigns or conversations, you're looking for validation in terms of how well does this person work the system that you are constantly decrying and saying is broken and doesn't work.

"I think it is important to ask: Do we need somebody who, in fact, does not speak in the very traditions that you say do not serve the American people? Are we willing to break out of that pattern?"

It was a fair point. It also was illustrative of another quality that came through repeatedly during our meeting at the St. Francis Hotel: his skill at delivering direct, pointed messages in a thoughtful, nonabrasive manner. I wanted to share that moment with our readers. I asked Obama to allow it to be on the record. He agreed.

What Kristof said

If you're concerned about the experience question in this 2008 presidential primary season, please read Nicholas Kristof's column. I agree with him word for word. Consider this:

"Mrs. Clinton’s strength is her mastery of the details of domestic and foreign policy, unrivaled among the candidates; she speaks fluently about what to do in Pakistan, Iraq, Darfur. Mr. Obama’s strength is his vision and charisma and the possibility that his election would heal divisions at home and around the world. John Edwards’s strength is his common touch and his leadership among the candidates in establishing detailed positions on health care, poverty and foreign aid.

Those are the meaningful distinctions in the Democratic field, not Mrs. Clinton’s spurious claim to “35 years of experience.” The Democrats with the greatest Washington expertise — Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson — have already been driven from the race. And the presidential candidate left standing with the greatest experience by far is Mr. McCain; if Mrs. Clinton believes that’s the criterion for selecting the next president, she might consider backing him.

To put it another way, think which politician is most experienced today in the classic sense, and thus — according to the “experience” camp — best qualified to become the next president.

That’s Dick Cheney. And I rest my case."

Yeah! What HE said.

Wednesday potpourri

I'm about to go into lockdown for a big writing assignment, so I'm reading a bunch of stuff before I have to close myself off for a spell. Here's a little of what I'm thinking about today.

Baltimore Sun reporter John Woestendiek had me dreaming of ivy-covered buildings and sprawling greens in his Real Life column, "It's time to take this job and shelve it: True tales from everyday living."

"I had, for the first time in my life, an office, with a view of the mountains around Missoula. I could ride my bike to work. I could walk over to the University Center and get my choice of gourmet coffees for 50 cents a cup. I could root for the Grizzlies, climb up mountain trails just minutes away, amble along rivers through which, get this, clear water flowed. I could walk my dog without a leash - and relate to his joy of being unchained."

Can you see it? I can.

While at Cleveland Heights High School last week, the principal I'm writing about loaned me his copy of, "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong," by James W. Loewen. Interesting reading, especially since I've spent the past week quizzing my high school freshmen on world and American history for his final exam tomorrow.
From the introduction:

"History professors in college routinely put down high school history courses. A colleague of mine calls his survey of American history "Iconoclasm I and II," because he sees his job as disabusing his charges of what they learned in high school. In no other field does this happen. Mathematics professors, for instance, know that non-Euclidean geometry is rarely taught in high school, but they don't assume that Euclidean geometry was mistaught. Professors of English literature don't presume that Romeo and Juliet was misunderstood in high school. Indeed, history is the only field in which the more courses students take, the stupider they become."

The January/February issue of Columbia Journalism Review arrived in the mail today. I'm looking forward to reading Barry Yeoman's profile, "The Redemption of Chris Rose." Rose, for those of you who don't know, is the New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist who wrote publicly, painfully and poignantly about his battle with depression in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Took a little break today and went to Bay Library. I was looking for a book for Mikey, but on a whim I picked up Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father." Stopped at Java Bay and read through the first chapter. He's a great writer.

Was helping out at Mikey's school library today and the librarian read the book "When Marion Copied" to the class of third-graders. It was and interesting look at plagiarism in a way that young children can understand.

Finally, I've made thousands of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my day and I think it's high time some industrial designer came up with a new type of peanut butter jar that doesn't get peanut butter all over the handle of the knife when you're scraping the bottom of the jar.

Barack Obama Iowa Caucus Victory Speech

Hope picks up the torch

Who knows where this presidential race will lead in November? But if last night was any indication of the future, I can't help but be excited.

As I've argued with my Dad, I believe a generational change in leadership is required more than a gender change. And I think that's what you saw last night in the Democratic Iowa Caucuses as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) won with 38 percent of the vote.

The status quo is not acceptable. While I think Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is an extremely intelligent and capable woman, I think she (and many others on the Democratic ticket) represent more of the same. In my adult life (since 1988 when I was 21) I have experienced:

Bush
Clinton
Clinton
Bush
Bush

That's 20 years of the same two families in office. And that represents, for me anyway, the status quo.

Obama's message has done something that probably hasn't been seen in American presidential politics since John F. Kennedy and probably Bobby Kennedy—he has invigorated young voters.

To have voters of all ages and backgrounds turn out in record numbers in early January to participate in an archaic caucus system signals that a torch has been passed and that the tide is turning.

"Our time for change has come."

Obama is hope for my generation

I'm not going to get all Barack Obama-crazed just yet, but I do think the Senator from Illinois has something that our country desperately needs — well-spoken passion and a world view that was shaped by something other than the Vietnam War.

He represents a generation of adults who grew up in a globalized world, one that views societies as less-dualistic and more in terms of shared values. Regardless of where we live, our primary goals are to feed, clothe and house our children, give them clean air to breath and clean water to drink, provide an education that allows them to excel as adults and give them to tools of understanding that promotes peace among societies.

The hype surrounding a 2008 presidential bid is growing. Although he is praised for his charisma, his hopeful message and his charming personality, Obama also is criticized for his inexperience. I'm willing to bet that his inexperience could be an asset.

As much as I would like to see a woman elected president, I don't believe that Hillary Clinton is the one. She is of the generation that has been leading our country since 1992. We need a generational shift in leadership more than a gender shift (though ideally we'd like both!). She comes with baggage that is difficult for many voters (not necessarily me) to overlook. And she has failed to captivate with a resounding message.

I have doubts that Obama will be elected and there's still much more to learn about his vision for this country. But I do think it's high time that our generation steps up to leadership plate and at least takes a few swings. Who knows? We may just hit one over the fence.