Category — Life

For most of the primary season, I’ve said that either Democratic candidate will serve our country well, I’ve been torn between Obama and Clinton for some time. I share this feeling with many people, both candidates have a host of good qualities, and their weaknesses are exactly the strengths of the other. However, I’ve made up my mind that Barack Obama has my unconditional support from here on out. Deciding has freed me up to actually work on his behalf, whether it’s making phone calls, writing about it in my blog or putting a sticker on my car. I encourage you to take the final step and support one candidate over the other, that way you can put your boots on and do the work they need.

What tipped me over into the Obama camp? So many things. Some of you know that I truly believed that he was the only candidate that could rise above the fray of Republican smear, we don’t know that much about him and his history in the world of politics is relatively short, that the Republicans have mountains of material on the Clintons to use in the general election and so on. While this is true, my devotion and support for Obama go much deeper today.

Hope and change. As a recovering child of an alcoholic, a recovering racist and bigot from Texas, and a recovering disabled person I know alot about hope. Contrary to the media and the Clintons (who used the word Hope alot during Bill’s campaign), the word hope is packed with quite a bit of depth. If it were not for hope, I might be dead or otherwise absent from engagement with the world. I have lived my life hoping that things will change, knowing that without hope I would be useless and lifeless. Hope is what decided my future when considering college, hope is what propelled me through the door of my first Al-Anon meeting, and hope is what got me up each day for the first 5 years after my Spinal Cord Injury.

Hope is what we need as a country. Aside from his profound message of hope, Mr. Obama brings honesty and truth to the political arena. How many african american leaders have the integrity to name the homophobia and anti-semitism that exist in their community? How many candidates back up their anti-corporate rants with a pledge to take no campaign $ from corporate America? Critics maintain that he is inexperienced, and unless we investigate his record we are tempted to agree. After all, he’s not been in the spotlight, the poliitical fray as it were. That’s a bad thing? In our media soaked culture, those who make it to the headlines are almost always there because of some discretion, not good deeds.

Mr. Obama has written two books that reveal his transgressions and shortcomings in no uncertain terms. He chose to work in the area of civil rights instead of working for the corporate interest, he served in the Illinois legislature for 8yrs, he is a father and he has lived as a black man in a country where racism is the norm. He has built a campaign that celebrates the grassroots, has influenced thousands of Americans to get up off their butts (no easy task) and actually work for no pay. This is not the work of an amateur.

It seems to me that he has had plenty of life experience and professional experience to lead us out of business as usual and into a new century.

And finally I want to share something I saw last night. It’s a sit down interview with Mr. Obama and the journalists at the SanFrancisco Chronicle. His depth and candor convinced me to join the 1,000 other volunteers (look at this) in Columbus and get up off my butt and take our country into the next century with Mr. Obama.

Over 1,000 volunteers showed up to lend their support and time to the Obama primary campaign in Columbus, Oh.