a crisp peace

On the eve of the inauguration of Barack Obama, the ghost-like presence of my need to write lingered in my space. For three days I partied until 4:00 am; there was a Bush effigy, visiting with Ohio 2004 folks, early morning meals and a large concert on the mall. DC had briefly morphed from a culture of professionals tackling structural unpleasantries to well, just a big party. But on Martin Luther King Day, the eve of the inauguration, in the air circulated quietness. An absence of anxiety. A blatant peace. It seemed as if the laborious commitments that led this movement to this moment had gone on Sabbath. It was lovely.

the way he was

I am thinking about keeping this in my foyer with Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" in constant play. An eternal flame for the old Barry.

virginia is for lovers (of barack)

On the evening of Election Day, Barack Obama spoke in front of half a million people in Chicago, while others all over the world huddled around radios or were watching on TV. At 4:30 pm in a cold garage in Fairfax County, Virginia I spoke to the final group of canvassers, many of whom had been out in the rain all day, all of GOTV weekend, or all election season.

The group was diverse. An elderly white woman stood next to a young black woman. The gay middle-aged man shared his umbrella with the pregnant immigrant. They were all neighbors in the precincts in which they were about to talk to voters for the final time in this election. I looked at these eighteen volunteers and thought about what they needed to hear. They eagerly looked at me for direction. Throughout my life, I have been part of the democratic process at various levels in different places. On Tuesday, with very little sleep, and while dressed in a strange Norwegian sweater donated to me by one of the canvassers, I rededicated myself to the bread & butter of the political process, and of this campaign: the effectiveness of neighbors talking to neighbors.

I told them that the 21 months of voter registration, identification, persuasion, financial donations, stress, and dedication in the field - would all be for naught if Getting Out The Vote failed. And the only way - the ONLY way - GOTV will not fail in Virginia, would be if we cranked it up and turned it out in Fairfax County. The next two and a half hours of their lives came down to the answer of one question: would there be a President McCain or a President Obama? Therefore, I told them, it was time to do one thing and one thing only, to get bodies to the polls. I told them not to come back to see me with any information until 7:00pm, and that I only wanted a number of people who had definitively delivered a vote for Obama. I said I don’t want you coming back here to tell me about how many yard signs or dogs a house has even though you couldn’t find away to get a hold of the people living inside. I want you to be married to your turf for the next two and a half hours because this is your last chance. This is not about ANYTHING other getting voters to immediately go and vote for Barack. The people on your list are your responsibility. And mark my word, we will lose Virginia if we do not turn out Fairfax County at a historical margin. If we win Virginia we don’t need places like Florida and Ohio. So, it’s all you. Keep your head in the game. You don’t get to redo these 2.5 hours tomorrow.

Before I knew it, it was 9:30 pm and I was at a fancy cocktail party at The Willard in downtown DC. The TV said we were losing Virginia, and I knew that Fairfax had not reported yet. When Virginia went blue for the first time in 44 years, I received calls and texts from a couple of those canvassers exclaiming things such as, “wow! You were right about Virginia! I am so glad I was out there this weekend!”

In my mind, the most invigorating thing about politics and of this campaign in particular, is that all the experts and operatives in that room at The Willard would be nothing without the labor of people like those whom I spoke to in the cold garage.

With hope,
Kate

michelle wins the dance-off

i have not been inspired enough to blog. but i am inspired to dance, and vote.

a great multitude as one

Before watching Obama’s speech on TV this afternoon, I was breezing through a book called The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, by Philip Jenkins. In addition to a thorough account of ideas on Christian universality in the African church and global south, Jenkins exposes the notion of Christianity as westerndom for the myth that it is, - at first, by discussing how a Palestinian centered world was recartographied - if you will – into a Roman centered world. Then, Jenkins reminds readers that the holiest of practices of Christianity were established in modern-day Tunsia and practiced three hundred years before Christianity was legalized in Europe; and of course, according to Acts, it was an Ethiopian who first converted to Christianity. Still today in Ethiopia where a Solomonic tradition of thousands of years stands against the oppression of forms of imperialism, a tradition of mysticism and hope prevails in the face of the crushing forces of death.

We are all Palestinian. We are all African.

So today, an American with an African father went to Europe and asked for a help in healing the strife of both the highlighted and forgotten parts of the world. He said, “Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time? Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur? Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people? People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.”

We are all Berliners.

Obama called for conversation and trust, peace and cooperation. “The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow,” he said, after highlighting the World War II airlifts of food to Germany. I couldn’t help but think of what a miraculous thing it has been for me to watch and listen to upper-middle class Americans on mission trips in Haiti. Something forever changes when they briefly suffer with their Haitian brothers and sisters, witnessing their crushing hunger and sadness. It feels like watching a miracle also, to see a slender, brown-skinned, man represent America, me, and my family extending an open hand across Atlantic ocean after eight years of cowboys offering only the absolutes of silence, torture, and death. I will pray for sustainable miracles, and hope that President Obama remembers he is a Palestinian-African-Berliner.

i know it is not john wayne

blog posts suspended

Per my employment contract with Obama for America and the Indiana Campaign for Change, I am suspending my blog for a while.

Until later.

Barack the vote.

This was the moment

Tonight, Senator Ted Kennedy watched Barack Obama's speech from his hospital bed, as a 76 year old man and a day after major surgery. He watched it on the eve of the forty year anniversary of the devastating assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Forty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King a black man has taken the plunge to serve as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He already beat the Clintons, and he will beat John McCain in November. His speech tonight was superb, and his explanation of the massiveness of this hope for change was compelling. Forty years from today, people like Luke Treanor will ask me, "Where where you when Barack Obama ran for and won the presidency?" And I will say, "I was in Divinity School at Vanderbilt in the south, and when he won, I was running a hospital in Haiti." ("And before my PhD, I worked in his administration!")

Ok, so here were my favorite parts:

• Michelle Obama gave her husband "a pound" with her fist, on stage, and then a kiss.
• Barack Obama embodied Christianity: He praised and confronted, - - Hillary Clinton and John McCain respectively.
• Obama acknowledged a "known" for those of us in international poverty and health studies: Americans are generous.
• He never talks about his death threats, although the absence of his children and the presence of federal police officers prove the presence of such threats.

Barack Obama is going to be the first black president of the United States. On MSNBC Chris Matthews read some words from Bishop Desmond Tutu. I would like to share some other words from Desmond Tutu: "I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights."

hillary and obama

to be a witness and an actor

"I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories of survival, and freedom, and hope became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild." - Barack Obama, today

Today at Starbucks, my friend spoke of how liberation theology became embodied for her at the recent ordination of our colleague Darius. She said, "sometimes liberation theology is just so structured and I just can't feel the person in it." While listening to Obama, today and nearly everyday - a human face is exposed in the black church experience. Black, white, female, male,gay, straight - may we all seek to confront the ethnic imperialism of the white, Protestant, heteronormative experience.

no less than

I spend a great deal of my free time critiquing Christianity. (Don't worry - this post is not about the hundreds of things that I think about the thousands of things I have come across pertaining to the vast subject of "Christianity." I might save those conversations for the poor soul sitting beside me on my upcoming 17 hour plane flight to Dubai.) But really, it is no secret that I find enjoyment in studying, deconstructing, and teaching aspects of the theology, history, and practice of Christianity. It is also no secret that I am not much of a Christian apologist. But there is one thing I stand by to no avail: Jesus lived with an apocalyptic sense of urgency and he lead a political movement in which he inspired people personally, so much, that 2,000 years later Jesus, (and of course that which has been attributed to him by architects of the church), is remembered daily by billions of people while other messianic movements and magical people from that very place and that time are not.

There is a reason why some people stick.

When people are oppressed, and disengaged from the causes of the circumstances of their lives as the people of Israel were at the time of Jesus, there's only room for certain things to stick. Not every Joe Schmoe is going to inspire a revolution, or a movement, or a belief that the kingdom of God will reward those suffering at the hand of Rome. And today, it seems difficult for a movement of empowerment to resonate with those who are economically oppressed, or with those who feel that their voices, VOTES, and lives have been ignored and harmed at the hands of politicians who love war, are eons away from the economic conditions of most Americans.

Barack Obama has stuck.

This is not by chance, and no matter what happens from here on out in this election, the wave of change associated with the hope and faith represented by and placed in Barack Obama, are not soon to go away.

Here is a video that really stuck with America, and the international community. When the video came out in March, it became a "who done it" story because so, so, so many people understood and agreed with the message. And even if those very people are not voting this cycle, their sentiment was voiced in this video, - no less than the sentiment Jesus voiced for a group of people in the Galilee, and no less than the voice Barack Obama has taken on for so many of us. Thanks, Phil.

a vision for the future, not a sense of personal entitlement to it

Barack Obama won the South Carolina Primary by an astounding 28 points last night, and he gave a phenomenal speech. I have posted the second half of the speech at the bottom of this post. 28 points. As predicted, the Clintons are acting like South Carolina did not even happen. Despite their campaign's heated efforts in South Carolina, they have deemed that the voices of South Carolina not to matter. Among many efforts, Clinton had staffers there for a very long time working 18 hour days, (I know how this goes), and Hillary Clinton did not have the dignity to get on stage in South Carolina in order to say "thank you" to their faces, and to the faces of her campaign's volunteers. This hurt my heart, even as a big Obama supporter. It was just another cruel reminder of the Clintons' arrogance, attitude of entitlement, and lack of class.

Last night's vote was not just a counter-response to the weeks of negativity from the Clinton campaign; rather, last night was about giving life to a vision. Caroline Kennedy wrote about this vision in the New York Times, and I hope you will take time to read it.

In this election the Republicans have been put on notice that Clinton is beatable, and the American public does not look lightly upon unethical attacks on Obama. Furthermore, Democrats have noted that the party requires a candidate that will not alienate voters like me, and the African-Americans the party turns to and remembers once every four years. Despite how the Clintons will spin it, South Carolina is not a special case. If Obama is the national candidate for the Dems, turn out WILL be high. Let's vote for someone who is truthful about being against the war. Let's vote for someone who is still in conversation with the poor and working classes. Let's vote for someone with a vision for the future, not just a sense of entitlement to it. Let's take some risks, let's challenge ourselves to be better than what it is that we are told to believe about ourselves. Let's make this happen.

- - -

A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY

Published: January 27, 2008
New York Times OPEd

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

---
And from Barack Obama's victory speech in South Carolina last night:

We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics; this is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out. And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again.

And what we’ve seen in these last weeks is that we’re also up against forces that are not the fault of any one campaign, but feed the habits that prevent us from being who we want to be as a nation. It’s the politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon. A politics that tells us that we have to think, act, and even vote within the confines of the categories that supposedly define us. The assumption that young people are apathetic. The assumption that Republicans won’t cross over. The assumption that the wealthy care nothing for the poor, and that the poor don’t vote. The assumption that African-Americans can’t support the white candidate; whites can’t support the African-American candidate; blacks and Latinos can’t come together.

But we are here tonight to say that this is not the America we believe in. I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina. I saw crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children. I saw shuttered mills and homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from all walks of life, and men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. I saw what America is, and I believe in what this country can be.

That is the country I see. That is the country you see. But now it is up to us to help the entire nation embrace this vision. Because in the end, we are not just up against the ingrained and destructive habits of Washington, we are also struggling against our own doubts, our own fears, and our own cynicism. The change we seek has always required great struggle and sacrifice. And so this is a battle in our own hearts and minds about what kind of country we want and how hard we’re willing to work for it.

So let me remind you tonight that change will not be easy. That change will take time. There will be setbacks, and false starts, and sometimes we will make mistakes. But as hard as it may seem, we cannot lose hope. Because there are people all across this country who are counting us; who can’t afford another four years without health care or good schools or decent wages because our leaders couldn’t come together and get it done.

Theirs are the stories and voices we carry on from South Carolina.

The mother who can’t get Medicaid to cover all the needs of her sick child - she needs us to pass a health care plan that cuts costs and makes health care available and affordable for every single American.

The teacher who works another shift at Dunkin Donuts after school just to make ends meet - she needs us to reform our education system so that she gets better pay, and more support, and her students get the resources they need to achieve their dreams.

The Maytag worker who is now competing with his own teenager for a $7-an-hour job at Wal-Mart because the factory he gave his life to shut its doors - he needs us to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas and start putting them in the pockets of working Americans who deserve it. And struggling homeowners. And seniors who should retire with dignity and respect.

The woman who told me that she hasn’t been able to breathe since the day her nephew left for Iraq, or the soldier who doesn’t know his child because he’s on his third or fourth tour of duty - they need us to come together and put an end to a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.

The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white.

It’s about the past versus the future.

It’s about whether we settle for the same divisions and distractions and drama that passes for politics today, or whether we reach for a politics of common sense, and innovation - a shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.

There are those who will continue to tell us we cannot do this. That we cannot have what we long for. That we are peddling false hopes.

But here’s what I know. I know that when people say we can’t overcome all the big money and influence in Washington, I think of the elderly woman who sent me a contribution the other day - an envelope that had a money order for $3.01 along with a verse of scripture tucked inside. So don’t tell us change isn’t possible.

When I hear the cynical talk that blacks and whites and Latinos can’t join together and work together, I’m reminded of the Latino brothers and sisters I organized with, and stood with, and fought with side by side for jobs and justice on the streets of Chicago. So don’t tell us change can’t happen.

When I hear that we’ll never overcome the racial divide in our politics, I think about that Republican woman who used to work for Strom Thurmond, who’s now devoted to educating inner-city children and who went out onto the streets of South Carolina and knocked on doors for this campaign. Don’t tell me we can’t change.

Yes we can change.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can seize our future.

And as we leave this state with a new wind at our backs, and take this journey across the country we love with the message we’ve carried from the plains of Iowa to the hills of New Hampshire; from the Nevada desert to the South Carolina coast; the same message we had when we were up and when we were down - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people in three simple words:

Yes. We. Can.

anastasis

(skip to minute 4:00)