Barack Obama

Winds of Change are Blowing

Throughout the past 13 months the 2008 presidential campaign has taken many interesting turns, but with the delivery of Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech last Tuesday in Philadelphia, it feels to me as if a new and fresh breeze is blowing through the country.

This is the first time in my life that I have been active in the primary election process. Indeed, for many years I was so disgusted and disenfranchised with the government and the quality of the candidates running for office that I did not pay attention to the process at all, and often did not take the time to vote. But in 2000 I did begin to take an interest in politics again, and was very supportive of Al Gore. I was devastated with the outcome of that election and how it was conducted. Once again I felt that the governmental process had let me down and I began to ignore political activities again.

Then, September 11 happened. That changed everything for everyone here in the US. Fear and anger gripped us and we had no choice but to put our trust in our government and our elected officials. But again, our government let us all down by engaging us in a preemptive military action that had no relationship to the 9/11 incident. By the 2004 election cycle it seemed clear to many of us that the Iraq war had been waged based on lies and faulty intelligence. It was also clear that the plan for the war had been poorly devised and the execution of whatever plan there may have been was embarrassingly incompetent. So it seemed like there was a good chance that the Democrats would take back the White House in 2004. Given the dire developments of the previous four years, I was again interested in politics and the outcome of the election. I fully supported Kerry, and was again devastated by the results of the election process. I felt hopeless and in a state of despair for weeks and months after the 2004 election. My heart was broken. I felt numb.

Once again I disengaged from politics, but I started to become more involved in social activism, returning to my familiar 60s roots. I joined the ONE campaign, and Oxfam. I started blogging about topics and causes of interest to me. I began reading blogs and commenting on other’s blogs. And somehow, all of this led me back to politics again. As I was following legislation related to agriculture and trade agreements, or funding for the Millennium Development Goals, I found myself watching the Congressional proceedings on CSPAN more and more frequently. I became familiar with a whole range of issues and a level of information that I had never encountered or experienced before. I was also fascinated by the actual legislative process itself, quickly becoming addicted to analyzing the various strategies and tactics used by the congressmen and senators to shepherd their bills and ammendments along the path to enactment. It was during this period of time that I became familiar with Barack Obama.

Barack caught my attention quickly with his direct and pragmatic manner. His command of language, working knowledge of the issues, and consistent and clear positions in important areas such as foreign policy, constitutional accountability, ethics, and energy policy were compelling. He also exhibited the character quality of strong leadership combined with humility and compassion. So when he announced his candidacy for president I was excited, but somewhat doubtful that the American public was ready for this type of candidate. Nonetheless, when Obama chose to hold a rally in Austin in February 2007,  just a few weeks after his candidacy announcement, I took off work and attended.

There were over 20,000 of us at that rally in Austin last year, and we were not disappointed. We had the opportunity of seeing thousands of everyday people of every color and age coming together in the hopeful expectation of seeing something different and new in the American political forum - an intelligent, genuine, inspiring, visionary, and straight-talking candidate. Our hopes were not in vain, Barack was all of those things and more, but even more gratifying was the people’s reaction to the speech and the whole event. People were friendly and polite to each other, despite being packed together like sardines on a misty, damp day. The atmosphere was upbeat without being hysterical. Everyone listened intently to the speech and cheered enthusiastically at exactly the appropriate times. It was a ‘happening’ in sixties lingo, and it felt good!

I knew at that point that there was hope if we could get enough people involved - unified behind this leader with such unusual gifts for inspiring and unifying people of such diverse backgrounds and ages. So I joined up and started donating and blogging on the campaign web site. I became completely committed to the Obama campaign, and I immersed myself in all of the issues and the drama surrounding the campaign. As the months wore on, my commitment remained strong and steady. The HQ web site was the catalyst that allowed the movement to gel by providing a centralized place for the virtual conversation and organization to grow and mature. The web site has grown in function and content as well. It is a wonderful example of using technology to educate, organize, and activate a large number of people. It is also a concrete example of the results that have been achieved by the Obama campaign. Not just in terms of virtual fundraising, although that aspect of the campaign has been second to none, but more importantly, in terms of the number of people posting, commenting, creating events, holding virtual GOTV canvassing sessions, and sharing information in near real time 24 hours a day.

Since the first votes were cast in Iowa in January, it has been difficult to stay objective and emotionally detached from the primary process. It is easy to get elated and caught up in the positive momentum and enthusiasm that the Obama movement generates. It is also equally easy to become angry and depressed when our candidate and his supporters (us) are criticized and ridiculed by the media and the opposing candidates. The road from Iowa to the present has been a bumpy one. Some days our momentum seems unstoppable, other days it feels like we are fighting an uphill battle that we might not win. Our competition is tenacious and formidible, and has often resorted to negative tactics that have unfortunately been pretty successful. But Barack has remained on message and as positive as is possible in the face of mounting personal attacks.

Lately though, the attacks have focused on race, which is a particularly sensitive and devisive topic. As these attacks escalated, and the media latched onto the racial rhetoric being carelessly volleyed between campaign supporters, I felt like we were being beaten down and I started losing hope. I had to turn off the TV and stop reading blogs for a week because it was too difficult to remain emotionally detached.

Once again, Obama demonstrated to all of us that he really is the leader we have been looking for. He spent two days and nights writing a speech that was more of a teaching than a political dissertation. He delivered it with such skill and firm determination it knocked our socks off. He took one of the most difficult topics of our generation and candidly shared his unique views with us. Unique because he is as much a white person as he is a black person. He has the ability to see the issue from both sides, which most of us cannot. He took a huge risk by treating this subject matter so honestly and directly, but it paid off handsomely. He showed genuine leadership by helping us to understand how we all participate in the racial stalemate scenario and by suggesting to us practical ways that we can move past our differences by looking for the common values that we share and challenges that we all face. His message was so positively received that the speech went viral on YouTube within a day, and has been viewed more that 4 million times as of this writing. Educators are also reported to be including the speech in their curriculums as well.

We are fortunate to be witnessing and to be a part of an important historical moment in our social and political development. The winds of change are blowing strong and true. With a leader like Obama, and millions of committed activists coming together and becoming more cohesive every day, our passion for change is already being realized. “Little darlin’, it’s been a long cold lonely winter. Little darlin’, it seems like years since its been clear. Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun and I say, It’s alright.”

Yes we can.

© 2008 Life is an Ongoing Process.