Obama calls on us to help change the nation
Obama calls on us to help change the nation
By Bruce Mulkey
Asheville Citizen-Times, April 29, 2008
In early 2007, I spent a few days in Nashville with Al Gore, being trained to present his global warming slide show. Contrary to the mainstream media’s portrayal of the former vice president, Gore proved to be warm, witty and engaging. At the end of the training, I thanked him for what he was doing, wondering (but not asking) if he planned to run for president again. For a few months thereafter I hung on every rumor of Gore’s candidacy until, alas, it became obvious that he did not intend to enter the race.
So I shifted my support to John Edwards and made a modest contribution to his campaign. I watched the results of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses hoping for an Edwards upset but gained a revelation instead: Barack Obama’s eloquent and inspiring victory speech compelled me to switch candidates again.
Since, however, Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, I had questions about him and his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Who was this guy? What was his vision for America? How was he different from any of the other candidates running for president?
So my wife Shonnie and I did some research on the Internet. Then we downloaded both of Obama’s books — Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope — and spent evenings listening to them and learning more about this man.
Who is Barack Obama?
In doing so, we learned that Obama was raised by his single mother and his grandparents. After graduation from Harvard Law School, rather than taking a prestigious position at a high-powered law firm, he went to Chicago to head a voter registration drive.
He ran grassroots, citizen-funded campaigns for the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate and has gained as much legislative experience as Abraham Lincoln had when the Great Emancipator ran for president. He has co-sponsored legislation that will help provide cleaner air and fight methamphetamines, both serious issues in Western North Carolina.
He wants to do more than end the Iraq war — he wants to end the mindset that got us into this war in the first place. Among Obama’s values are personal responsibility, self-reliance, empathy, authenticity, honesty, thrift, fairness and love of country. He is a servant leader who calls on us to be leaders in our own right. Finally, we learned that he is a committed, faithful husband and a devoted father whose personal and political decisions are informed by his deep Christian faith.
So I decided to get to work for Obama. Before I began volunteering locally for his campaign, I’d heard some referring to it as a personality cult, a throng of naïve, youthful Obamaniacs who had drunk the Kool-Aid and blindly followed this political pied piper wherever he led. My personal experience is quite the contrary.
Hundreds of self-organized volunteers of diverse ethnic origins, ages, sexual orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, professions, religious faiths and even political parties have joined together in Asheville and throughout Western North Carolina to reclaim the political power that is our birthright. We have united to help Barack Obama win the May 6 North Carolina Democratic Primary and move him one step closer to becoming president of the United States.
The right leader at this crucial time
It may still be business as usual for many Washington insiders. But here in Asheville and across the land, a powerful movement of energized citizen-activists has arisen. Barack Obama has rekindled the hopeful vision for our nation that lies deep within each of us.
He has called on us to make that vision a reality, to become personally accountable, to help our country correct the course it is on.
With your support, we will seize this opportunity to bring about fundamental change in our nation’s capital. We will rebuild our schools and infrastructure, restore our constitutional rights, bring our troops home from Iraq, curb global warming, make health care available to all and restructure our economy. Together we will transform America into the country it’s meant to be.
We are the ones. Now is the time. Please join us.
Bruce Mulkey is an Asheville writer and communications consultant. Mulkey is a former community columnist for the Asheville Citizen-Times and currently blogs at brucemulkey.com. You may contact him at bruce@brucemulkey.com.
Tuesday, April 29th, 20081 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
I took a while to switch over to Obama. Yes I was going to support the party candidate but I didn’t like the “squabbling” as John Edwards called it between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Edwards spoke to me as a member of the working class. Hillary Clinton seemed too much of the same game and I honestly thought Obama was more hype and flash then substance. But I had a viable option.
Since John Edwards suspended his campaign and not end it many of us across the nation (thanks to myspace!) decided to push John’s platform. Ending the war, taking on poverty, pro labor and a good health care policy. Party rules said a suspended candidate could be placed on the ballot and seat delegates. That Super Tuesday, Edwards did receive a large number of votes and took 10% of Oklahoma. He also came close to seating a delegate in California. Rules state if a candidate gets 15% of the state vote he or she gets a delegate. The truth was, it was now the Edwards Primary now. The following week in the Potomac Primary I cast my vote for John Edwards.
As the campaign went on I began to lean Hillary because she seemed to pull more from the Edwards Primary. But I remained a John Edwards Democrat. I’ll never forget the moment Edwards endorsed Obama in Michigan. I couldn’t beleive the two great leaders on that stage in Michigan. I realized that Obama and Edwards had a core policy that brought them together. They stayed away from the special interest.
I still had to get behind Obama. I needed substance. When he came out and gave that 19 punch speech as he accepted the nomination I knew we had our winner. Government isn’t going to be the same again. I couldn’t not back Obama. I was still a John Edwards Democrat, despite the scandle, but I saw alot of Edwards on that stage.
I think the new breed of politics coming out of Virginia is best said by my Congressman elect Tom Perriello, “Right over wrong not Right over Left.” The long standing partisan civil war is over.
I would like to see Democratic candidates adopted their own 11th commandment , Thou shall not attack another Democrat. I never liked the Hillary - Obama fight that could have hurt the party. That was “squabbling”
Right now, people are going to have to realize that the culture of service needs to be restored. Obama, Biden his cabinet and both Houses of Congress are going to need to our help cleaning up 8 years of irresponsible governing.
Comment by Russ Naranjo — December 30, 2008 @ 12:29 am