2008.08.28
Delegate places hope in Obama
Tonight, Barack Obama becomes the embodiment of dreams that reach across time to Westside Elementary School in Roanoke.
When the Illinois senator accepts the Democratic nomination for president in Denver, he'll do so 45 years to the day of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech that spoke of the full inclusion of blacks in the American fabric.
Undoubtedly, Robert Kennedy was accused of dreaming when he said during a 1961 interview that just as his Irish-Catholic brother had become president, a black person could be president in 40 years.
If Kennedy's dream is to be fulfilled, Obama still has a tough stretch ahead, because his election is by no means assured. But his achievement tonight makes Democratic delegate Linda Wyatt, a Hillary Clinton backer and a retired Westside teacher, ecstatic for her students. We spoke by telephone Wednesday morning.
"I taught in Northwest Roanoke for 30 years," said Wyatt, who retired in 2003. "I taught some of the brightest children you would ever want to meet -- children that fully had the potential to be president.
"I believe they can do it, but they didn't believe," said the former Roanoke city councilwoman, who now supports Obama. "To think now that Obama is a real, human, living breathing symbol of that, that's within [their] grasp. ... Now they can say, 'That's my dream, too.' "
For all of its divisiveness and bruising battles, the hard-fought contest between Obama and Clinton reflects a moment in history that should be relished.
When historians look back at it, the Jeremiah Wright flap or Bill Clinton's rhetoric in South Carolina will be asides.
History will focus on the moment in which a woman and a black man shattered with ferocity the long-standing barrier of presidential politics.
When Kennedy shared his vision in 1961, the idea of a woman or a black with a real shot at the presidency must have seemed like absurdity. "Colored" and "White" signs hung in the Jim Crow South, and women largely were expected to assume the role of homemaker.
This year's Democratic convention stands for so much more than the typical campaign buttons and hats. It stands as a tribute to those who sacrificed over the decades for a more inclusive America.
"Whatever our political affiliation -- unless racism and sexism run rampant through our hearts and minds -- can't we be proud, no matter who you're voting for?" Gloria Elliot of Roanoke asked me. "If you're alive, you have to be excited."
Wyatt arrived at the convention Sunday. She said the atmosphere in Denver is infectious.
"The whole thing has been history-making, and it's exciting," she said as she sat with other members of the Virginia delegation in the Crown Plaza Hotel near the convention center.
Denver marks Wyatt's second national convention. She was in Chicago in 1996 for Bill Clinton's second nomination. She had hoped to see his wife's nomination this year.
Still, she added, "The excitement that is around this place, whether you're a Hillary fan or an Obama fan, there's a hope."
In her blunt, straightforward style, Wyatt, 60, didn't hesitate when I asked whom she would support in November.
"Take Barack Obama -- whether you like him or don't like him -- out of the picture. I don't think this nation can take four more years of the same old Republican-Bush policies.
"Yes, I'm going to support Barack," Wyatt, said. "I like the young man. I've always admired Hillary Clinton."
If you watched Clinton's rousing speech Tuesday night on CNN, you might have caught a fleeting glimpse of Wyatt.
The camera cut to a brief close-up of her in the audience. She didn't know she had been on television until a friend text-messaged her from Blacksburg.
When I commented how stoic she appeared, Wyatt noted that she was tired. She had traveled Saturday from Cancun, Mexico, with a layover in Chicago. When she removed her shoes at the security check in Chicago, they disappeared.
"It's not like they were a pair of Jimmy Choos," Wyatt said matter-of-factly, referring to the expensive designer brand. "They were flip-flops."
She boarded the plane to Roanoke. When she arrived at 10:30 Saturday night, she learned the airline had lost her luggage. So she went to Wal-Mart to get a new suitcase and some essentials, stayed up all night packing and was on the plane for the 6 a.m. Sunday flight to Denver.
Wyatt will be among the 75,000 people at Obama's outdoor speech tonight when he accepts the nomination. No, he wasn't Wyatt's first choice. But she sees broader ramifications of his nomination.
"What a gift to my children," said Wyatt, forever the teacher.
Barack Obama is the embodiment of what most of all Black men should aspire to be to bring strength and empower our young Black Men to strive much more to be.
It's his politics that I don't agree with, his ideals of preventing oil drilling in ANWR Alaska to save caribou. And stop off shore oil drilling. In which he made a speech in Florida that oil drilling will not lower gas prices, what's going to happen if he stop the bill for off shore oil drilling now?
How about Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One impact of this repeal is that certain advisory activities of the banks are now regulated by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940."
Clinton's deregulation of these oversight/regulatory acts affecting the banking industry helped spur on this sub-prime fiasco and the simultaneous 'self dealing' through affiliates both foreign and domestic.
I look forward to Obama's speech, but his politics has no room in my life.
This from my Black prospective.
Comment by Backlash — August 28, 2008 @ 11:58 am
President Clinton’s Speech Income: $51,855,599
I wonder what that works out per syllable?
CHA CHING!
Comment by Terry B — August 28, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Nancy Pelosi: "I am very proud of the Democrats in Congress."
Never mind that no Congress in the past 20 years has passed fewer public laws than this one, according to the Wall Street Journal. How could they?
They are spending one quarter of their work week debating and passing symbolic measures such as creating National Fruit of The Month.
The Journal says no Congress in the past two decades has proposed more symbolic resolutions than this one -- 1,900, for those of you keeping score at home.
Hillary Clinton: "John McCain doesn't think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis."
She must have missed the update that this number dropped by over a million. While it's still too high, I doubt she would have missed the news if it had risen.
She also missed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that 37 percent of the uninsured live in households making more than $50,000 a year, most of which can afford health insurance.
Twenty percent aren't even citizens of this country. One in three are eligible for government insurance, but aren't enrolled. So, while our health care is far from perfect, it's much better than Hillary wants you to believe.
Lastly Hillary Clinton: "I will always remember the boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours."
So, how will raising the minimum wage get that mom more hours? If the business owner found her employment too expensive at the lower wage, won't they be cutting her hours even more now?
By the way, since the minimum wage increase, teenage unemployment is at a 15-year high. I'm sure there's no relation whatsoever.
Comment by Backlash — August 28, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
All was good with this weeks convention, after a slow start. I cring to think what the tab will be for this, and think "caps" should be part of 2012. I will not follow many of my democratic pals, and vote for McCain, this time around I'll vote Independent. I like the sound of the word, and see no reason to vote in party lines, or for 4 more Mc Bush years.
Comment by Dona Wheeler/Roanoke — August 28, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Backlash ends one of his polemics with "...from my Black prospective" (sic). I must question whether this is true. Not because I doubt that an African-American could be so stridently in thrall to neo-conservative talking points, but because, besides using a pseudonym, "backlash" writes in a way that I have only ever encountered from lower middlebrow whites. Perhaps "backlash" could provide some details of the experiences that shaped the claimed perspective. But giving the benefit of the doubt to "backlash" for both spelling and content, we can call it the poster's "bro-spective".
Comment by Warren — August 29, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Warren your comment is typical of "White" asinine elitus that no "Black" male would have a rational idea or thought in politics.
By labeling me by my "bro-spective" will forever ensure a division among our independent races, Yet first things first why is that "White America" always need an explanation from "Black Americans" or "African Americans".
Or in your mind every "Black Person" wear their pants hanging low and it's okay that White Females wear pajama pants in public as casually as your posted thought.
The last I checked this problem is spherical, it is experience that have been my guide in politics and not the....
"flag I wave".
Comment by Backlash — September 2, 2008 @ 8:32 am