The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for him to say exactly this…. my favorite parts highlighted. You can read the entirety of the letter here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403174.html?nav=rss_opinion%2Fcolumns

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We’ve seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker — and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.

Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years.

Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans.

And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway.

These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They’re patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide.

Found this online.

When I was a young girl, my grandmother purchased the apartment building she’d lived in. I lived there with my dad and my mom. My aunt, my dad’s sister, and her children (my cousins) lived there as well. This was in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, NY. Then, as now, Bedford-Stuyvesant was known as a tough neighborhood, and my mom and dad, as soon as could be arranged, purchased a house in an entirely different section of Brooklyn. My aunt moved out after awhile too – she moved to New Jersey.

My parents divorced when I was 8, and not too long after that, my father remarried – and moved back into my grandmother’s apartment building. He, being a community organizer, believed firmly in reinvesting in the community. Besides creating a community services center in the storefront of my grandmother’s building, my father and my stepmother purchased a number of other properties on the block. The dream was to purchase, renovate, and make productive the many otherwise rundown or abandoned buildings in the community.

That they accomplished as much as they did (the purchase of the several properties) was impressive because they were not rich. If anything – they were lower middle class, and their only income was whatever they would earn from low-income housing (only sometimes collecting rents) and the small salaries they paid themselves from grants brought into the community service center.

Out of the community service center, my father and stepmother coordinated social services for people in the neighborhood. The peripherally (or actually) homeless, the poor seniors shut in and unable to get about to take care of their basic needs – these were their clients. Helping welfare moms find both work and childcare was part of what they did long before Clinton coined the term “workfare.” Sometimes over a summer break, I would work in the soup kitchen that they ran. My dad taught me never to look down on people. The worst criminal could be a productive member of society… my dad had a way of organizing recently paroled men into neighborhood watches or other volunteer service.

My father, unfortunately, failed to live up to his own highest aspirations. He became addicted to drugs and over time, lost everything. My father’s demise took its toll on the neighborhood – the shining hope that had once been there – the belief that something good could happen on Ralph Avenue, and that maybe the residents there could be a part of it, died with my father’s failures.

At the age of 60, my dad was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Years of cocaine use is hard on a heart. This summer I spent a lot of time on the old block. I was working to get my father off the block, and into senior housing. His wife had died at the start of the summer, and I had a hope against all hope that my father would finally have improved living conditions that would let him regain some of his health, and some hope for living. I asked him what he thought of Obama’s chances. He thought that Obama would win. I asked him if folks in the neighborhood were excited about it all… he said no.

In the end, even after getting my dad set up in decent housing, he died. He was only 63, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe he died clean. Hopelessness, when it sets in, is worse than cancer – and even the excitement of this moment doesn’t reach fully into the deepest part of the inner city. Nothing short of a win – and real results – will bring hope to communities that are used to black failure, both at our own hands, and at the ever-present hand of racism.

So – today, with only a day and change left to this election season, I’m offering the one reason I never let myself offer before, for why I want Obama to win. I want him to win because he’s black. Because – I want people who are teetering on the edge of hopelessness, who’ve seen it all, done it all, and don’t believe in change – I want them to see change happen. I want that self-defeatist doubt to finally be itself doubted… I want hope to become real for those who don’t dare to hope.

I’ve had lots of reasons to want Obama to win. I’ve come around on universal health care. I absolutely want green energy. I am sick of corruption going unchecked. I’m concerned that government has gotten too complex for the little people to monitor it. I think Obama can bring about change in all of those conditions. But just for today – I want Obama to win, because I want it to be finally proven that it really CAN happen. And I want him to be a kick-butt president, because I have already seen what it looks like when a brilliant man with a generous heart and an innovative mind lets himself and others down. Obama has proven, against lots of odds, not least of which includes beating the trajectory of drug involvement, that he can deliver. I want to see him do it.

When my father died, it fell to me to go through his things, decide what to keep and what to toss. In a suit pocket, I found 2 dollars. It was all he had to his name. I promised to do a good deed with those two dollars, because as a Baha’i, I believe that good deeds done in the name of the deceased help their souls in the hereafter. I put one dollar in the bucket at a 12 step meeting – one that my father would have qualified for had he ever availed himself of the opportunity. I donated $20 And to the nice round number of 20, I’m adding $1. So, that’s 20 from me, and 1 from my dad, in support of hope, and change.

I donated directly at Barack Obama’s site and as part of Bob Cesca’s fundraising drive, which is here: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=69867

QT

Here in the United States, the nation is embroiled in the political season as we gear up for presidential elections on the first Tuesday in November 2008.  We’re winding down on the primary season, and will immediately pivot into the general election campaign thereafter.  It is likely that Barack Obama will be one of the candidates for president.  As a result of the primary campaign, a number of disturbing trends have come to light – these include racism, sexism, religious intolerance, anti-intellectualism, classism, and a complete lack of unity.   The Obama Project is an effort to address this in the spirit of what WindonWater.net is all about… namely producing small ripples to push against the current…

What:  The Obama Project will be a series of posts focussed on presenting factual information about candidate Barack Obama that negates misinformation about him – but with the specific goal of NOT promoting the candidate, but rather, promoting the eradication of racism, sexism, classism, religious intolerance, and anti-intellectualism.  Of course, I hope that focussing on these things will yield more unity in place of divisiveness.

How: The mission statement of WindonWater.net is “conversation for a better world, and a happy soul.”   The idea is that by changing the way we talk about stuff, we turn the tide on cynicism and negativity.  How necessary is THAT these days?

Why: Why Barack Obama?  Well, largely because his candidacy has called all of this stuff to the forefront of public discourse.  With this candidate, we have room to talk about racism, and religious intolerance.  We have room to talk about the meaning of love of country (patriotism).  We have room to talk about classism, and sexism.  And of course, the candidate has given a groundbreaking speech on race, that gives us a starting place.

As a Baha’i, I’ve been hesitant to start this effort.  Baha’is are not supposed to engage in partisan politics, but rather, are supposed to simply vote their consciences.  I’ve fallen short of that mark often this cycle, because of being so very partisanly in support of candidate Barack Obama.  Notwithstanding, I have concluded that this is something that I can do, and even should do, and I do believe it is doable without trending toward partisanship (at least I hope it is).

Anyway – as a woman and as an African-American, I’ve been sucked in to the process because the issues are very real to me.  And I do feel a personal need to have a direct response to these issues, and a need to do so in a way that avoids the persistent negativity that has dominated the blogosphere.  I hope others will join the conversation, and lend thoughts and ideas – especially out of the box, especially with a spiritual perspective, as we work through these tough issues.

My goal is to produce one post a week – that’s ambitious perhaps – that pushes against the wind.  Everyone is welcome to continue the conversation – and of course to start topics of interest throughout the thread.  The front page will be adjusted every week to promote the latest Obama Project post.

We’ll see how it goes!

Finally – since it really is more of a blogging project than a forum effort, I’m blogging here, instead of on my main forum site.  I’ll try to RSS to WindonWater.net, just the same.

QT