Friends,
With an hour to spare before my 2pm meeting on KS Housing Policy, just yesterday I stopped at the National Historic Site honoring the Brown vs Topeka Board of Education decision. Topeka isn't on anybody's top 5 vacation spots...but I tell you there is something there. As you walk in to the once black only school, you start understanding why Topeka made a difference. The school was pretty nice so one could argue the facilities were the same. The problem was the kids were kept apart strictly on race and that could not be equal. The exibit that really got to me- the one that I had to force myself to stand there and listen and walk through were two video walls running 4 black and white clips at once. The intent is that as you walk between the screens, as you hear the yelling and cursing and swearing....you feel the hate..and the tears start streaming down my face....that you start realizing many of those people who first walked to that school are still alive. That those doing the swearing are still alive. And I'm compelled to think, there is not a black America, and a white America but a United States of America. There is not a black history or a white history, there is an American History. If I as a white lady, only have white friends, and only read about the white experience in America, then I will be a sadder person for it. So instead, I take a chance and reach out to the Black community and the Hispanic community and create diversity around me and as a result, I start worrying about what's happening in the schools, in the neighborhoods, because after we spend time together....they become my brothers and sisters too. ....And the legacy of Topeka is that we can't grow stronger as a Nation if we don't have everyone united towards a higher goal. Thank you Barack. Thank you for calling it out, for calling us to Action, for calling us higher. And to the readers- its our job to talk it. Let the truth ring.
Tonight I attended the Missouri Delegate Caucus for my county. This was the first time I had ever voted in a Primary or taken the next step as part of our representative democracy. Our county elected a total of 17 delegates for Barack to our regional caucus and from there we go to the state convention where we choose the actual delegates that go to Denver.
I can't tell you how great it felt to be a cog of the democracy engine. We had older folks that had been with the party for years to a young man from high school who had gone up to Iowa to go door to door. We have women of every shade of the rainbow; baby boomers to the Millennials. I was elected a delegate for Barack Obama from Clay County. Mado (4) was with me tonight. She kept asking where is Barack?
Josh Reed was one of 3 paid staff in Missouri. He was also elected a delegate. How great to see someone live in person that sent us emails and encouraged us to particpate.
Our highest calling as American citizens is to drive our democracy. Watch out Washington- a lot more of us got behind the wheel tonight.
Some of you mentioned tonight that your kids are starting to find Barack. They recognize him on TV and notice when he's speaking. My Mado(4)is doing the same. Do you know what's happening? Our children are reflecting our hope, our energy, our belief that this man is going to change our world for the better. They love their mamas and papas and they can feel our spirits rise. Kids are smart. They are mirroring our hopes and dreams. Our hope that we love our kids as much as the greatest generation loved the baby boomers. Can we be that generation too? Can we make tough decisions for their sake? Can we start caring about "those kids"? Now Barack ain't Jesus but he is a leader. He inspires us to believe in ourselves and as a result we are better parents and better citizens. Is it Liberal to care about the world we are leaving to our children? Barack nailed it tonight in Austin. And our kids know it.
"People were bringing little children to Jesus so that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.' And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them." (Mark 10:13-16 NRSV)
Ladies,
I wonder if Texas and specifically Austin might be the place for Barack to weave in "the Woman Speech".
If I were Barack, I would give the Woman Speech to his girls (metaphorically as the Birmingham reference is disturbing). It might go something like this.
With my mother, Ann behind me and Michelle beside me; To my Dearest Malia and Sasha- This message is for you.
I want to try to describe how loved you are. All over this nation, Americans are voting and giving money and blogging and rallying because they believe that little boys and little girls just like you can do anything they want to be when they grow up. You remember how Daddy tells that story sometimes about the little boys throwing rocks outside my community meeting when nobody had showed up? Tonight I want to talk about you.
The education level of a woman when she has a baby is the single biggest determinant of the economic status of her children. That's big words for girls count. Girls matter. Girls should be very picky with whom they have that baby with. Girls determine the future of a country. You won't believe this, but there was once a time when girls didn't get to vote, when they couldn't grow up to be anybody they wanted to. Once apon a time, there were even four girls, Denise, Cynthia, Carole and Addie, who died because some bad guys had the wrong idea that the color of your skin makes a difference vs your ideas, your heart and your determination. These little girls had dreams too. They were Girl Scouts, they raised money for muscular dystrophy, they were good at math, sang, and played sports. But good people marched and demanded that what happened to those girls wouldn't happen again and things changed.
And then later something called Title IX became the law of the land. "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
Basically that girls can do anything ! And so it happened that a woman's worth and substance has changed from whether she can vote to a world where she can be a CEO, Win the World Cup, she can do anything she wants. And yes, one day a girl will be president. There are alot of women who grew up before that day and it still hurts that they used to be told, you can't do it, you are a girl. And there's alot of women who grew up watching Sally Ride and Mae Jemison fly in space. Who never heard they couldn't do it. Whose Moms and Dads looked at them and said, "Yes You Can !" And now girls know they can do anything. By being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, an entreprenuer. They believe in the power of themselves to change the world.
Girls swept a prestigious high school science competition for the first time Monday, winning top prizes of $100,000 scholarships for their work. It was the first time girls had ever won the grand prizes in both the team and individual divisions of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Girls can do math and science ! Yes they can !
Girls, millions of people want to make sure that all the little girls get the same chance you have. The ones who live in the Delta of Mississippi, in East LA, on reservations of Oklahoma, in South Carolina to the burroughs of New York. People are fighting for you. They are fighting with Daddy to make a better world for you. To make sure you get a better county, a country that has no limits to what its girls, all girls can do.
Love, your daddy
Please sit down at the counter. Please cross the line. Please believe that this is a movement, not just an election. Pick up the phone and make calls. Talk to just 10 neighbors- I dare you !
Kendra Wyatt, Benson Place, Kansas City, Clay County, Missouri, The UNITED States of America, The World
With Caroline giving her support to Barack, many of you mention how much JFK meant to you.
I was born in 1974, so I've never heard a living public leader like John, Martin, or Bobby. When I read JFK's nomination acceptance speech, its Barack I hear through John's words. Besides the references to Communism and some dated references, it could be today. Maybe that's it. Maybe the torch has been passed.
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Under any circumstances, however, the victory that we seek in November will not be easy. We all know that in our hearts. We recognize the power of the forces that will be aligned against us.
But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high – to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.
Today our concern must be with the future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons – new and uncertain nations – new pressures of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free – but one-third is the victim of cruel repression – and the other one-third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations then by the fission of the atom itself.
Here, at home, the changing face of the future is equally revolutionary. The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations – but this is a new generation.A technological revolution on the farm has led us to an output explosion – but we have not yet learned how to harness that explosion usefully, while protecting our farmers’ right to full parity income.
A peaceful revolution for human rights – demanding an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life has strained at the leashes imposed by timid executive leadership.
A medical revolution has extended the life of our elder citizens without providing the dignity and security those later years deserve. And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.
There has also been a change – a slippage – in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drought and famine have withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies – and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America – in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right. Too many Americans have lost their way, their will, and their sense of historic purpose.
It is a time, in short, for a new generation of leadership – new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities.
All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power – men who are not bound by the traditions of the past – men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries – young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.
The Republican nominee-to-be, of course, is also a young man. But his approach is as old as McKinley. His party is the party of the past. His speeches are generalities from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Their platform, made up of left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo – and today there can be no status quo.
For I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their own lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not “every man for himself” but “all for the common cause.” They were determined to make that new world strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
Today some would say that those struggles are all over – that all the horizons have been explored – that all the battles have ben won – that there is no longer an American frontier.
But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battlers are not all won – and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier – the frontier of the 1960's – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook – it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric – and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me regardless of party.
But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age – to all who respond to the Scriptural call: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
For courage – not complacency – is our need today – leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously. A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.
There may be those who wish to hear more – more promises to this group or that – more harsh rhetoric about the men in the Kremlin – more assurances of a golden future, where taxes are always low and subsidies ever high. But my promises are in the platform you have adopted. Our ends will not be won by rhetoric and we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.
For the harsh facts of the matter are that we stand on this frontier at a turning-point in history. We must prove all over again whether this nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure; whether our society, with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, can compete with the single-minded advance of the Communist system.
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men’s minds?
Are we up to the task – are we equal to the challenge? Are we willing to match the Russian sacrifice of the present for the future, or must we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make – a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort – between national greatness and national decline – between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy” – between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.
It has been a long road from that first snowy day in New Hampshire to this crowded convention city. Now begins another long journey, taking me into your cities and homes all over America. Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote. Recall with me the words of Isaiah: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.”
As we face the coming challenge, we too shall wait upon the Lord, and ask that he renew our strength, Then shall we be equal to the test. Then shall we not be weary. And then we shall prevail.
Friends, I am pumped up about Barack as ever. Over 100,000 people voted for him today.
In between watching the results come in, I listed to David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States of America preach his sad truth- that we are bankrupting America. Now I know the campaign wonks will tell Barack not to mention the debt- only rich republicans care about such a thing. I'm sorry- I believe if we are the majority and we are audacious- then we have to do both. Because I doubt Barack wants to screw up the lives of his girls- and I want to leave a better nation not a "check that can't be cashed" to mine- we have to start talking about this people. This will attract the social liberal but fiscally conservative coalition for the general election. So maybe its timing- but I give people more credit. You can talk about it in the same breath as healthcare. We can be that greatest generation that makes the turn and sucks it up. Take out the friction, create transparent and value driven government and get our money's worth. Pay for health not sickcare. Pay for learning not test scores. Pay for safety not fear. We think the sub prime fiasco has ruined america. What until the gov can't pay its mortgage.
Let's be big enough not to ignore the big problems. YES WE CAN
http://kcthinker.blogspot.com/
Words Do Inspire
Did anyone else get the reaction I did listening to Barack tonight ? (1/5/08)
the truth is actually words do inspire. Words do help people get involved. Words do help members of Congress get into power so that they can be part of a coalition to deliver health care reform, to deliver a bold energy policy. Don't discount that power, because when the American people are determined that something is going to happen, then it happens.
America was built on the promise and power of words.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. What an audacious thought !
MLK Jr preached from Lincoln’s steps: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Last Caucus night my 58 year old white mother from Shell Rock Iowa called to tell me she and her completely white community chose Barack as the best democrat for president. Character won Thursday night.
JFK inspired us to have big hairy audacious goals that take a long time to achieve. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."
Why do we want everyone to have access to health? Because we can. What is my legacy to my 4 year old Madelin and 1 year old Easton? Trillions of dollars in dept ? Health disparities that keep children in poverty? Welfare called the military industrial complex? Broken schools and too many taxes for too little results? How about a nation with audacious goals? How about a nation that is inspired to pioneer, entrepreneur, and use its resourcefulness and initiative ? What about public/private partnerships? How about transparency? How about take out the friction? Why haven’t we harnessed the power of microcredit in our own country? Its been 40 years since we went to the moon – why aren’t we inspired to learn physics so we can go to Mars? We have nothing to fear but fear itself. We will figure it out. We will think it up, work it out. We are not just about sitting infront of our big screen TVs purchased on credit in surburbs where we don’t know the next door neighbor. How about a president that asks us to do something ??
We will make calls and get organized and call our brothers and sisters and parents out to vote. The people of Pakistan and Kenya ARE DYING for one person, one vote that is counted and honored. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not a SUV- it is a birthright passed to us through blood, inspiration and perspiration. We owe our ancestors and our grandchildren more than sitting back.
We owe them action. We owe them a better day. Words Do Inspire- in 2004 we heard Barack tell us “there is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is a United States of America” We sat back and sighed- that man is going to be President.
Barack- you brought it back at your Iowa victory speech. Keep telling us how we can come together.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=56-m8wx1mwo
