Hunter Smith's Blog

New Haven House Meeting-Mobilizing

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:51:11 EST

So the die hard Obama supporters are at it again. We're trying to stimulate the populous to stimulate the economy. Is anybody listening is the real question.

American citizens wanted a change. We voted to continue to create a more perfect union and it is becoming difficult to articulate what exactly is standing in the way.

It has occurred to me that people don't read history. Maybe most American Republican Senators aren't aware of Herbert Hoover's ineffective, "too little too late" attempts at balancing the budget in the first years of the Great Depression. Does Hawley Smoot Tarriff ring any bells? Well, Hoover was certain that protective tariffs and "buy American" legislation, could stave off a decline in domestic production and sales. This can't be our wrong doing causing a world depression. It must be the Europeans, he seemed to believe. WRONG.

Hoover also didn't believe in government aid to relieve human suffering. If you don't have a job, call a volunteer organization. I guess it didn't occurr to him that many volunteers and do gooders had lost their jobs and couldn't keep working the evening soup kitchen when their own families didn't have dinner on the table. Maybe he wasn't aware that the super rich philanthropists stopped handing money out after their personal assets had been relatively crushed with the stock market crash. When he finally got around to realizing, "golly" the masses need a little help, he wanted to use trickle down economics. This was in the form of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932. It was a loan authority for railroads, banks and municipalities to keep them from collapsing. He did adhere to the belief, to the bitter end that the richest would spend enough to get the economy moving enough to let the lowly middle class and the poor have enough to eat to keep them from revolting.

Well, I think that mindset is revolting. I just can't figure out why it's happening all over again and the only people that seem to be angry we are not passing the stimulus plan before all hell breaks lose are the workers. Everybody loses if we have a depression.

It seems to me, not that it matters, that President Obama doesn't realize how many millions he could mobilize if we had a clear direction. We can get him elected but now we need to overturn the Washington media establishment that makes light of the idealists that elected him. We should all be deeply offended. John McCain should not be trying to block him. Arizona needs this bill as much as Connecticut. We need a campain of bright articulate people that can converge on Washington and have a rally that the media will not discredit.

Middle class people will become poor. The poor willl be desperate. But the rich, the rich will be just fine.

Kevin Phillips on Bill Moyer: Socialism for the Rich in the Bailout

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:07:14 EST

The greatest statement by Kevin Phillips on Bill Moyers Journal was that, and I paraphrase, the taxpayers 700 billion bailout was that socialism is alive and well in the bailout; the only problem is that the rich get the benefits and the taxpayers have to pay when things go wrong. How ironic is that people? The bailout was frightening to me. It shocked me that we could actually vote for anything that Hank Paulson, with a fortune of 700 million dollars amassed on Wall Street. I honestly don't think many of us realize just how different the lives of the super rich really are. Socialism? Hmm We really do have to get are ducks in order when it comes to our priorities and I have a funny feeling that the deepest believers in this movement for change, those of us who heard and felt in Barack possibilities for an engaged citizenship in the United States, are going to hit the streets and start working to make sure change occurs.

How many of us have been checking our email and waiting to hear what we should do next only to realize cooing a meal at the homeless shelter, or getting a fundraising campaign for a new after school program in the neighborhood is what must happen. One thing I do know about economics is that there is a benefit to this kind of engaged citizenship, it is called the personal external benefit. It also helps you sleep well at night. Socialism of the rich does the opposite; as teh bank account grows and the knowledge that it has come at the expense of the health care for the poor, putting the head down on the pillow requires at least one dose of a sleep aid. I guess it should be Ambien CR, or at least investments in that pharmceuical are up fifteen points.....

"Why I should join Barack and Michelle in Chicago" My Prize Wining Essay

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:44:18 EDT

"Dear Hunter, I want you to join me in Chicago On Election Night..."

DON'T DO THAT BARACK!!!!!!!

I was so certain the campaign had finally uncovered my personal gifts.... Maybe your staff, the staff I have met over the past thirteen months i have been canvassing around the globe (okay four states) on your behalf had voted for ME. They should vote for me. I promise I am an assett, I am also demure, I am an extrovert, but if you need me to be an introvert that is cool too. I can actually be quiet, or tell jokes, but if jokes are inappropriate .......

David Plouff, DON'T DO THAT!!!!!!

I thought, for one fleeting moment, my charm, my wit, my altruistic personality, my compelling life story shared over months, THE FACT MY NAME IS HUNTER! JOE BIDEN SON"S NAME IS BIDEN< GET IT>>>IT"S IN THE CARDS.....it's DESTINY ...like you're candidacy, my trip to the Obama victory tour....

Didn't you see The Colbert Report...Do the assocation, Hunter...Biden's son...Biden, Barack....You need me along with four others to join you........

You can even contact me via email Mr. Plouff, or Mr. Axelrod, feel free to get back to me later tonight,

on mybo or call me......Please.......please......microtarget me.....

The Brownest Eye

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:18:19 EDT

I wonder if Toni Morrison believed she would live in a time when an African American man that defined the ultimate "look" for young boys. As my son looks forlornly at his thin straight blonde hair and Slavic looks, he longs for African ancestors.

As anyone with young children and particularly adolescent males can tell you, this Hollween everyone wants to be Barack. The masks are sold out in every Party City and Holoween store and even online. Now, having worked in costumes Off Broadway for several years after college I was able to convince my son that if he really wanted to be Barack Obama for his Holloween dance at school he should, it's an easy sostume. Hmmm he said wanting to be poolite but not knowing how to tell me that I just didn't get it. We were treading around a landmine: or were we?

I said the costume is pretty easy;Barack wears almost a uniform on the campaign trail; white shirt, blue tie, dark pants or kakhis, dress shoes, slightly battered from galavanting cross country. "But, ..." Long silence. "Mom, my hair, my eyes...." "Oh ." I replied. Okay your eyes, well I can't do anything about pale blue eyes, but the blonde hair, you have a point, you'll just look like a little prep dressed for boarding school. We need a wig." "A wig?! Obama shaves his hair so short. I'll just shave my head.""NO." I replied. "our love had to be infused with reason. Okay. I have an idea. We got dressed and went to a wig store I knew was frequented by African American women. Having made my son feel awkward enough I thought I might as well go all the way. I explained the situation,"what do you have in a short man's Afro. My son wants to be Barack Obama for Holloween? The women laughed in a friendly and loving way. "What a good idea child. Forget those silly masks, they don't do him justice." She went on a search. All we could dome up with was a sixties Afro. When we put it on my son mutually we thought, "Obama at Harvard law school.Yes." Now if it hadn't been a sixth grade dance we might have gone with that. A nice brown leather jacket, the Jermaine Jackson look with some books. We've all seen the picture of the law school years. No, sixth graders won't get it. I asked her, what do you think if I cut it? He has a long fro, now we cut it to Obama's length. Awesome idea. Wait....Awkward pause, then she asked.."What are you going to do about his skin?.....Pause.

Now picture this .."My son attends about the most racially integrated public school in America. Who knows, maybe it is. There are children from thirty natoins speaking a multitude of languages. This has to do with both the influence of Yale University graduate housing, New Haven's immigrant population, and the typical urban population mixed into one pot. I speculated what would students who have heard their parents battling the stain and oppression of racism think when a child comes inn with an Afro and his face darkened? Not a good idea. So I thought, "How many times have I see beautiful African American children dressed as Cinderella, or Belle or Ariel? Hundred...that's how many. What do they do? Wear the costume, approximate the hair vila. You don't change the skin tone for a lot of reasons....think about it. So we cut the wig which was a laborious process. When my adorable son put in his new dark hair closely cropped, there was no doubt who he was impersonating....no emulating Perfect. Sure a few kids tried to make fun of him, but really what's there to make fun of with Barack. By the way, my son's ears stick out. It was the first time he was happy at about that.

Abdul Haq and the Fall of the Taliban

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:26:49 EDT

I recently wrote about Said Hyder Akbar's book "Come Back to Afghanistan," in rereading this nineteen year old's life at the center of the events that led to the re-emergence of Al Queda in Afghanistan, it makes our Middle Eastern foreign policy of the last eight years look like a poorly played game of Risk. You know, when you play with someone with no strategy whatsoever. Mind you, this is a current Yale undergraduate writing from the ground with access to the top "good guys," who would eventually be on Karzai's team, including his father. Akbar recounts precisely ow the US turned to Pakistan and for protection and distribution of funds and military supplies. We used the corrupt ISI under Musharaff to aid visionaries who wanted to rebuild Afghanistan and return Kabul to its cosmopolitan lifestyle. After Sept. 11, 2001, all of the refugees who had been major policy makers, writers and thinkers were hopeful that the United States was ready to help rebuild what the Soviets and then the warlords had destroyed.

My first week canvassing in Keene New Hampshire back in january, I had he privilege of going door to door with Susan Rice and her handsome son. Our boys were about the same age and we thought it would help them from getting too bored. Ms. Rice is one of Obama's top foreign policy experts. I got to hear, first hand her explanation to volunteers that Obama had believed a venture into Iraq was misguided when the culprits of 9/11 were in Afghanistan. We needed to focus on preventing the increasing power vacume that Afghanistan was experiencing. Said Akbar recounts from the Afghani perspective precisely how that is wat occurred. A high school graduate from suburban California had a more valid grasp on world events than our President and the advisors he chose to implement. We can never make up to the Aghan people our aquiescence to Pakistan's corrupt military to distribute aide to their country, but we can begin to listen to the best and the brightest minds in foreign policy, as well as eager Afghan allies who have always been willing to share the events of their coutry with the US government.

The situation is desperate. It has been for years but better late than never.

Said Hyder Akbar's 2005 Book on Afghanistan, Reminds Us All Why Not Iraq

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:35:41 EDT

I have been enrapt on many levels for the past two nights with the memoir, "Come Back To Afghanistan; Trying to Rebuild a Coutry wih My Father, My Brother, My One Eyed Uncle, Bearded Tribesmen, and President Karzai". This memoir is personally moving during this election as we recall that Obama had called for entering Afghanistan and NOT Iraq, and how the boy's tale mirrors somewhat Obama's story of longing for a foreign father. it is the tale of an Afghani teenager who lives in a California subburb loves, U2, and is totally American but perceived as Afghani. I am forced to realize this is a similar story for all Americans in a sense, unless they are native. He beautifully explains the awkward moments his parents have in California as they try to adjust to American life. He then takes us to the Soviet invasion through his parents eyes. His father was the head of the government run Kabul radio when the Soviets take over the city. The family snuck across the Pakistani border in the darkness to escape persecution. He then explains the power vacume that emerged with the Sovivet withdrawal and the end of the Cold War, which opened the door to warlord battles and the rise of the Taliban.

This young man with spectacular filial piety and love of his motherland, oins his father as he is asked by the newly appointed President Karzai to help rebuild the country. He was often answering a cell phone with the New Yok Times, or Washington Post on the line while mayhem reigned outside his bombed out hotel rooom. Amazingly he can make you laugh and feel like the whole tale is a long interview with Jon Stuart. You will laugh at his teenage vantage points, you will cry at US complicity, bungling and ignorance on the ground in Afghanistan. You will also, I believe come away with a sense that this is indeed where the terrorist attacks originated, and indeed they were plotted in a cave, by a group of dirty, bearded, sick but persistent fanatics. If we could STOP and THINK and PLAN using the leading minds and tactitians, not just high tech weapons, we would have rebuilt every school in Afghanistan and made them so happy the Soviets were gone for good and they could go back to the sophisticated, eggalitarian lifestyleee that was Kabul before the war.

The amazing thing about both the author and the story is his age. I turned the bok over and realized e is a senior at Yale University, where I live right now. I am looking for a way to contact him. His father now works for President Karzai. I hope one day to speak with this inspiring young man. If you read the book, you will feel more convinced that Obama was so right about the need to focus aide and attention in this war ravaged country.

"Even Though We're Republicans, We're Americans First"

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:14:52 EDT

Republicans for Obama placed a full page add in USA Today yesterday explaining why the GOP should back Obama. Now I have two special needs children, I am unemployed as a result, and well my family has seen some rocky road in the past few years; but this add brought tears to my eyes. Maybe I am just losing the old bearings, but I think I may have my long term priorities straight, possibly for he first time in my life. If Republicans beyond the intelligentsia are calling for an end to partisanship in order to deal with our national crisis, it appears the nation may be recovering from its gated community mentality. Reacching across lines of thinking is difficult for most human beings, it goes against the fiber of our DNA. Fortunately, humans have a higher intelligence that can be called on when default modes of thinking and behaving are not up to the task of ensuring survival.

Survival as a nation is indeed at stake. I am not forseeing Armagedon, but rather a slow and rather painful death of true democracy. People are deciding that compromise may be in order in this election if their own future as workers, as parents, as students, as free thinking people is at stake. You may not agree with Roe v. Wade but the wasteful deaths in Iraq and civilian bloodbath in Afghanistan has begun to nag seem comparable to "innocent lives lost." Hmm. We are thinking. We are still free to express and change our opinions. David Brooks has let us change sides, no get on the same side of justice and the spirit of democracy.

I hope that I will remain as open to changing my opinions about Republicans when the right candidate presents him or herself in the future. I am proud that my husband switched parties, and is voting for Senator Obama, but I will be equally proud if a candidate from another party convinces me in say 12 years, that they have good ideas too.

Sunday Calling to Women in Pennsylvania: Inspirational

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:53:24 EDT

How the campaigned has changed! I have been using the tools on this website to call women in Pennsylvania this Sunday. The difference a few weeks have made in the responses to campaign calls is enormous. I just got off the phone with a 50 something year old women from Pennsylvania and was warmed and inspired by her response to the call. She had made her decision to support Barack because of his consistent message of focusing to restore the soundness of the American economy of the middle class. She liked that his message had not been erratic and seemed to be rather prescient about the economic crash. She was amazed that he had forseen spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq, with no end in siight, would dammage our national security , not enhance it. She was impressed that regulation he has been advocating since the primary is now occurring by the Republicans as a distster relief instead of a thoughtful plan, the kind Obama would implement.

Pennsylvania women are coming around. they are call after call letting me now that while they felt unsure about Senator Obama six months ago, he has become a familiar face whose calming presence is welcome in these turbulent economic times.

In conclusion, if you want to feel good about the campaign and the difference Obama is already making in making people hope for better times with confidence, just get on the phone. It works, it really does.

A Twelve Year Old Compares Lincoln to Obama

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:16:43 EDT

My son, adopted from Moscow at age four, mute until he was five years old, has understood the beauty of Barack Obama's desire for consensus since 2004. It is becoming clearer to me why a boy raised in the deprived circumstances of the "Lord of the Flies," type setting in which he spent his formative years would love Obama. He listens. A victim of survival of the fitest in the extreme Misha discovered his nuanced views of justice would not glean him much in the debate floor of extreme poverty. He chose to never even bother to speak. When he needed something, he pointed. If it was unavailable, he tried to disappear, literally. My son stoped growing by shutting down his pituitary gland in what medically is known as "failure to thrive." When I first met him he appeared to be at most 12 months old. He was four years of age. When nobody listens to your point of view unless you punch them or bite them, why bother growing up?

I think that is why the article in today's New York Times explaining Senator Obama's "Commitment to Dialogue," is so important." In recent weeks I hae heard even critics say that they want to see him be tougher in fighting for what he believes in. Well, if what you believe in is consensus, and mutual understanding, it appears that he is fighting quite well. I should say, he would prefer not to fight, if there are elements of societal change we can all agree must take place. Remember during the final debate when he was asked about whether he would overturn Roe v. Wade? He sought to underline where the people of the United States could find agreement. "Nobody is pro-abortion," he reminded Senator McCaine. "What we can agree on is the need to reduce unwanted pregnancies. A President who can approach problems by first finding where all his constituents agree may very well be able to bring the nation together on many levels.

Today's Times article also went on to explain that Obama, "prides himself in trying to see the world through other's eyes." Well, I disagree. I don't think he "prides" himself. I think it is simply in his nature. To always attach "pride," to Barack Obama is to misunderstand his ontological nature. I believe the gift his mother bestowed on him, however niavely, by raising him on a global adventure, is that he naturally sees the world from multiple perspectives. It is simply what he does. It is what is so appealing and possible frustrating about him. It is frustrating however, only when he is eloquently elaborating the arguments of the other side. How we all hate that! Arrgh. Think of life from the perspective of a young black man with two middle class white grandparents, desperately trying to go through adolescents.

Back to my son. Misha is studying the Civil War now. He attends a school that is 50% African American. It greatly disturbs him that his fellow students of color do not "get' that he understands oppression as much as they do. They are allowed to talk about being black, but he is not, they feel. He came home and explained, they don't understand that in Russia, to be an orphan is to be oppressed. Now he didn't say it quite like that but his frustration was clear. He has explained President Lincoln's job was to see the opinions and needs of the South were addressed. Lincoln like Barack was a consensus builder. As President that would be his job as our Chief Executive.

The reason I say that ontologically Barack sees the world through others eyes, is from my experience in watching him negotiate my son's adoration. We campaigned in new Hampshire during the primary when the Senator was still relatively accessible. Misha could not help but interrupt him every time he asked a rhetorical question which begged an internal response. Now that my son has found his voice he finds it hard to remain silent. When it came time to shake hands with supporters, Misha could not contain himself. he jumped into Obama's arms over the security fence. I ducked into the crowd attempting to blend into the new hampshire scenery. Even five women away Obama knew I was Mom. "Don't worry, he's adorable." No admonitions allowed from the guards. He quickly told them it was okay because as a parent, he knew if Malia or Sasha had done that, just how he would feel. It was spontaneous.

My point is that a President, like Lincoln, who is willing to wrestle with opposing points of view before reaching a decision, is more likely to; diffuse dangerous situations, maximize productivity without undo rancor, and move toward a more just and equal land of opportunity. Well, that's what Misha thinks anyhow.

One Time Tax On the Top 10% of the Nation: A Fair Bailout Plan

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:48:29 EDT

I have several graduate degrees but none in economics, and even I can see a Robbers Barons in action. I have no idea why Senator Obama is favoring any variation on the theme of the Paulson bailout when he knows a more just plan is staring us all in the face. WHERE IS THE CASH IN AMERIA? Every business attorney in America can smell the cash in a lawsuit. he deep pocket theory is not a mystery, we all now of the elderly woman who sued McDonald's for scalding her with hot coffee she was drinking in the car. WHo is left with money in America? The top 10% of the population. (Actually the top 1% could bail us out without suffering substantially, but I wanted to include my own sacrifice and I am not that comfortably well off).

If Congress passed a bill requiring every American in the top 10% income level last year to anti up a one time payment of $20,000-$100,000t , we would cover the bill without incurring further debt to China or any other foreign power. This would help in building the trust of the lower income families while honestly allowing the beneficiaries of a Wall Street bail out to make the necessary life adjustments. The people that created the problem and got rich doing it, need to be the people held accountable. The Gilded Age is over people. Pony Up.

Don't Forget the Three Trillion Dollar War John

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:39:32 EDT

When we are in a war, costing $10 billion a month, it is a little funny to listen to Republicans say anything about the supposedly "big" government of the Democrats. We have a candidate, the only candidate, who was against this economic toilet and the enormous military machine of the Pentagon delivering millions of dollars in bubble wrap all over the middle east. Funny, we wouldn't have to pay off rogue insurgents if we weren't there in the first place.

Even if the war ends up less than a total disaster the cost has been too high.

We have a candidate who also called removing the gas tax which is actually out dated and insufficient for repairing a crumbling infrastructure. If we read history, we know that continuing to pander to only the richest Americans in order to stimulate growth, as played out its course. We will have class riots on our hands. Finding new ways to charge infrastructure user taxes will create construction jobs, the working class needs them, the rich need them and golly I think the oil companies can get rid of a private jet or two without feeling too much pain.

Our Moment Is Upon Us

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:54:22 EDT

It has been a decade at least since any historical moment has made my heart soar and made me proud to be an American. Maybe I sound a little like Michelle Obama but I am just being honest. This was a campaign between two credentialed public servants, that were also a black and a woman. It is however, quite a Lincolnesque feat that the candidate with no family legacy of political clout prevailed. This was a testament to Barack Obama's ability to galvanize the most complacent citizens,,,hmm....like me. i have made even my children a little wary of my enthusiasm for Barack Obama's candidacy, until last night. Hearing Obama in Minnesoata made me believe in an America that is still possible. Where cynicism doesn't have to be the only form of higher thinking and discussing politics. I am beginning to believe that making a donation to Rosa DeLaura, my State Representative, is an investment not a niave gesture. Now, however, we as Obama supporters must come together to assure his presidency. We must take on the mantle of citizenship that comes with the liberty bestowed us in the constitution. If we are to live in a country where we move toward the goal of liberty and justice for all, governed by and for the people, we must take the responsibility of voting and informing ourselves seriously. It is only by knowing where Obama's responsibilities end and our responsibilities begin that he can fulfill his destiny and we can fulfill ours as Americans.

Our moment as a great nation worthy of respect and dignity, is upon us.

Transportation And Energy: Why High Gas Prices Are Not All Bad

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:28:09 EDT

I live near one of the Critical Commerce Corridors. What is that? You may ask. I won't get into dry details right now but, commerce in the continental United States moves primarily over highways. Certainly we have some freight that is still shipped by rail, but even then it must be transported at the end of its rail journey via trucking. Anyone that uses a major interstate highway knows that during the high peak traffic hours, commuters are often competing for highway space with these commerce carriers.

I believe that there are many transportation economists who can come up with excellent models to reduce traffic at peak hours lowering both congestion pollution and highway fatalities due to diverse vehicle speeds and size. The nation has the technology to charge user fees via satellite and modem attached to cars at registration. These fees could be similar to off-peak rail charges. The driver is charged for the actual travel time on specific highways based on miles traveled and hour of the day. This fee would be used to maintain and enhance the nation's critical commerce corridors. The rural driver that is using local roads would support maintenance with a local taxation system paid either at the time of registering the vehicle or from gas.

Last weekend it was memorial day. It is ussually the most heavily trafficked time of year on I-95 in New Haven to new York City. My daughter was invited to a close friends sweet sixteen birthday party at 6:00pmon a route necessitating driving on this heavily used vacation and trucking corridor. From experience I told her we should leave an hour early to make the ten mile drive because vacationers returning home on Monday evening will cause bumper to bumper traffic. Well, gas prices have finally hit a critical high. We sailed the ten miles in a normal 16 or 17 minutes at 55 mph. People have stopped using as much gas because of the price. Now, THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. WE ARE A NATION AT WAR. At $3 a gallon traffic maintained. It looks as though we may actually see changes in behavior due to price increase. Now comes the challenging part for our next President: with gas prices at a record high, how can we convince the American voting public that driving on critical commerce corridors at peak traffic hour should be charged accordingly. We have to implement these calibrated charges before our congestion pollution, loss of time and money in traffic, wear and tear on infrastructure destroys our national transportation of goods and services as well as commuting time. It is up to America to begin to face that sacrifice is part of citizenship.

The money we have spent on a war largely based on access and control over oil supplies should be a national wake-up call. I would rather pay to travel now, than lose my children in a war I could have prevented by driving less and at different times in a smaller car! I lost my father to a war based on the fabrication of the Tonkin fiasco. Let's not fabricate what this war is about any longer.

A Memorial Day Tribute to My Two Fathers

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:51:11 EDT

I was born Mary Ellen Hunter, on May 9, 1963. I am the only one of four sisters not born on an air force base in the United States. We have added family member at a Texas Air Force bas and two sisters were born at the Idaho Air Force Base. We spent time during the Viet Nam War on the Manila air Force Base. On this Memorial Day I would like to remember my natural father who was shot down over Laos in 1967, participating in a nightmare. He was MIA for YEARS. I also want to honor my father Edward W. Sloan III, who married my mother, a young widow of the war, and adopted her four young children. Today I see how an historian, so versed in the disasterous implications of war,armed with degrees form Yale and a Phi Beta Kapa Phd. from Harvard, after transferring from Harvard business school, had the greatness of heart to not simply marry my beautiful, and exceptional mother; but to marry all of us.

I am a Sloan now, but I carry the name Hunter, not just to remember my particular father, Russell Palmer Hunter, but also to memorialize the loss, in my own silent way, while still honoring the man that made the gracious offer to raise us as his own.

Transportation Infrastructure: A Hot Political Topic; Have You Ever Been Behind an Asphalt Paver In the Summer; It's Hot!

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:26:27 EDT

Federal financing for infrastructure is critical. In the next few weeks I intend to embark on getting commitments from infrastructure specialists to begin educating the public on the importance of this topic to every American. It impacts the environment, the economy, quality of life, job creation for working class citizens and beautification of the country. I would also like to convene meetings of Obama supporters to have information meetings of our own so that we are aware how engaged Senator Obama is on this topic and how many voters that may not yet have his support, could easily be transformed with their access to this information. It's the economy. It's job creation. It's our reputation as a world leader. It's just plain American. Railroads, asphalt, airports; these are the stuff that breath of Americana. This is not decaf, skim latte, and an article in the Atlantic Monthly, no...it's what affects our daily commute, our paycheck and the price at the pump. I will be writing more blogs and and having meetings in Connecticut. If you are interested in gaining momentum, write me...hsloan1963@yahoo.com

Obama Works Is A Powerful Message of Community Service

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:41:51 EDT

Recently at a New Haven for Obama meeting, we were discussing some of the activities we might be planning for the summer. I am going to be working with our Parks and Rec Dept. and our Mayor to clean up designated high traffic picnic areas and scenic places in the city areas as a citizen for Obama. it was recommended that I contact Obama Works. I discovered just a little more aboout citizenship in America that gives one hope. A group of Missourri citizens working with Obama Works are building a house with Habitat for Humanity this June. Another group is planting flowers for Obama in their community. This is exciting. i am moving away from issues of war and the middle east as a kind of summer vacation. Instead I want to build a home, clean a park, have a tag sale for Obama. The sweet smell of summer and citizenship.

It is so easy to get bogged down in the negative aspects of politics. What about when a politician so motivates you to look for the best in yourself and to live up to the responsibilities that were inherent in democracy. The democratic ideal is to participate and sacrifice for the country you believe in. It has been decades since I have seen this kind of selfless contributing to communities in the belief that Barack Obama stands not simply for his own agenda, but for an America that we can all participate in creating.

She Was Right: He Has the Light

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:05:39 EDT

The pictures from Oregon gave me chills. Whatever happens in the coming months this morning every American should feel proud of how far we have come in our society. Yes, we have a long way to go in healing racial, economic, and gender inequality, but we must at times pause and breathe in the air of freedom. As over 70,000 people gathered to listen to the first black American democratic nominee for President in Oregon I had "butterflies in my tummy," as my Shrinking Violet doll used to repeat when I pulled the string as a toddler in the sixties.

As a theologian, and a one time Chaplain at an Episcopal elementary school in New Haven Ct. I gave many a homily on Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglas. Today with a child in a very racially integrated public elementary school in New Haven Ct. I feel the power of Barack Obama's energy every morning as I drop my son off to school. Every third car has an Obama sticker and many of us have campaigned for our political hero.

Last night on Bill Moyers I was reminded of just what a race this has been. Hillary is intelligent. SHe knows policy. She is a hard fighter. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am caucasian. What is it that Barack Obama has that to me is so captivating?

Clearly, 70,000 people in Oregon fell at least a little of this energy. It is an energy that is directed outward. I will never be a brilliant legal scholar, or political policy expert, but I am a citizen with rights that come with responsibilities. Until Barack Obama came onto the political landscape it did not occur to me since childhood to participate in the political world of my community, state and country. In the last year I have met my state representative, I have been to three state primaries and voted in my first primary election. I know my Congressional district chairperson. I have canvassed with my Mayor and met our Superintendant of Schools in New Haven. I have been to Barber Shops and super markets talking about our country's war. I have talked to people who fought in Viet Nam with my father. I have had "Dreams of My Father," a veteran for whom I am named. I have become a responsible engaged citizen. I even clean up other people's garbage because I don't want to disappoint Barack Obama. My child knows all three branches of government and how a bill is passed because I want him to be engaged. my daughter is majoring in political science and participating in her first election. WOW. All because of one man.

My daughter Portia and I stood in Keene new Hampshire watching Senator Obama enter the gym. A woman behind me quietly but powerfully said to me, "He has the light, don't you see it." I think she was right. This light shines on all Americans and allows us to see the very best in ourselves, not just Barack. I'm looking good.

Our Third District's Job

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:59:35 EDT

Today in the 3rd Congressional District of Connecticut a group of enthusiastic Obama supporters began to look at the road ahead. If indeed Senator Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for President of the United States what will we be doing to assure a President named Obama.

At this point those of us in the grass roots arena can do a lot; begin participating in Voter registration drives with the Connecticut for Obama team. If you are reading this post you must be receiving information from Conecticut for Obama in your email. If you are not join CT for Obama on line. If you know people that are on line users who do not use Obama on line, have a conversation about it. Bring them with you to a registration drive or at least make certain they are registered.

Next, we have to be prepared to embrace with open arms Hillary supporters who are grieving. Give them time to accept that Obama will be our candidate, if that is what happens. Then invite them to an activity for Obama.

The next piece of the puzzle gets tricky. So many of us have a deep passion to participate in this election. It became clear to me tonight that each and every one of us have gifts that can be brought o this grass roots table. We have a responsibility to show our commitment to Obama in cleaning our streets, serving at soup kitchens and doing fundraisers in party clothes. The important thing seems to be DOING IT with a grass roots passion and inviting people to join you. We will be gathering once a month to coordinate activities and write calendar and post it on googledocs. I know I will try and invite people through email and groups in Connecticut to my events. What is important is that you know why it represents Obama and that you show people by wearing tshirts, buttons and posters.

Finally, who will we be after the election? Let's keep the conversation going!!!

Kentucky Call Lists Don't Work

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:42:58 EDT

Today I attended a phone bank. We called many homes from Kentucky. I then returned home and attempted to enter the data in the online call center. The data could not be entered. I hope there is a way for this to be corrected by tomorrow. Clearly, Kentucky isn't a big Obama state, and therefore our attempts to let people know who Obama is, is quite critical. Any words of wisdom out there?

What A Happy Mother's Day: A Great Day to Be American

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:50:17 EDT

I have never been so happy in my adult life. It has nothing to do with me or my accomplishments. It has to do, for the first time in oh so many years, with the pride I feel in living in America. I opened the paper today to see Barack Obama's beautiful smile lighting up the New York Times. This man, only five months ago smiled at the podium in Keene New Hampshire at my daughter and me (and others in the huge crowd) as we yelled "we love you Barack, he smiled that uplifting smile and returned our admiration, "I love you back." We jumped up and down like teenagers. My daughter is a teenager but I sure felt like one. Later in the evening he hugged my son who managed to practically ump on op of him with excitement. What a nice way to end a day spent trudging through the winter weather in zero degrees canvassing for our next President.

There have been many days of disappointment in my quest for the White House, but what has amazed me is the singular vision of so many of the citizens banded together in this Obama nation. We have always had hope, not necessarily in ourselves, but in the movement. When I have been down, friends have ecouraged me, when my daughter has been down fellow her cousins encouraged her, when my son has lost faith, I have encouraged him. Our mayor has canvassed with us. Our State Representative has canvasse with us. Now we are on our way to he White House. I say "we" because that is how it feels. I know that he couldn't have done it without all of us. He helped us to sustain our belief in this nation. He helped me to ekindle a faith in myself. There is no obstacle that cannot be confronted when people work together for change in decent and respectful ways. "We worship an awesome God.." Yes, in America, our freedom allows us o come together as one regardless of race or creed and fight for what is just.

I have nothing profound and deep to say other than how grateful I am to have campaigned with all my heart for Senator Obama. I have nothing to gain in this election other than a restoration in my belief in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness is indeed still part of our great country. Happy Mother's Day.

While Washing the Kitchen Floor, I Realized How Much Obama Has Influenced America

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:02:06 EDT

That may sound a little odd, but I have a very ordinary life. After taking the kids to school, I have to clean like the rest of us. Yep, I am a housewife, down on the floor listening to CSPAN, listening to Don Young, a Republican from Alaska saying not only should we not rescind the gas tax that was established in the late eighties to support highway infrastructure, but that we should increase it to a dollar. Why? Because as we often forget WE are at war. I's not just our soldiers that should sacrifice but all Americans. We have to do something about our dependency on foreign oil exporters. Then, he introduced a fantastic idea, which would be to have a preferential gas use tax. That deisel truck drivers hauling goods, and farmers hauling produce would not pay this tax. That is what hurts the economy. I was thrilled that a bipartisan discussion unfolded. Rep. Brian Baird, a democrat from Washington's third district expressed great interest in this preferential tax. You see, people are beginning to get it. We need bipartisan, realistic solutions, even solutions that may affect common Americans. I am willing to drive less. To walk the kids to school, to encourage bicycling to school. Hey, I road my bike to school and home for years. It was good for me.

This is what Obama had done for us. He asks us to stop looking at the short term benefits in many areas of our life. We need to look at real solutions for the nations. These solutions can in turn be real solutions for the world.

Ryan Todd of the Deutsche Bank, an integrated oil analyst, said, a $1.oo tax might be tough o get through Washington, but it is probably a good policy. Hmm. A Republican idea, with democratic and Republican comments, a real dialogue, with an oil analyst in agreement. Will wonders never cease. This happened, in my opinion, only because Obama did so well yesterday. A lot of us are willing to sacrifice.

I know I it wasn't a sacrifice to spend my winter break with the kids in New Hampshire campaigning. My adopted son from Russia, impaired emotionally and physically from the effects of four years in a Moscow orphanage, has hugged the future President of the United States. WOW. I grew up thinking people behind the iron curtain had a completely different DNA structure. When Senator Obama told me my child who had nearly flattened the secret service jumping to greet Obama, he told me Misha was adorable. Misha now has an entire wardrobe featuring Barack. He loves to hear about his childhood in Hawaii and how difficult it was without his father, and his mother frequently traveling.

You are bringing us together Barack. My hope has been restored and a belief that our nation can be an example of justice and decency is returning. You thanked all of us who worked for you last night, I just want to thank you and Michelle for being exactly who you are. What an honor it will be to have you as our President. The pledge of allegiance will take on a whole new meaning. Thank you.

I Will Learn From My Fellow Obama Supporters

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:44:20 EDT

I was frustrated and foolish recently and wrote a very stupid blog. I have cancelled it. I don't think it mattered to much because I don't have a strong readership base, but someone gave me a great piece of advice which was to maintain a positive attitude and only stress the positives of my candidate of choice.Good advice. Thank you

Construction Workers Are Finally Hearing Obama

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:37:22 EDT

My husband is the President of the Connecticut Road Builders Association. This is an unpaid appointment based on his integrity and honesty in the industry over the last 28 years. Mind you my husband is only 46 years old. Mario Smith moved to this country as the son of a highly respected cardiovascular surgeon, Carlo Malchiodi. He brought to the United States, from Italy a belief in hard work but an optimism that this country was not as bogged down with political pandering and corruption at every level of society. Through hard work and a shovel in hand he has risen to be a President of a highway construction company. in the last five years our income has often hit negative numbers. Mario believes in keeping his employees employed even if he has to go without a "bonus." You know, like the mega bonuses other corporation heads take, even when they screw up. It is for this reason, I believe he slowly moved into my Obama camp. BUT< the gas tax put him in the hard core Obama camp.

TO SAY AMERICA CAN HAVE THE GAS TAX RESCINDED IS A JOKE. At a road builders meeting recently it was regarded as a slap in the face. The tax is all that is left for highway, sewer and bridge maintenance in a decaying system. NO, IT WON'T ADRESS THE TRUCKING PROBLEM EITHER. If trucks are stuck in increasingly debilitating traffic the minimal relief they might receive from the 18 cent tax being rescinded will be eaten up in idling in traffic. Our roads are a disaster. Our bridges are dangerous. Our SEWER SYSTEMS are backing up and cannot keep up with the population increases. But construction companies are forced to bid on jobs knowing they will lose money, just to keep their employees EMPLOYED. Wake up AMERICA. We need the truth about national infrastructure in order to make an educated decision about the candidate with a realistic approach to national policy.

The second, and more important truth about gasoline prices is the war in Iraq. Only Obama has been honest about that from beginning. The rise in oil prices is a direct result of a poor decision to invade Iraq. War is always a tragedy. A war we could have avoided is about politics, and that is a travesty. Please believe Obama. Whatever happens in this election, he can stand tall and look himself in the mirror before going to bed. He spoke the truth, he is honest, and while a politician, he is a decent human being.

This Is About Us: This Is Personal

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:26:02 EDT

Well, I have written enough to editors and bloggers, I am just going to go back to old school and campaign in Indiana. I was talking to a fellow active supporter of Senator Obama. We were a little dismayed thinking back on our group of canvassers and phone bankers to think that the working class can't relate to Barack Obama. We are white, black and hispanic. We are all middle aged and older, and none of us would be considered anything but economically average. Oh yes, and did I mention we are all women with children. Hmm. Many of us have called and canvassed in many states but most importantly we have a shared vision of our voices being heard by the next President if the world is fortunate enough to have a US President named Barack Obama. We believe that our children will be better off in a world where we are inspired to participate in local and national politics. Why do we continue to have this vision? During this campaign almost every one of us have received a thank you from the campaign. EVery one of us have been called by campaign advisors to be reassured that our voices are being heard. So what have we decided? That we should travel to Indana and knock on doors and share our experiences and our vision of what the United States can be with Indiana voters.

We want to just let them know that we are with them if they are undecided. We want them to know that because the media wants to keep them confused, there is no confusion fro us about the difference in the candidates. As the powerful voice of Michelle Obama voiced on Friday in Indiana, this is about raising the bar on our nations expectations of our children. Only an Obama Presidency can convince a child that anything is possible. That we can do anything as a united nation, as individuals with a real voice for change. Our children can aim for any dream and it becomes a possibility under an Obama leadership. The ids get it. They really do. The children of our nation are counting on us to do the right thing. We are not confused. It is face to face and voice to voice contact that has made this campaign what it is, and we can't stop changing politics now. Now when we have come so far. So when you are debating whether to get in your car or go to that phone bank, remember this is for all Americans, no matter how cynical. Just tell your story about what you see in Senator Obama, what you know to be true about Senator Obama, and let's continue to make history. This is the only candidate who can make history of real change. Go to Indiana. Find a field office. Start canvassing. Or, start calling Indian and North Carolina voters and remind them of what you see in Senator Obama. Let's do this...for the dreamers, and the believers, and well for the basketball fans too.

Obama's Pastor Sets the Record Straight WIth Bill Moyers

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:31:13 EDT

I wrote an email to Indiana supporters in hopes that people watched the Bill Moyers Journal tonight. It proved enlightening. It is available on the PBS online website. He is a beautiful man who clearly respects the rights of all human beings to have a peaceful existence. Please view if you want to explain the Pastor behind the soundbites.

Mark Shields and David Brooks Fault the Obama Campaign for Not Focusing on The Obama Roots in the Middle Class

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:39:25 EDT

I was extremely saddened to hear that the demographics are king. While Senator Obama has convinced hundreds of thousands of new voters to get out and participate in this election, the entrenched working class white voters won't budge. What's up with that? Why is it that high school educated voters are Hillary supporters?Somehow, Mark Shields reports, Obama's campaign allowed him to be viewed as an elitest. HIS MOTHER WAS ON FOOD STAMPS FOR GOODNESS SAKE.As Shields went on to say, Obama was fighting as an organizer for the very people that ruse to vote for him, no matter what they hear.

I have pondered this enigmatic problem for months. Especially the Catholic vote. The Pope, who just left the US made it pretty clear that the war in Iraq was his maor issue with the United States. Who voted against the war? Obama. Who is the peace monger? Obama. Who is the politician ready to forgo the worldly salary a hard earned Harvard education could have landed him?Obama.

My only suggestion is to get more Catholic priests to speak out to their congregations. Okay. The other suggestion I have to make certain that every young voter actually make it to the polls. Frequently young activists canvass, wear the sweatshirts and then never vote. I know, I was the same way as a young voter. I would campaign all day and never vote. Stupid? Sure. But youth is silly. Any other suggestions?

Listening to Senator Obama in Evansville Was Humbling

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:38:42 EDT

He has done it for me again. Just when I was rip roaring angry and ready to attack, I listened to Obama's message in Evansville. He reminded me why I became involved in his campaign in the first place;because I trust him, and I trust the advisors he has chosen. Obama wants to make democracy in America to continue moving toward the precepts of the Constitution. The only way to achieve this forward movement is through a grass roots movement. People need to be educated about corporate tax benefits. They need to understand that if we do not have employee retraining for a rapidly changing global demand for energy efficient automobiles, these manufacturing jobs will remain overseas. They need to realize that CHANGE IS NOT EASY. You can't get change on cable television. You can't have change downloaded on the ipod or delivered to your home. We have to help Barack oBama change this country. How many candidates invite us, inform us, that we have to participate in democracy if we actually want change?

Jeremiah Wright's Message Was of Non-Violence:Bill Moyers Interview's Him Tonight

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:56:05 EDT

Jeremiah Wright has certainly done his job as a Christian Pastor. His sermon, his message to the congregation which was reduced to a sound bite was that of peace. He had served as a Marine in WWII. He knows the hell of war. He knows the Pentagon has a momentum all its own. The military industrial complex made President Eisenhower fearful. Wright's message was one of peace. His message was his duty as a man following the precepts of his savior Jesus Christ. Now, let's remember, there are many so called Christians in our nation who pervert the message as badly as militant Islam perverts the Koran. Wright spoke out against the killing of innocent unarmed civilians for corporate gain. Isn't this his job? He isn't a politician, he is a Pastor. He is supposed to be sharing the message of peace o the marginalized.

Tonight, Bill Moyers will interview Reverend Wright on PBS at 9:00pm. I intend to spend my efforts as a theologian unpacking the words and writings of Wright and endevouring to share them with those who care.

But I know that many are interested in only a sound bite and shun rational thinking. Let's take the Catholic voters that are going to Clinton. Does this really make sense? No. Pope Benedict came to the US with an agenda. Yes, he needed to apologize to victims of the US catholic scandal first. Hmm. Let's think. Bill Clinton abused his power as President to have a young impressionable aid get under his desk and perform, Whatever. Think about it. Is that any different than the scandal of a man of clothe taking advantage of a young impessionable member of his flock. Monica Lewinsky wasn't encountering any man. She was with the President of the Unite States of America. It was the abuse of power that bothers me. If he had asked a Secretary of State or Madeline Albright to perform the deed at least there would have been a level playing field, but an aid? Unconscionable and clearly un-Christian. Of corse President Clinton included Rev. Wright in his "I'm sorry breakfast prayer meeting at the White House." Yes Rev. Wright was asked to the Clinton White House to help poor Bill get over his sins.

The other item on Benedict's agenda was the War in Iraq. Yes, the Pope as been against the War fro its inception. Who is the ant-war in Iraq candidate? Obama. So someone explain why Catholics are voting for a war that destroys living children in brutal ways, rips parents from their homes, etc. Because Obama grants women who are victims of rape and incest the right to choose? Hmm. If only Monica had gotten pregnant. Then Chelsea and Monica's offspring could run for Pres. because of course, under the Clinton's "papa don't preach, I'm gonna keep my baby."

Indiana: How Can We Help You?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:06:39 EDT

Many Obama supporters have a question for Indiana:where and how can we best support you when coming in from out of state? In Connecticut I hosted phone banks, attended canvassing weekends and spread fliers in places I knew to be high traffic areas for undecided voters. In New Hampshire I traveled from out of state and was able to meet Senator Obama at a small rally, canvass with Tony Lake, (President Clinton's former National Security advisor), and basically canvass for five days. I believe that going to senior centers and chatting with residents about how inspiring Obama is, can also enlighten undecided voters. But this is your state, I, along with thousands of other volunteers will be a guest, and we want to help you on your journey. If anyone has any great ideas about where the need for volunteers is greatest, please comment on this blog. Thank you Indiana. We believe you can do it.

Michael Moore's Endorsement Unveil's Clinton's Jeremiah Wright Invitation to White House Post Monica Lewinsky Affair

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:51:47 EDT

How interesting that the Clinton's invited Pastor Jeremiah Wright to the White House after the Lewinsky scandal. You see, for the Clinton's Wright as a national Christian leader was a known fact. Pastor Wright was with Bill in his healing prayer repentance day. Golly, I don't what else to say. I think that it is certainly a fact all voters in Pennsylvania should weigh before casting their ballots, don't you? If you go to google you can read Moore's endorsement which also praises more than Senator Obama, but our movement. This was a wonderful and important statement. I hope Pennsylvania considers his letter. I HOPE.

I Can't Stay Home and Watch This Without Doing Something

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:02:51 EDT

I wasn't going to travel to Pennsylvania to get out the vote. I thought, "well, I've been canvassing for months, I've held phone banks and dinners and lunches, I just can't do any more. They don't need me." Then the debate happened. The awful evening where for the first time I was concerned. Maybe the American people really don't understand the profound depths of the disaster facing our country that can only be changed by Senator Obama. He is indeed the only candidate able to have a global vision which embraces health care reform, international diplomatic efforts to bring the troops home and revitalize the US armed forces, allowing them to go into combat when necessary and only when we have a "clear and present danger." Why else would ridiculous questions be asked by a major news network aware that millions of Americans were waiting to hear about policy. Senator Obama was not on his game, not because he is elitest, which is an inane accusation hurled at a man raised by grandparents firmly entrenched in the middle class. Please. I think the insanity of the questions threw him. He ust couldn't get his mind around the bad dream that was taking place. It was the most uncomfortable moment I have experienced in the campaign.

I have four children. I need to be home to help with homework, car pools etc. Not to mention work. However, in my own little Caroline Kennedy moment, my children urged me to go. They came to me, with my husband and said, we need you to go to Pennsylvania. No I can't speak at a rally or draw a big crowd, but I can do my part. Like I said in New Hampshire, "if I can convince one Pennsylvania voter that this opportunity for America may never happen again..you need to vote Obama for the future." If I can do that, my going will not be a waste of time. Knowing that I have done at least my part allows me to sleep at night. I simply cannot sleep knowing there was more I could have done. And of course there will always be more that one can do, but I at least have to try.

MIA's Children Must Speak Out Against Iraq

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:57:24 EDT

Yes, America has many parts and many voices. The voices of adult children whose parents disappeared in the Vietnamese jungle were heard over and over again as we fought to find the "bodies," of our fallen fathers ad mothers in Viet Nam. The problem is, that wasn't the issue. So many of discovered after classified documents were released that our parents were accounted for by the government, it was simply hidden from us and the American people as a way to continue the bombing campaign that had already failed. Much of this was related in the story portrayed in the movie "Rescue Dawn." It was ths operation over Laos where my father, i believe, was shot down. Why was it, in my opinion, that it was not the body that mattered? Well, it was the lying. It is having a govrnment create a Pentagon, so powerful that it muffles the voices of reason throughout the free world. Because I have an intelligent, politically astute mother, she knew. She knew what the government had done and refused to destroy the lives of her daughters for a "Bright Shining Lie." Remarried an American historian, changed our names and disassociated herself from the debacle, to save us further humiliation.You don't have to believe we were humiliated. I don't care what anyone believes aymore, because I lived it. She remarried an American historian, Why is it so many Americans are intent on destroying the lives of American teens for yet another lie? Well, the sale of arms is apparently very lucrative. It seems that money and power have indeed corrupted absolutely.

Having finally summoned the courage to watch "In the Valley of Elah," my worst nightmare has been confirmed. Some of the most beautiful acting, and possibly most brilliant portrayal of the disconnect between soldiers of the past and the existential vacume facing today's Iraq War soliers was potrayed in this film. The barbaric lack of value attatched not only to the people they are fighting but now toward one another was depicted. Tommy Lee Jones couldn't believe, couldn't fathom that soldiers who had fought beside each other would murder and dismember one of their own on US soil. Yep, I believed it. That is the way, metaphorically speaking my family was treated post Viet Nam. Yep. We were in fact, emotionally dismembered. Our extended family torn apart, dismembered if you will. All the therapy in the world cannot overcome those wounds. My father won two silver stars and two purple hearts in the AIr Force. For what?

That is the question. that should be asked. For what? Where? If this is so important to national security why can't we watch the bodies of heroes return on the news? Why. I'll tell you why because most of the families know this war is lost. This government has lost its way and their children are dying for the Pentagon Military Industrial complex. Yep. That's right. A true patriot , such as Senator Barack Obama has the courage to face military lobbyists and try o end this madness. It is madness.

He always had the judgment of a decent Commander and Chief to follow the trail from 9/11 to the perpetrators of the crime. That led to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Good for us. With Benazir Bhutto dead, and Al Queda secure in those areas, we have missed the opportunity to deal with the responsible parties. Now we can get on with the business of duping the American public. Yep. The Clinton's balanced the budget but they certainly didn't get a handle on the business at the Pentagon.We couldn't listen to Samantha Power on time in Bosnia, not with an election coming up for Bill. We couldn't save a few hundred thousand Rwandan's by destroyng their radio towers at minimal costs, because they were only Africans, no oil at stake. No European cities with beautiful architecture and white people who look like us to pull on the heart strings of the heartland. Come on America. Obama is for you. For the individual rights in the constitution. The right to have your voice heard.

I am nobody and Obama took the time to hear us in new Hampshire. I canot imagine his personal frustration as thousands join him in this movement and yet others listen to the "Bright SHining Lie," that has given them nothing.

What Now?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:17:01 EDT

It is so difficult to believe that the war in Iraq has taken such a back seat in this campaign. Is it because there is no draft? Is it because the American people really believe that patriotism is wearing a pin? Is it because if you wear a pin suddenly you care? Care about what? Isn't it just a little more patriotic to know and love the constitution of the United STates of America? Isn't it a little more patriotic to understand what got us into the Viet Nam nightmare? A country unwilling to face the limitations of violence and weapons is not patriotic. It is patriotic to educate one's self, and ponder solutions. To agonize over the personal costs of having to be before the American people and explain real solutions.

Do people want to ignore the cost of the War?

I don't mean just the trillion dollars spent on the war, or just the financial opportunity costs, but the reputation of America. We are becoming known as barbarians. What kind of a nation would ask young men to destroy their emotional souls for a war we don't understand. We don't know the enemy. We believe it is Osam bin laden, but we know he is not in Iraq. So what are we fighting? I read several newspapers cover to cover every day. I have read Ghost Wars....Rory Stewart's "Prince of the Marshes," This war must stop. We need diplomacy. We need rational policy not bing informed by the Pentagon.

Stop the Madness...or those of us supporting Senator Obama don't even know how to convince you that change must happen now if you are still worried about his lapel decorations.

Abraham Lincoln Stated That Almight God Had Cursed the USA With the Civil War

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:57:09 EDT

Yes, not only Reverand Jeremiah Wright believed that some offenses of the country cannot be overlooked even by God. Abraham Lincoln, on most historians top ten list for best President EVER, believed and told the American people that oppression of human beings was unacceptable to God and even an offense. He went on to state that, It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask God's assisstance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces.."He then went on to quote scripture and remind the American people that God can also punish offenses. The said, "If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through its appointed time, He now wills to remove, AND THAT HE NOW GIVES TO BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH THIS TERRIBLE WAR...."

Yes, that's right, Lincoln was so disgusted by the continued slavery in a supposedly democratic country, that he professed God's wrath had brought the Civil War. This was the kind of sermon Rev. Wright was trying to preech and our naiton is unable to listen to an inner city black preacher with anything other than the condemnation we have always given to minority views. What about listening to the whole sermon and attempting to discern what the motivating factors catalyzing the sermon were? Maybe, just maybe we should break out the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and air them on the national news. I guarantee that many Americans would never realize Lincoln often had harsh words for the population. Why I think I will do that.

National Conference of Black Churches, Statement, July 31, 1966

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:33:46 EDT

It is rather frightening that we are here in 2008 nand the writings of the Civil Rights Era are still so relevant. I just received a response to an email from a Yale Professor of mine from Divinity School under whose tutelage I studied black theology. While I am a white woman there is so much history of the truth of the cross in the black experience in the United States that I am honored I came to my Christian formation with liberation theology as a model for understanding the spiritual life in difficult times.

I op;ened a text from 1966 by Dr. Benjamin A. Payton, that was printed in the New York Times in 1966. The black religious establishment, many of whom worked within the context of the white ecclesiatical establishment wanted to make a statement to the white establishment given the times. A small portiion today can make us realize how far we have NOT come:

"We depore the overt violence of riots, but we believe it is more important to focus on the real source of the erruptions. These sources may be abetted inside the ghetto, but their basic causes lie in the silent and covert violence which white middle class America inflicts upon the victims of the inner city. The hidden smooth, and often smiling decisions of American leaders which tie a white noose of suburbia around their necks, and which pin the backs of the masses of Negroes against the steaming ghetto walls-without jobs in a booming economy; with dilapitated and segregated educational systems in the full view of unenforced laws against it; in short the failure of the American leaders to use the American power to create equal opportunity in life as well as in law-this is the real problem and not the anguished cry for black power."

Let's face it America. I live in a city. The worst schools are 95-98% black. The juvenile detention center is 95% black teens. Are you telling me this is an accident. We didn't want this election to be about race, and it is not..but don't take the words of Jeremiah Wright out of context without understanding this is where he is coming from. Racisim is alive and well. It is time we transcend it because the very people that need racisim to end are the most racist, this is black, white yeallow, red, all of us need to reconcile with one another so that we can move on to economic issues dragging all of our living standards down significantly every day.

Martin Luther King Wrote,"The Judgement of God Is on America Now!"

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:29:44 EDT

It is rare that someone can speak of race with a reminder to all Americans that we are complicit. This is not just about black and white but Irish and English blood, black and brown, Chinese and Korean, etc etc etc. Howard Zinn in his american history books often reminds the forgetful that poor Irish peasants were kept from helping slaves and householder slaves were kept from feeding the straving irish around them during slavery in the South. The people in power didn't want an uprising. if all the poor revolted against plantation owners and others who were growing rich from trade in cotton, then who would tend the fields and mind the children.

The poverty in American cities among the Irish was the subject of Stephen Crane's great novel, "Maggie girl of the Streets." Many an Irish prostitute was born in the poverty of the lower east side of Manhattan. Had the Irish poor and the black freedman befriended the history of racism might have been very different.

The point being, we honor Martin Luther King, even if Hillary believes that it was Johnson that fought for civil rights, but he had many a stern word for the American government. That was his job as a preacher born of the black Church. In 1967, in Atlanta Georgis he wrote these words,"In 1963..in Washington D.C. I tried to talk to the nation about a dream that I had had, and I mmust confess tha not long after that dream I started seeing it turn into a nightmare...just a few weeks after I had talked about it It was when four beautiful negroe girls were murdered in a Church in Birminham, Alabama. I watched that dream turn into a nightmare as I moved through the ghettos of the nation and saw black brothers and sisters perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of national prosperity and saw the nation doing nothing to grapple with the Negros problem of poverty. I saw that dream turn into a nightmare as I watched my black brothers and sisters in the midst of their anger and understandable outrage in the midst of their hurt, in the midst of their disappointmet turn to riots to try to solve their problem. I saw the dream turn into a nightmare as I watched the war in Viet Nam escalating...yes, Yes, I am personally the victim of deferred dreams and blasted hopes.

The judgement of God is on America now!" Martin Luther King

It doesn't sound that different from what Jeremiah Wright was stating. The problem is this is 41 years later and much has remained the same in the black ghettos of America. Other immigrants have replaced the Irish and Italians as they have assimilated into the American culture but the black ghetto remains. Maybe God is still judging America and Pastor Wright is simply trying to get the attention of anyone listening. He cannot tailor his sermons because a member of his parish is running for President and might offend some ignorant white people that don't understand black liberation theology. Get a grip America. The media needs to get a grip too.

We Don't Need To Feel Shame

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:05:22 EDT

How many American that were Veterans or children of veterans felt shame? I know growing up in fear that people would know my father died in Viet Nam was of great concern to me. I don't even know if it mattered to other family members because it was a taboo subject. To have any association with the black POW flags was a horror to me. They were frightening. I stayed far away from parades with prisoners in bamboo cages. And yet my father was MIA for years. Just as Senator Obama explained, "We can reclaim memories" in the black community, there are many of us for whom those words resonate for other reasons. Enough of shame. Let us forge togethers a common vision of hope.

Tears of Joy

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:22:52 EDT

There will be time to write the piece on Jeremiah and his theological arguments against Israel and the unfaithful. There will be time to explain to the voter that black liberation theology is meant to startle in its sermons. It is meant to shake the listener in the pew to respond in a very different way than many white church goers are accostomed. As I listened to the radio while driving the kids to school I realized many scholars had done my work for me. My husband called to say he had listened to a theologian on NPR reiterate what I had explained at the dinner table last night. Hmm my knowledge as a theologian was validated. Jeremiah Wright was doing his job in the South Side of Chicago. Anyone with a Divinity degree knows that. His biblical namesake Jeremiah the prophet did his job. And now, it is with joy and tears that Barack Obama has done his job. His speech will go down in history as an inspired treatise on race in our times. I am a theologian, and I support Barack Obama with all my heart and soul. I am white. I am a woman. But in the words of harriet Tubman, "Ain't I a Woman," take on new meaning for me today as I side with justice and goodness and want to be in camp of decency that could and will lead this country to a higher plane if we can all gather the fortitude to stand behind this leader as we draw upon what is best in our own hearts and minds.

To Thine Own Self Be True: Arguing In The Name of Faith

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:50:46 EDT

My disappointment in the American voter is at a high today. I know this will pass. It is true that one of the facets of Barack Obama that inspired me was his ability to articulate his faith. It was not however, his dogma that was captivating. It was his ability to articulate the overarching themes of connectedness and humanity that I found compelling. It baffles me that he is somehow being defined by the words of his pastor.

I am an Episcopalian in practice. I have also studied world religions and at many times younger years attempted to convert to other faiths. I practiced Zen Buddhism, I followed the words of Gandhi and wanted to move to India after college and become a Hindu. It was only in maturity, and with the help of a spiritual advisor that I came to believe I needed a path that was coherent in order to make sense of the spiritual world. When I returned to the Christian faith I realized that their were dogmatic obstacles in every religious structure. I came to accept, as all adherents of any organized religion, that the religious hierarchy, over time, is fallible and it is made up of fallible people. This is a broken world. But in the end I wanted a community of faith in which I could worship. It was in communion that we would stumble on a path seeking a perfection that was always out of reach. In the Christian cannon human beings are constantly exposed for their weakness. From David, the honored King of Isreal there was dishonor toward both Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. From Peter, on whom the Church was founded, there was betrayal. To judge Barack Obama for the word of his Pastor, who, in passion seeks to comfort his flock, faced with a specific set of obstacles, at a specific point in time, is ludicrous. It has simply no bearing on the personal faith of Barck Obama. A man, who at every turn, has shown himself to be a creature of dignity and grace. he is of course also human, following his own path.

As a Christian I have often felt at odds with various priests. At seminar, at Yale Divinity School, I encountered people I felt had intrepreted the Christian message in skewed and twisted ways. This is life. WHat is more impressive with Obama is his ability to handle critisism and attacks that are absurd with dignity. I am however saddened that the attacks are made in the first place. It has made me question our political system at its deepest level. The American people have the opportunity to have an intelligent, charismatic, and deeply moral president. He has a global vision, needed to make balanced global decisions. He has the experience of growing up straddling two cultures both in the world as well as on American soil. Still he is considered a black man: not black enough, not white enough, not old enough, not, not, not..ad nauseum. WHen will we learn to seek no further.

I didn't want my faith to be his issue. I believe in pluralism. I believe there are many paths up the mountain, but you must choose one or you will lose your way. Why can't we stick with solutions to the enormous problems at hand? Then America would see through the glass clearly that we have found a leader to bring us out of the darkness of ignorance. He faith leads him, but allows him to see that the Samaritam is also good. We do not judge each other as Christians. We love each other and pray each other. Hmm. I have not made my case, I see that. I am saddened all the same.

Judgement To Lead: The Price of Oil Continues to Climb

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:18:24 EDT

I was pleased to see that Barack Obama had a sign posted on his podium that read, "The Judgment to Lead," during an event in Pennsylvania. I am disappointed however, in the nation's refusal to give him his due credit for seeing so early on that going into Iraq would be fatal to our country. Oil is now climbing beyond $110 a barrel. This is outrageous. Why then, is the race for a candidate so tilted toward finding his Achilles heal instead of embracing his prescience? I am clearly out of touch with America. I cannot understand in a global world, broken by our lack of inter cultural cooperation, the one man with a global vision, the one human if you will who has a personal understanding of the world as it is, not how we would like to see it, is having to constantly be on the defensive?
I don't even know what makes people tick anymore.There can be no mistake however, about what is required of those of us who believe in his candidacy for no other reason than we know he is the one. We must share our vision with the areas of Pennsylvania who do not yet share our vision. We all must participate in this personal message of hope for the United States to continue to be a place of liberty and freedom. As imperfect as we are, we tend to eventually come around and want the best for the world. Let us not look back in anger in 209, but look forward with vision today.

Obama Articulates His Judgement About National Security

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:24:57 EDT

In a moving speech in, Wyoming Barack Obama was on his game, if you will. He so eloquently described that he wouold not only, "answer the phone at three a.m., but he would give the correct answer to the problem at hand. He is the only candidate who had the foresight to see sending troops into Iraq would be a strategic blunder. This blunder has cost the American people trillions of dollars as well as our international reputation. Mr. Obama, correctly advised completing the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and to continue fighting the Taliban where they already existed. There is no question today that this would have been the best military decision we could have made. We didn't. Today he sticks to this decision. He remains committed to withdrawing troops from Iraq. It is the only fiscally wise and military solution the US has today. I believe he can and will do this. It will be a movement toward restoring international calm. It will give a clear signal that we do not want to proceed to be an imperialistic superpower, but one who respects the dignity of democracy and soveriegnty of other nations. He also respects the dignity and value of civilian life and the lives of our US troops. Hope must continue to gain momentum.

An Excerpt From "The Code of the Street," by Elijah Anderson

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:35:48 EDT

When I was canvassing in my city of New Haven CT, I had to decide if I had what it takes to enter the world of the inner city and try and get out the vote in poore neighborhoods. WHat I found was that most peple were so suprised to have a white middle aged woman knocking on their door and asking for their help, for their commitment to a candidate for change. Certainly some inner city street gangs jeered at me. One group of older teenage boys shouted,"This is Clinton territory, get the hell out." I approached them respectfully and asked what it was they saw in CLinton's plan for them that was superior to Barack Obama's. They laughed. I asked if they would consider looking at some of Senator Obama's ideas that I had printed and just give him a chance. An elderly distinguished black man came out of a nearby corner store and shook my hand. The boys apologized and politely took the papers and suddenly said "sure we''ll read it." Another chimed in, "You can't read#$%^hole." They laughed. We all built a slow tenuous relationship over the next month. I was honored to drive some of their grandmothers to the polling station. Reading Elijah Anderson's book "Code of the Street," brought me to a passage I found to be helpful and true.

"A viscious cycle has been formed. The hopelessness many youn inner-city black men and women feel, largely as a result of endemic joblessness and alienation, fuels the violence they engage in. This violence then serves to confirm the negative feelings many whites and some middle class blacks harbor toward ghetto poor, further legitimizing the oppositional cultures and code of the street for many blacks. But when jobs disappear people are left poor, highly concentrated, and hopless, the way is paved for the underground economy to become a way of life, an unforgiving way of life organized around a code of violence and predatory activity. Only by reestablishing a viable mainstream economy in the inner city men and women, can we encourage a positive sense of the future. Unless serious efforts are made to adrss this problem and the cycle is broken, attitudes on both sides will become increasingly hardened, and alienation and violence, which claim victims black and white, poor and affluent, will likely worsen."

IF WE DON"T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN, we who know Barack Obama holds many of the answers and definetly the compassion and experience in this area, must register the remaining voters who care about this issue. Many inner city people do not even know how much their vote really matters for them, and for our country. Please help get out the vote for our country's children. This is inded the shame of the nation as John Kozol, the journalist, so aptly wrote in the title of his book on the American segregation of schools.

Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:15:40 EDT

Today I purchased the book, "Code of the Street," by Elijah Anderson. He is a sociologist who has spent his life mapping the life of the inner-city. Much of the book is like watching the HBO series "The Wire." I think it is no suprise that Us magazine recorded that Barack Obama's favorite television show is "The Wire." As the book jacket suggests, "Anderson dilineates the code and examines it as a response to lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the stigma of race, rampant drug use and a lack of hope." So what is a lack of hope? Is it just an empty phrase? No says Anderson, it a normal response to a reality of hopelessness that isn't a feeling but a reality for so many children,(that happen to grow up) in poverty in America.

It is this lack of hope to which Barack Obama has adressed much of his Presidential Campaign. If we allow our cities to continue to deteriorate, and a situation of hopelessness to prevail, it will and has spilled out into the other areas of life in the US. He has a plan to begin modeling our inner city life after Promised Neighborhoods in Harlem. What is this?:

1) Transportation and information to job training programs.

2) Head Start Programs that include child care particularly for teenage parents in single parent households. This would not only help the parent to get a stable employment with career opportunity but allow children to be safe from drug trafficing and drug influence which is rampant in the inner cities.

3) Wrap around services for families with addiction and mental problems; these include family therapy, tutoring for kids falling behind in school because of cognitive delays

4) Help for parents on parole

There are so many external benefits the country would reep if these programs came to fruition.

In Philadelphia, where Dr. Anderson did much of his field work, there is a class war in the making.

Isn't it time that we make our people a priority? Isn't it time that America care about poverty by giving support so that other people can achieve a life for which they are proud. Without access to educational support and access to information about job skills, about what steps to make aftre incarceration? Barack Obama has outlined steps that we can take. Let's do the work we need to do to inform people in Pennsyvania about his plans. Help is aailable but only with the right leader in the WHite House.

"I'm Mad As Hell and I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore" Oh..I guess I have to. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:25:44 EST

If you are to young to remember the movie Network with Anthony Hopkins losing it on the syndicated news airwaves, you won't get this short blog. I am sure that is how so many in the Obama camp feel right now. I opened an email from the other campaign explaining that an Obama advisor had called Ms. Clinton a monster. A quick remeinder:

Samantha Power has stood reporting in Rwanda, Kosovo and the Sudan. She is a beautiful brillaint woman who has covered the most aggregious war crimes since WWII. I think she probably has a pretty high tollerance for deviant behavior. THINK ABOUT IT. If she callled someone a name, she has quite a list of vicious dictators to compare you to. She is not calling the head of the Junior League a snob. She is not at the garden club. SHe has more international experience with acts of evil than any journalist I know, FIRST HAND. THINK ABOUT HOW BAD SHE FELT IT MUST BE IF SHE LOST HER COOL> She was in Srebrenica when the Serbs slaughtered thousands of children. Hmmmmm

It Takes A Lot for An International Advocate Against Genocide to Lose Her Cool: A Great Loss

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:17:01 EST

Samantha Power is a woman of grace and dignity. She has interviewed and travelled through some of the world's most frightening places during genocidal warfare. That she, of all people, lost her cool is a testament to the sad state of unkindness and provocation from supposedly democratic opponents. Wow. I am so disappointed. I had the honor of meeting Ms. Powers in New Haven when she spoke to a group of young law students at a canvassing event in Connecticut. This is a woman who was in the Bosnian city of Srebenica when it fell to the Serbs. Her accounts of the events in Kososvo in the early 1990's during the Clinton administration are hair rising. Please read "AProblem from Hell," to understand why the Clinton Administration would want to silence her. The pages 418-425 are the most compelling. It rcounts how Republican Bob Dole and Vicce president Al Gore were adamant that Clinton take action as the slaughtering of Muslims in Bosnia took place. Clinton was a domestic politician un tune only with voters and the polls. If the slaughter did not affect the polls it would have gone on unabated. Ms. Powers analyzed the situation as a non-partisan journalist. David Hallberstam in "War in a Time of Peace," (he is also a Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist), spelled out Clinton's negligence. Ms. Powers was fed up with the manipulation of voters. SHe was fed up with lies spread under the guise of viruses on the internet. She knows undeniably that Barack is a devout Christian, and acted on 60 Minutes as if she were unsure. That can make intelligent people livid.

Samantha Power will be deeply missed on the Obama campaign tail. She admitted she lost her cool. The world should be indebted to her though. She has advocated for countless victims in many wars. She wrestles with the great issues facing humanity in a global interconnected world. She is human and has dealt with many horrible people like Slobadan Miloscevic. If she was angered by slander and lashed out, think of the evil she has witnessed. Think of the death and carnage she has covered. That this pack of lies caused her to cry out in anger should make our voters pause.

Talk About Sleeze? Marc Rich, the fugitive financier pardoned by Hillary's Hubby?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:07:48 EST

David Halberstam wrote in his book, WAR IN A TIME OF PEACE, on page 492, "Bill Clinton, whose political sense hadalways been so sure, departed the White House as ingloriously as any president in recent years, save only Richard Nixon. Buoyed in his last months by suprisingly high approval ratings...Not to worry. Bill Clinton never wore success too wel for too long and disaster as it always did with him, lurked just around the corner. Almost as soon as he left the White House a fire storm arose over a number of pardons he had granted in the last minutes of his presidency, most particularly the one to fugitive financier named Marc Rich, whose financial and political dealings were one giant mountain of sleeze and corruption. Rich was one of those remarkable refugees who rewards a country that takes him in by seeking to circumvent all its financial laws, and believes as well that his earnings should not go to anything as mundane as paying taxes. Rich had shown not the slightest element of remorse about his theivery, but he had devoted himself in his years as a fugitive in Europe to buying access to powerfull people..the pardon ..stunned even the most loyal of Clinton's inner circle and were devestating to the Democratic Party leadership."

Well, Hillary has experience as first Lady..don't you cuddle up at night with the first man and decide to pardon criminals. Isn't that a LITTLE MORE INTENTIONAL than not knowing Rezco was a sleexe and then when discovering it, you give the money back. Geepers people, have the American people ddeveloped amnesia? Can she be serious attacing him on integrity?

$105 A Barrel; It's Why the Economy is Failing Guys; Obama Warned You

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:59:03 EST

I wrote a blog about how Senator Obama must explain to the American people that it is the Iraq War devastating the economy, and emptying the wallets of the American people. It disappeared when I tried to post it. I will sum it up:

Gas has hit a record high of $105 a barrel

The dollar is weaked

Ahmed Adhinejad is more welcme in Iraq than A US President, He is far safer

THE DAILY SHOW of last night underlined Adhinejad's welcome yesterday when contrasted with our President, Ms. Clinton Voted for the WAR

The parties responsible for 9/11 were not Iraquis, they were Saudi rogues and Afghani, Pakistani

why Iraq? Where the hell was her judgement? Mr. Obama has superior judgement on foreign policy, case and point period.

REALITY CHECK: THERE IS NO RED PHONE, You watched too many Soviet Spy Thrillers. You're living in the past Hillary.

Our reputation is ruined internationally and if she claims experience from her days as First Lady she has to own BLACK HAWK DOWN ...It scared Clinton into isolationism and he wouldn't respond at all in RWANDA, people were hacked to death in a country WITHOUT Soviet weapons. He didn't know what was happening internationally in real terms. KOSOVO worked out only in the eleventh hour after the US military was ripped apart by his political maneuverings.

If the red phone rang maybe Hillary did have to answer it because Bill was busy setting up for an impeachment trial due to the CLinton's keen ability to rip the party apart.

GET OUT OF IRAQ and the economy will begin to get better....cut your losses...

Pennslvania, Do You Want Visitors?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:21:05 EST

Pennsylvanians need to hear us in Connecticut. It's like "Horton Hears a Who" but over the internet. We want to help you to a huge win. Do you want volunteers to come in and help out? Should we create a human wave of support? What do people think?

Leher News Hour: Bill Bradley's Grace Certainly Trumped Ferraro

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:18:10 EST

Bill Bradley has it all. On top of being a Rhodes Scholar and one time presidential candidate in his own right he was the best basketball player Italy had ever seen prior to playing for the Bostson Celtics. He is the Renaissance man ala Americana. Mr. Bradley is a supporter of Senator Barack Obama and defending him as the appropriate choice at this point for the Democrats to rally behind. While Hillary Clinton claims that she had foreign policy experience as the First Lady he pointed out that she did not even have National Security clearance nor did she participate in any negotiations at all. Clearly Mr. Obama's life experience as a child in Indonesia and the child of a Kenyan with siblings from both countries is equal in this respect. Mr. Bradley was so graceful in relation to Geraldine Ferraro who simply seemed angry and grumpy while she accussed the level headed Bradley of being negative. SHe sounded rather unstable. Angry? Negative? Hmm.

My husband remebers Bradley playing for Cemental in Italy when he was a very young boy in Parma,(NOT Ohio). All the young Italian players adored this foreign player with his funny italian accent. Only my husband, whose mother was American, found the American accent comforting. Bradley was my hero tonight as he explained Obama's strengths. Anyone who watched the public television news hour would have been proud.

Obviously what mattered tonight was that Ferraro claimed Hillary had a legitamate claim to saying she participated in foreign policy agenda under the Clinton administration. This may be true because the indesputable fact is American foreign policy under Bill Clinton was neglected for years. He was attentive to the American polls and the American economy, period. She will have to own the fiasco called "Black Hawk Down" if she going to claim the skin of our teeth victory at the eleventh hour in Kososvo. Read up on Black Hawk Down people. In 1993, a black hawk went down in Somalia in a distasterous attempt to stop Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed from taking over Mogadishu. Even a small handbook on American History I picked up yesterday called,"What Every American Should Know About American History," refers to the early years of Clinton foreign policy saying, "now with the Cold War won, and the Soviet monolith gone,..American foreign policy appeared rudderless and adrift." Okay people, if you claim experience remember what Obama said, "Rumsfield had experience, Chemey had experience.. this is about judgement. " Yes, Obama is our Abraham Lincoln. He has life experience and he is brilliant with excellent charachter and spiritual wisdom. People like that make the best choices possible in a time of cisis.

"Why We Can't Wait" We Need to Begin Calling and Writing PA Now

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:29:52 EST

I think many of us believed that Americans had come to their senses and yesterday was going to make that clear. Well, America has not come to its sense. We, the Obama supporters, are a gracious group. We don't hate our opposition. I have written frequently that I believe Hillary would make an excellent Senate Majority Leader. She is knowlegable on health care but demonstrated in the early 90's that her partisan approach cannot amass the support needed for her bills to pass. That is just history. I also believe that many, many Americans don't know history. That has been my experience canvassing during the primaries. Most Americans forget that her health care plan and political accumin failed in the House. She actually glavanized a new Republican right wing. Yes. People don't know it. I asked many on the phone in Texas, "Do you remember how her plan failed to pass in during her husband's administration?" Huh?

Who wants to write about ignorance? Who wants to come out and say people are sadly misinformed? I know I don't. It makes you sound holier than thou, and it puts people on the defensive. There must be a way to frame facts so that we don't put Pennsylvania voters on the defensive, but we make certain the know the history, not only of health care, but also of the implications of the other candidate's vote to go into Iraq.

It is Iraq that has caused the jumpp from $25 dollars a barrel for oil to $104. It is Iraq that has caused a growing sense of the United States as an Imperialist regime. It is Iraq that is catapulted this nation into a debt that is almost beyond comprehension. Only Barack Obama has clearly and consistently been against a war in Iraq. We also need o educate the ignorant of the fact that Iraqis were not involved in the bombing of the World Trade Centers. Many think that Obama simply didn't want to respond to a national security crisis. WRONG. He wanted to go after in a rational way, the people that were responsible. Because most Americans don't know the difference between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Bombay why would they care who we are going to war with? Don't get annoyed at me guys, I speak the truth. We are an ignorant voting block. I have been out there calling and canvassing for months. I hear it all the time. Obviously, now that we are at war more people have an idea of where Iraq is...but clearly they don't know the issues in the current civil war. Those are difficult for Middle Eastern scholars to discern from day to day.

Before the vote in PA we need to educate. We need to rally every volunteer. We need to sumon our strength and be prepared to sacrifice a little time and money. In the long run, I think restoring our country's dignity is worth it.

"The Night Obama Framed the Race" : Poignant Op-Ed from David Brooks

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:19:53 EST

I wish I had the computer acumine to lead you all to the link, but in today's (3/4/08) New York Times, David Brooks wrote a compelling argument for Barack Obama as the candidate who has, from the inception of his campaign, tried to bring an end to bi-partisan politics. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand began her race as a "fight," against the Republicans. "We are here to make sure the next President is a Republican," were the precise words she made in a partisan speech.

Isn't that partisan rallying precisely why Senator Clinton was unable to pass any health care initiatives as First Lady? Isn't that exactly why Newt Gingrich took control of the House and Senate? I certainly hope that today, as people in four sttaes cast their votes they look beyond the partisan divide. Senator Obama is correct when he said that,"the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do." They won't. Obama supporters know that. We know Senator Clinton is bright, but she is fighting for the uninsured in a narrow partisan manner that will accomplish nothing, just as it did in the Clinton years. We, the American peple are all in this together, whether we know it or not.

Nobel Prize Economists Joseph Stiglitz and colleague Linda Bilmes from Harvard Estimate Iraq War Costs at $3 Trillion

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:58:46 EST

I was listening to an interview wiithNobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on NPR yesterday when it seemed pretty clear that this war is destroying the US economy. I am a little baffled that our candidate, Barak Obama, has spent more time discussing NAFTA in Ohio than the cost of a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil on the international market. We all pay for gas at the pump. Ready on day one? Only Senator Obama saw the cost of the war before it happened. That's just the way it is folks. It appears that if the voter wants to vote with his wallet, this is a price we pay every day on our way to work, unless you have the good fortune of walking, biking or taking public transportatioon,(which would incorporate the cost of fuel at some level, fuel depletes our wallet and our national pride every day.

This war has seen the barrel of oil jump from $25 to $104 yesterday. This is outrageous. We are giving inadequate health care to Veterans, our national infrastructure is a disaster and we are at War? Only Obama didn't want this war, only Obama can bring us home.

An Apology From A Blogger

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:55:15 EST

My last blog concerning our funding of Musharaff was erroneous. I ussually check my information more carefully and luckily someone commented in detail explaining the error of my ways. I am grateful.

Our Baffling Strategy in Aiding the ISI in Pakistan

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:04:50 EST

I trust General David Petraeus in making sound judgement. Here is commanding officer that has stated clearly that he is against torture because it is both illegal and "frequently neither useful nor necessary." That is a sane and balanced opinion from a man under a great deal of stress. His intellect and morality are always impressive. I do not however, understand our foreign policy long term objective in working to train paramilitary forces coming from different ethnic groups on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The New York Times front page, 3/2/08) For a country so obsessed with national security issues in the White House, this certainly seems to be a little premature. This is essentially covert miltary tactics based on too little funding, and an overextended US military. This will certainly put high level information in the hands of tommorow's possible terrorists. The mistake of Iraq has rippples that continue to spread throughout our disasterous foreign policy.

It becomes clearer and clearer to me how absurd our mission in Iraq really has become. We were needed in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, period. Instead we funded bin Laden and other extremist groups, loaded them with weapons and now we have a hyper militarized impoverished disaster on the international mainstage. SO why are we not now talking to the newly elected leaders in Pakistan? Why do we not listen to their democratically elected opinion??Again we are talking with the ISI, Pakistan's version of the CIA or KGB, to get the job done quickly with little or no concern about future terrorists with, for instance, our satellite imagery, such as the ISI itself.

Maybe I am naive, but it certainly seems that we are being short sighted giving tp secret information and specialized training to forces assembled by a military dictator tied to Bhenazir Bhutto and Daniel Pearl's murders. Hmm.

Senator Obama is honest when he says he will talk to military dictators and others candidates, "denounce and reject," this mature diplomatic stance. The same people that denounce it haven't just sat down with the devil but enlisted him in their various war strategies. We all know the CLinton administration funded today's terrorists. The USA has to begin to listen to the strategies of long term military experts and politicians have to think of their country and the world with a perspective on the future not simply their political agenda.

It is just a shame that we have to this. If we had concentrated on apprehending Osama bin Laden when it became apparent he was responsible for the Sept. 11, attacks, we would not have to be engaged in this continued risky business in the North Western Province, and in Afghanistan.

Why Is the Bush Administration Backing Musharraf?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:59:05 EST

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan was overwhelmingly rejected in democratic elections in Pakistan, yet John D. Negroponte, the deputy Secretary of State announced Thursday that it would maintain close ties to the soon to be former President. This is an example of the international policy mistakes the USA continues to make in a globally connected world that often regards our government as imperialist. Why shouldn't they? Pakistanis have made a decision to oust the former army chief and President and have every right to be baffled by irrational insistence on the part of the Bush administration that Masharraff be included in high level talks with the USA. Why?

We, as American citizens should be questioning this move and what it means at its core. We are so powerful that we can publically humiliate the newly elected leaders of a critical ally in this fearmongering war on terror? Can Bush imagine being asked to share power with Bill Clinton when he first came to power? Would President Bush have tollerated Clinton's input on foreign policy issues between the two nations? What if that had been a publicly held requirement for a continued relationship? Imagine Ronald Reagan having to give credit to the hostage release in Tehran to President Carter? The fact is Carter did negotiate the release but the Reagan administration wanted them released on his inauguration day. It is no wonder other democracies have lost respect for the United States when it comes to foreign policy.

The New York Times reported today, Feb.29, 2008, that even Pakistan's military has shifted its support to General Ashfaq Kayani. That was the supposed rationale for maintaining ties with Musharaff, his support from the military. Well, that support is evaporating. I find it rather interesting that one of the critisisms leveled at Senator Barck Obama during his campaign, was concerning his willingness to attempt diplomacy with leaders across the globe that are guilty of human rights abuses. The United States has notoriously had relationships with rogue leaders, it is simply that many of those relationships were covert. At least he was being straight forward in his desire for diplomacy before the sword. Our CIA has done this for decades, but we don't want the public to know? Transparency only after declassification of old documents? Could this be the sham the public of both Pakistan and the US is expected to take at face value?Musharraf is simply good at chatting up and delivering funds to militant Islamic groups through the ISI, we need his shady relationships with miltant Islam and corrupt ISI agents that can do his dirty work. Or maybe we don't want US citizens to find out where all those missing funds to Pakistan have gone. If he is out of power an investigation might take place. Really people, let's get real. As Senator Obama made clear in the last debate we should have been forcing Pakistan's miltary hand a long time ago. Osama bin Laden, remember him President Bush? He was in Pakistan under this supposed ally Musharraf.

The US funded the war aainst the Soviets in Afghanistan via Pakistan. We were closely connected to the Pakistan ISI. In fact, we helped corrupt the ISI by our non-stop shipments of arms and cash throughout that war. As ussual we armed the militant groups who are now are enemies. The Russians poured their resources into arms as well while their people were starving. Arms before democracy. Is that where we're heading with this. These aren't revalations, I know everyone knows this but come one people, are we now going to back a leader so clearly unpopular in his own country when democratically elected officials are ready to carry out their newly assigned roles? He put the judiciary beind bars. They already lost Benazir Bhutto to an assassins bullet, should they lose their next leader to our hubris?

It Is an Insult to Muslims to "Accuse" Senator Obama of Being Muslim

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:01:24 EST

Beware defenders of the "truth." If people were accussing Senator Obama of being Jewish how would you respond? If people were erroneously reporting him to be an Episcopalian, how would you respond? If his father had been a Hindu and he were a Brahmin, how would you respond? Why is it that even Obama's supporters are acting as if this is an accussation?Why are the Clinton team acting as if diseminating this error would hurt him? We are a religiously intollerant nation, that's why.

I believe the level headed Barack Obama said it best in a rally in Ohio when responding to allegations and I paraphrase, "I am not a Muslim, I have been a member of Trinity Church for twenty years....but it is offensive to Muslims to have the rumor spread as if it were somehow evil to a Muslim."

Remember people, one third of the world's population are Muslim. Muslims are not terrorists. Terrorists are terrorists. Radical Islam is as dangerous and misguide as radical right wing Christianity. Both should not even be labeled a religion for they have wandered so far off the path of their religious premises. Islam is, like Christianity founded on the idea of a compassionate God in loving relation with his people. To interpret either religion in any literal way is to be both ignorant of the author's original intent, ignorant of the writings historical and literary context, and ignorant of history in general.

It is a sad fact that millions of Americans still read, cafeteria style, the Hebrew Scriptures(The Old Testament) literally. After four years at Yale Divinity School it became even more crystalized what a scandal this is to our nation. Even in a humoroussly thoughtful way, think...if you are reading Adam and Eve literally (Which, by the way it was always meant to be a poetic allegory, scholars know this because of the form and literary content but no one cares) Adam and Eve have two sons Cain and Abel, Cain being jeaous of his brother for some pretty valid reasons kills him in a testosterone rage. When asked where his dead brother was by Mom and Dad he says "How should I know, I'm not my brother's keeper...) Then Cain leaves Mom and Dad and goes East of Eden. Okay here is the tricky part. Cain gets married and has a slew of children. Who did he marry and procreate with if Adam and Eve were the only people on this planet? Duh..It was an allegory like the tortoise and the Hare.Yeah, that comparison ussually helps the little kids I teach Sunday School to, that is if their parents don't interpret the Bible literally. You are simply an idiot if you think Adam and Eve genuinley started mankind. An ignoramous of the highest order.So...

Don't look at the Muslim religion any differently. Benazir Bhutto'd posthumous work, "Reconciliation," covers this topic beautifully. It is not a crime to be part of one of the great monotheistic traditions. It is a crime to be a terrorist. In Senator Obama's case it is just erroneous to say he is Muslim and a mistake. It could be an honest mistake, his name is originally from Arabic according to a Muslim woman and Obama supporter, so if a mistake, that's all it is. Period. If the Clinton teams thinks that spreading this rumor hurts him, they are religiously intollerant and pretty slimy.

Support UN Humanitarian Missions Not Nation Building

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:13:46 EST

Collin Powell understod you cannot build a nation from the outside in. This was an enormous policy blunder under the Clinton Administration in regards to Somalia. No matter how lofty Madeline Albright's aims were the UN mission began to overstep feeding and aiding the suffering in 1993 Somalia and wanted to topple a dictator. It was a fiasco. The Administration had little interest in Somalia until it was a political and national embarassment.

I believe that Barack Obama will have Powell's wisdom and courage and keep lines of communications open in Security Council. As much as I admire Tony Lake's career under Bill Clinton, it is refreshing to know that he Obama is listening to past mistakes and learning from them.

What we are doing in Iraq is bound to fail. We need to send the UN in for humanitarian aid and get out of the civil war. Afghanistan and Pakistan is where our troops must concentrate. We all know this, what is the confusion?

Sheila, Karen, Bob, Elizabeth and Hunter: Defying Demographics

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:49:41 EST

Last night, in New Haven Ct. we had a phone bank to call Hidalgo, Texas. Not that interesting, I know. What occurred to me while driving my 15 year old daughter to school this morning in my pajamas was, who we were demographically.

Karen is a cauacasian 35 year old English Prof. At Yale University with a full load of classes running the phone bank. Wherever she grew up Spanish speakers were all around her and when I expressed how impressed I was with her accomplishments in life she replied, "Sometimes I wonder how I ended up at Yale." If you listen to her political views and global assessments it is not difficult to know how she ended up there. She is wise beyond her years. Has a stunning command of vocabulary and language and is deeply committed to her beliefs.

Sheila is a strong spring breeze. A charismatic black woman doctor. She has found a source of personal power in the campaign of Barack Obama. With a 12 yearl odl son suffering from Asperger's syndrome she has been a caretaker on leave from emergency medical practice for 10 years.

Bob is also a professor. He is a retired aristocratic Yale graduate. His wife is a diminuative Japanes American professor at Yale. He has never campaigned before and yet I have been at events including long canvassing days through urban New Haven at 10 dgrees. He recently had major back surgery and goes on to campaign in spite of the pain.

Elizabeth is an Oberlin College graduate from Ohio. She is in New Haven as a Yale graduate student and has remained active in the campaign since ts inception. She walks in the dark bundled up after class, and is always ready to cheerfully forge ahead. She is probabaly 24 years old and caucasian.

I am a 44 year old caucasian overly zealous woould be priest, graduate of Yale Divinity School, with a Masters in Public Administration. My husband is a very successful businessman who is baffled by our volunteer commitment with no campaign directives other than our computers and the the website and Jen Just our Congressional District chairperson.

We organize our phonebanks. We feed or volunteers. We are the campaign of Barack Obama. We even pay our own phone bills in our desire to contact on a personal level the people of Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. We want them to share our commitment because we believe Barack Obama can change our nation.

Yes, I noticed that what this group shares in common is education. None of us is rich. All of us have higher degrees and have a firm handle in different arenas of the global issues at stake in this race. I don't think that is a bad thing.

Why We Can't Wait

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:33:32 EST

"The boy in Harlem stood up. The girl in Birmingham arose. Seperated by stretching miles, both of them squared their shoulders and lifted their eyes toward heaven. Across the miles they joined hands, and took a firm forward step. It was a step that rocked the richest most powerful nation to its foundations.." That was a story that Martin Luther King wrote in 1964 about Why We Can't Wait. Today, this week, I believe America is trying to write another chapter on a book that was cut short by violence. Cut short by a nation that wasn't ready to write a happy ending. We were to afraid. It was fear that killed Martin Luther King. Fear that maybe it would cost to much to overcome injustice. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of living in fear.

Barack Obama is a continuation of the story of civil rights. It has been over forty years since we listened to why we can't wait. I wasn't even two years old. I grew up an avid reader of Martin Luther King. I studied the lives of James Baldwin, Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth. It was't until seminary when I was friends with a young woman who was in the Sisterhood of the Black Madonna from Chicago. She explained to me, "you're white." "Really?" I answered, as if I hadn't noticed. "You may know everything about Zora Neal Hurston and the Voodon sythesis of Christianity into the black community, but if you ain't black, no one is going to listen to you, not even in the Academy." Hmm. She was right. So why did it hurt so much, and why did I care?

One reason Barack is so profound is that he embodies what so many of us are but in simply a more perfect synthesis. He is what we are ready for today. He is not Martin Luther King, and he is not merely a politician; he is a plitician who places the moral imperative of what it means to live up to the ideal set forth in our constitution. There is a seperation between Church and State in this country, but there is not a separation from morality. The constitution was founded on moral principals. We all have the right to freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Today, I do not believe that freedom is being dished out in even portions, and I am not talking about wealth. I am speaking of opportunity.

It must be him, Barack Obama, because he understands King's cry for the fierce urgency of now. The naysayers have said that it wasn't King that passed the Civil Rights Act. That is true but somehow I don't think Lyndon Johnson would have been pushing for it without King in the background.that was then. In 1964-65 the pulpit served the dual purpose in the black community of being both a political podium and the preacher's podium. Community was built in the black Church because it couldn't be built elsewhere. Outside the Church opportunity did not abound.

Let us not forget that Barack Obama had to discover the hard way how black he was. He was raised by a white mother and white grandparents. It wasn't until his peers, a jury of his peers if you will, announced to him, "you are black." His basketball coaches called him, "the N word." That is where you discover what you are to your fellow man,in the halls of your schools. I am certain that it must have been dually difficult because he was black and his beloved family wasn't. To come through adolesence and then not only accept one's identity but be willing to forge a new identity for the American people, this is a gift to history. He is also giving all of us a new definition of who we can be, how we can take the constitution to new levels in community.

In his hope, we will find hope for ourselves. For me, it is hope that despite being white I can help to create bridges to freedom in my community. I live in an urban area that defines the worst of America when I am honest. I moved here to be close to an integrated society. In reality, my city is still segregated to many degrees. I believe this can change. I saw it changing during our primary season. I pray that it can continue throughout this election. Then we will have hard work ahead of us. Hard work with no excuses.

We can't wait because too many children are still growing up in poverty. Too many children are still feeling it is us against them. Too many children feel powerless because their parents stil feel powerless. I sat next to an eighty year old black gentleman in a bow tie at a Hartford rally. He held my white hand in his brown when he heard me cheering and he had tears in his eyes, he said, "Do you think he can win?" I said, "I think so." He smiled.

Maybe we are beyond race. Maybe it's time to heal. If only we all realized how much we admire each other, how much we can learn from all races, how much alike we all are. Then we can grow in peace, together.

Row To Shore People

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:31:54 EST

The intellect of Barack Obama is always impressive, but his honor and dignity is even more dazzling. In his rally in Austin when he responded to the crowds, "Some say I'm not tough enough...(he paused and then laughed with his broad smile that warms the heart)..I'm tough, I'm a black guy named Barack Obama running for President of the United States, I'm tough.) Think about it.

I grew up in schools with black children being bused in from cities into our suburban schools. They were terrified. I have been friends with black students in boarding schools where the Bush men went, it stunk for them. When I thought they were having a great time I later found out one had been arrested on vacation in a school friends neighborhood, baically for being black. He didn't want to come back to school. His friends told him to laugh it off. He became a militant black power student at my college. It stunk. You have to be tough. Batack Obama has risen on his own merit, as well he should. But the odds were stacked against him. His grace and dignity set him apart. I wrote that I had been feeling blue as I listened to comments by another politician mocking his speeches as rhetoric. Well, they aren't. Politicians give speeches,that's their job. Politicians inspire, that's their job. Policians motivate people to participate in democracy, that is in theory, their job in the United States of America. We just haven't had many politicians who have had the capacity to rouse us from our forty year slumber. Yes. In my life time, and I am forty-four years old, I grew up hearing about the great speeches of John F. Kenndy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. If they wern't great then why do students across America listen to their old recordings and wonder if any of these great men will walk the plains and cities of this great country again?

I'm not saying a politicians only job is to give speeches. No, that's idiotic. But, the job of a presidential candidate in this country at tis point in history is to let us know we are in thisthing called democracy together. If we sit back and let the status quo take over, we will get what we have been getting for years. We will have an executive that has over-reached its constitutional powers. We will get campaign lobbyists who will place people that are well connected to their constituencies in power and their friends will be in the cabinet. This is what is happening in the United STates and it is what is being done all over the world.

It is ironic that in Pakistan, democracy is trying to rebuild itself while the United States has been pouring money into the ruling military leader. Their voting public wouldn't stand for military rule any longer. Whatever corruption we would like to think was charged against Benazir Bhutto, she risked her life and paid with her life to help restore democracy to her country. It is time for voters here to be motivated to fight for what is right, not merely what is self gratifying. No financial gain will come to most of us for voting for Barck Obama. A gain of a different sort will be felt if we succeed. We will restore dignity and decency to America. This will only be achieved if we are willing to go the distance. Are we willing to continue this battle for decency for Ohio, for Texas, for Rhode Island and beyond? Are we willig to accept that inflation may come, recession may come, oil prices may continue to climb, our dollar may continue to devalue for a time? Are we willing to tighten our belts and support Obama through his presidency or are we going to be babies that want this exciting new candidate to win so that we can sit back and relax. I hope not. This is a new beginning.

After the Civil War there was a price to be paid. Slavery was over but the costs were still there. After Civil RIghts bills were passed attitudes still needed changing. We are the people that are making this movement. The celestial heavens can open up,contrary to nay sayers, but only if we all stay in the struggle. We all must continue to fight for what is right. A great friend and spiritual advisor while I was in seminary once told me,"Pray to God, but Row to Shore." Keep Rowing.

Feeling Blue? Watch the Austin Rally

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:56:28 EST

I was feeling a little blue yesterday. I was in a bookstore with my son and he was avidly watching a middle aged couple playing chess. He can be a little socially forward and continued to suggest possible moves they could make in a little whisper, uncool. The woman noticed my Obama button. Her reaction was boredom. She said, "I'm so sick of hearing about this campaign, isn't there anything else we can talk about?" I thought, "Voter weariness." Then I wondered, "do I have volunteer weariness?" Am I sick of writing unanswered letters? Am I angry that despite the obvious choice of Obama as a nation healer we are idiots as a nation and continue to ponder?" I doubted my ability to continue to rally.

This morning I woke up and thought, we are not talking about a celebrity couple breaking up, we are voting for the most powerful position in the world. We need someone with common sense and integrity. Someone who can see life clearly and the problems facing our country from a non-partisan view point. I went on the computer and happened to click on the Austin rally. That was all I needed. Hearing the crowds I felt inspired, but hearing Barack I felt confident I wasn't wasting my time trying to contact voters in Ohio and Texas. Here is a black man named Barack Hussein Obama, about to become, if voters prevail, the United States President. Why? Because of his mind, his heart, his character and his willingness to serve. We are so fortunate this man is willing not to take his brains to the bank, but is offering us a chance to be the country we were meant to be, but have never quite had the courage to achieve. We are ready to live out our constitution, with this legal expert as our leader. Watch the Austin rally and smile.

A Neurologist Admires Obama's Global Experience

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:45:47 EST

At a luncheon today, planned as a small fundraiser to boost morale before phonebanking, I met a brilliant Yale neurologist from Israel. It was fascinating to hear his assessment of Barack Obama's travels and diverse childhood experience as being a fundamental assett in his approach to global policy. It would be impossible, even as a devout Christian to dehumanize, or even demonize the Muslim religion as a whole with the experience Obama had in Malaysia. It would be akin to judging all Christians against the backdrop of right wing fundamentalist conservatives. In all seriousness, it is no different. No truly Christian person can go to war without facing a deep personal moral dilemma. All human beings are God's children according to all monotheistic religions. Any politician; Muslim, Jew, or Christian that preaches destruction to the infiddels, is a fanatic, not a devout person.

It was deeply refreshing to hear a scientific opinion based on brain development that makes so much moral sense. When I find theology and medicine overlap, I believe human progress is being made. That's just me.

Another $32,000.00 Bill From the State of Connecticut

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:09:28 EST

Yes, it's true. Today, I received yet another thirty two thousand dollar bill from the State of Connecticut. I write about this on Senator Obama's blog because had there been in New Haven Ct., a system of community supports and after school programs that helped troubled children, I may not have had to figure out how to pay this bill. I may not have spent so much time, money and effort struggling to find mental health supports for an adopted child. These are the support systems that are outlined in Obama's proposals to help children at risk. Look at the information on the web site regarding poverty. Unfortunately, we seem to think as Americans only the poor are at risk.

If you follow my blog, you may already know that after having had two healthy beautiful children with my husband and I decided to adopt two at risk children that needed a home. Because we are caucasian and had two caucasian children, the state of Connecticut could not offer us the possibility of adopting children of color. At the time, in 1998, lobbyists believed that black and latino children would lose their heritage if adopted by whites.We were out of luck. So were they. Most of those children wre still wandering through the red tape of the Foster Care system. After being licensed to adopt, a procedure far more difficult than the one we undertook to give birth, we were sent files on children from Russia that were awaiting homes. Because they were over three years of age they were immediately classified as at risk, because they had spent so much time in institutional care.

Three years in an Eastern European orphanage takes a toll on a little person struggling to grow. To add insult to injury Moscow was suffering inflation and a recession. The rubble was plummeting on world markets, and the Russian mob was earning billions. THe gap between haves and have nots in Moscow was like a B rated comedy when I spent time there in 1998 and 1999. Black Mercedes limosines would pull up to the shopping plaza pedestrain walks and drive right up to store windows. Machine gun toting body guards would jump out while the billionare father bought the entire contents of a boutique store window for his debutante daughter. No one would scream, they just quickly tok cover. Needless to say wth the middle class falling into abject poverty, and the state unable to pay its workers, orphans were getting the crumbs left over, including medicine, love, and decency.

My children became American citizens after having suffered this fate for four years. Little did I know as a Chaplain and theologian, that prayer, love of family, and decent doctors and nutrition would not be enough to overcome the trauma they had undergone from conception. My children have needed hospitilizations, psychiatry, speech therapy and more. I had to stop working to care for them. Our family underwent tragic circumstances to great to recount at the present. One of my children had to attend a school for behavior modification after threatening and destructive behaviour made it impossible for me to manage safely. We were asured that the state of Connecticut was paying this bill. It was rejected and my husband and I paid the first forty five thousand dolars and realized we could not go on like this. Again we were assured the state would continue to pay.After payin $80,000 in private psychiatry bills we needed help. On the day I received notice I owed thirty two thousand dollars to the state, I got in the car and picked my son up and drove home. He is now in a public school in New Haven CT. The state continues to send bills. I went to a fair hearing trial and even the Children and Families social worker stated on tape that I had been assured the state would cover the cost. To no avail.

Community based therapy and after school programs are the only way to rehabilitate children who are at risk for deviant behavior. I am not talking about psychosis or genetic disorders, (I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV) but poor judgement based on falure to be properly nutured in the early years. Because of programs we are involved in today I am friends with many at risk families in the community and most of them are poor.

Why are our inner cities so smilar to post Soviet era inner cities? I don't know, it is complicated but it is true. If America doesn't elect Barack Obama I believe the similarities between New Havens poor and Moscow's poor will be inseperable. Why did I have to go half way around the world to become engaged in the inner city drama of New Haven and face the same daunting task of raising at risk children? God's will? Maybe? No matter what, it was also a question of race, of my being white and deemed unable to help a bracial child thrive. Looking at Barack Obama that argument is a little silly. More politics of the silly as he would say. It was ignorance and it is my life. I still owe the state of Connecticut $32,000. Now I understand Kafka's writings and I am behind Obama's presidency.

Protesters Trash a McDonalds and Nike Shop (But Grab a Pair of Nike Airs and a Big Mac on the Way Out

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:25:20 EST

It should be more than a little unnerving that Serbians are attacking the US embassy in Kosovo. The love-hate relationship so many foreigners have with the United States was underlined as looters wrecked the interiors of foreign retailers but also made off with their goods. One of the frightening things about living in Eastern Europe for so many, is that the citizens are well aware that the USA has a lot of power but only uses it when it suits them. To be a pawn in a worldwide war is anxiety povoking. Back in the eighties I went to University in Italy for a year. Many of my italian friends were self declared communists. In Italy it was amusing because they would have on Burberry scarves, Gucci shoes and be participating in anti-Craxi ant-Reagan demonstrations. When I flew home through Belgrade and spent a few days in the city of former Yugoslavia, I noticed the Eastern influence of Communism but it was muted, and less amusing. I remember even then thinking, these students look like me, these so called Communists. When I met and talked with them, it became clear that what students in Belgrade hated about the USA ,was they wanted the wealth and opportunity we had and they couldn't have them. Students told me,the USA is so rich and the television projects perfect families with perfect teeth, yet they never help their fellow man. Maybe we should begin to listen to international students around the globe. Maybe we shouldn't always be so surprised to find out people are angry at us after something tragic takes place.

In reading Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars," about the CIA, binLaden, Afghanistan and the Soviet invasion, I was reminded that embassy invasions are often a precursor to some bigger international crisis. Remeber the Ayatollah and the Tehran embassy that destroyed President Carter? Then Coll describes the invasion and burning of the American embassy in Islamabad,Pakistan back in 1979. Hindsight is twenty twenty but it becomes clear that the invasion and the killing of a Marine was a signal that anger toward the United States had consequences. When we are involved in other countries, particularly with covert operations shipping massive amounts of weapons from one ethnic group and then another, we are bound to get caught up in a family feud. We seem to want it both /and. When the fight isn't a bother, we'll go in and,"kick some ass." However, if it will get in the way of say an impeachment trial for a ying about a little hanky panky well, we don't have time. (Remember Kosovo, remember the Muslim Serbs.) Oh and in Afghanistan we'll kick ass unless of course we can't and then we'll leave a power vacume and wonder where these Taliban came from.

I don't believe the USA should or can be an international police force. But we also cannot be dealing arms all of the world, particularly politically unstable zones. We have been engaging in o many disasterous covert operations over the last decades that when the consequences come back and bite us we are suprised.

I pray that Barack Obama, the UN and the International Criminal Courts can work together and try to undo some of our mistakes and find a world peace and police organization that can objectively adress global crime such as what is occurring amongst Serbs in the US embassy.

We Sleep on Couches, Not in the "Four Seasons"

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:13:58 EST

The New York Times reported this morning that, "political and management failings," are a great concern to Clinton donors. If mismanagement in her political campaign has already worried Hillary Clinton's donors what should the American people think about how she would handle the United States budget? I have read in same newspaper that Obama's head campaign staffer has a ping pong table for a desk. With the Bellagio and Four Season's hotels collecting $30,000 from Clinton's campaign in the month of January one wonders what the donors should think.

What has impressed me with Barack Obama's campaign is the shoe string budget. When staffers came to town local volunteers housed them and fed them. I know a friend had them in her home and I gave lunch one afternoon. We the people own the Obama campaign. If the staffers slept poorly it was because volunteers didn't change the sheets. I have met so many unpaid workers with skills, time, food and lodging they have donated to the campaign. The beauty of doing it this way is also we get to know one another. When you pound the pavement in the cold New Hampshire streets for a week with a new pal, you have time to talk. I have heard stories from a man that runs a homeless shelter for Veterans, to an Australian law student from Cornell who knows the US president effects her life. There is a brother (and sister) hood among people who have pooled resources for cold pizza while learning to cut turf.

Americans want to be included. A lot of us have alot to offer the political process and we are glad to give it freely. It's just that Barack Obama is the first one to ever ask.

Opportunities Versus Blessings: Hillary's Hubris

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:35:13 EST

Last night's debate was underscored yet another major difference between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Senator Obama has told his listeners that he aims to give the American people the same opportunities he was granted while growing up; a decent education, medical care, affordable housing and access to employment. In closing Hillary told the American people she wanted to give them blessings. Well, the last time I study my theology books, which I did for four years at Yale Divinity School, only God can bestow blessings. Yes, people, her emotional closing was an act of hubris. America is a land of opportunity. These opportunities have been squeezed out of many people's lives because of tax breaks for the rich, the rising cost of higher education and the need for a dual income even when raising small children. A politician, at even the highest level can only offer opportunities by working toward creating a society where all have a chance to make something of their lives. Where every citizen has a right to participate in their own betterment. A politician, no matter how powerful, cannot offer blessings.

The Debate: Maybe I Will Ask Obama for the VP Job

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:44:38 EST

It certainly appeared that tonight was a request for the Vice Presidential place on the Obama ticket. It must be clear to the American people that while Clinton and Obama have many policy stances in common, they do not share the ability to bring political parties together. Barack Obama has an expertise in Constitutional law that is clear with his voting record. Hillary cares about Universal healthcare but doesn't stand a snow ball's chance in hell of passes anything through Congress. It appeared that her civility was an accpetance that her only shot of being on the ticket is as his running mate. I don't know. Maybe I'm just being silly. I know other bloggers are writing the same thing. It was all I could think about when she was nodding her head and smiling.

New Haven Ct. and Faith in Action

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:31:00 EST

Since participating in this campaign I have begun to think about my life in new and unexpected ways. This has hapened before in times of trsansformation: when I graduated from college, when I got married,when I had my first child, when I adopted my first child, and when I entered Yale Divinity School. These have been some major stepping stones in my life. Well, so has witnessing Barack Obama's run as a Presidential candidate.

People must think it odd that I equate a candidate for political office with my children, my husband, or my faith journey. Trust me, it has never happened before! I live in New Haven Ct and I love this city. One of the things I really loved during seminary in New Haven was the opportunity to participate in many different worship services in the city and meeting so many people of faith out active in the community. It has been during this campaign however, that I have felt many people really coming together and thinking about participating in community in new ways.

Since adopting my last child I have had to spend most of my time at home again. As he is growing and calming down I have been exploring my next step. Will I go back to ministry in the traditional sense? Will I get involved in some of the urban agendas Barack Obama has outlined that have helped Harlem, that helped his Chicago? Well I have been keeping a rolodex of people at Churches and organizations that might be part of a "Promised Neighborhood." Different therapists and counselors who might know about evidence based mental health particpants in my area. Just thinking. ...How does a forty four year old mother, Divinity School graduate with a Masters in Public Administration go back to work? Who needs me?

A few minutes ago I typed in community action on google and my city. What came up but a job opening for a person to help poor families in my city in their efforts at attaining self sufficiency. The organization's mission includes, "changing the systems that perpetuate poverty and injustice."Isn't this what Barack Obama stands for? At least in part? It is what called me to volunteer.

Well, I have a resume to write. I may not get a new job, but I will know that close to my home people are engaging in work I believe in!

Pakistan's Ousting Musharraf Mirrors Obama's Diplomacy Model: Time for Three Cups of Tea?

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:30:34 EST

It has been good news out of Pakistan in recent days. Maybe it is time to look at an international diplomatic style that is more akin to Barack Obama's suggested policy. Now that President Pervez Musharaf of Pakistan has been soundly defeated despite millions, no, billions of dollars of US aid, democracy may even be possible in Pakistan. Yes, there was always a veneer of democracy in Pakistan but it seems that the door to a ruling by consensus is was the People's Party is planning. It is optomistic to hear Asif Ali Zadari say that he is unwilling to share power with Musharaff but is looking to Nawas Sharif whose opposition party came in second if power sharing is to be in the future. (Hmmm. That's what the United States used to in our early electorate years when picking the Vice President. It sounds like a democratic plan.)

It is time for the USA to stop funding Musharaf's military machine. We have unaccounted billions of dollars that are probably buying military for tribal warfare. Isn't it time to let Pakistan settle into an elected administration and wait and see what course of action they want to take?

The Best Goody Bag

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:15:41 EST

Anybody that hasn't read the chapter on Family in Obama's Audacity of Hope, must. As the campaign moves toward the nomination and I think of Michelle Obama telling the future President of the United States, that he couldn't handle goody bags, I laugh. I laugh because she is right. Goody bags are tough. Public policy is simple. I am sure that getting good public policy past is a night mare and it is frustrating, but when it passes a hell of a lot of people know you have done it. nobody knows when you can make an aewsome goody bag except for the twenty (more or less), kids at the party. Hmm. But it sure matters when there are no goody bags. It sure matters when there is no birthday cake. And it matters a hell of a lot when there is no party at all.

Every one that cares about children knows that these things matter deeply. I have shared about my children in many blogs, but tonight I think about my youngest. Misha was born in a hospital in Moscow, Russia. He had a cleft pallate and was missing half his nose. His mother, if what the orphanage director says is true was a young student at the University who ran away when she got pregnant. She tried living on the streets with her new son but it lasted only three months. She gave him up and he went to live in what are called children's homes. Things in Moscow in 1995 were grim. Orphans faired worst of all. Cold, few luxuries and far to few care givers was life for children without parents. Routine, group ownership of everything and only a first name. That was life. I won't go on.

We adopted Misha after being turned down for adoption of foster care children in New Haven Ct. All of the children available in Connecticut were racially mixed. We told the agency that was fine. We only wanted to give a child a home. A child that other families would no longer want because they were over three years of age. Because we are caucasian and have two caucasian healthy children of our own we were rejected. Only black or Latino parents could adopt black or latino children. Really. Well, that didn't happen. Those children that were three years old at that time just didn't get homes. they are still wandering the shadows of foster care. That was when we were told about Rusian children waiting. "Waiting." It's like waiting for Godot.

My son, and his brother(through adoption) are both 12 years old now. He has a nose and has had four operatins on his cleft which looks "almost" like a scar from falling off your bike. Is everything great? No. He has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and has obsessions and terrors you cannot believe. He has ripped my hair out and punched people for no reason. He is also endearing, loveable and intelligent. He also adores Barack Obama. He began to get fixated on Mr. Obama when he heard him giving a speech. he also liked the sound of his voice. He read every article about him and thinks his daughters are the most beautiful girls on the planet. He came to Keene New Hampshire with me and canvassed for him. He met Senators and told them why he loves Obama. Then he decided to listen to Mr. Obama at a rally. We waited four hours in 10 degree weather outside. Then two hours sweating inside packed like sardines. We had to be in the front row, ready. When Barack finally came out we yelled, "WE love you." He answered, "I love you back." My son even interjected how tall he is and things like that throughout the speech, fairly appropriately. When he was done it was time to shake hands. As he approached my son Ii couldn't believe my eyes. Misha literally jumped over the barrier and threw himself into Mr. Obama's arms, (I have the pictures to prove it.) Barack gladly scooped my tiny son up in his arms an dhugged him smiling ear to ear.I was at least five people away from the chaos. I pretended not to notice. As he came to shake our hand he took my hand in both of his and assured me, "yoour son is adorable." Only later night when talking to my husband did it occur to us, "how did he know in that crowd that he was my son.? We weren't next to each other. My son is adopted. It wasn't genetic it was connection. My son and I are connected. Barck Obama knew it and respected it.

I am proud of Misha. he knew a great man when he saw it. He is willing to go to any lengths to be part of his America. When Barack asked him, "You must be a politician, what office are you running for? Misha's response was, I'm running for you Barack." Wow. He went without birthdays for four years. Now I make him awesome goody bags. Let me tell you thouh his hugging the next President of the United States was not only poignant but it was the best goody bag of all.

Veterans to the Phones

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:28:35 EST

I was thinking today about the people I have met on this campaign, what a gift. Today I thouht of the meaningful conversation over Dunkin Doughnuts boxed coffee I had with Tony Lake. Mr. Lake is an esteemed foreign policy expert and has held offices in several administrations dating back to the foreign service under John F. Kennedy. He was also the National Security advisor for President Bill Clinton. Our conversation was brief yet intimate. It came after Mr. Lake had finished telling the group that he had not had this much excitment over a candidate since John F. Kennedy. He explained that Barack Obama had something even more. A sense of personal strength and compassion that exuded from him. I thought about his story of joining the foreign service after hearing Kennedy speak. I felt like doing that. There was a problem; I was not a twenty-two year old male college graduate, but a forty-four year old wife with four children and two three dusty graduate degrees. Hmm.

I took a risk and told him about my father, a Lietenant Colenal in the United States AIr Force being shot down in Laos. I told him about what it had done to our family, the entire Viet Nam experience and that I, like the author of the Atlantic Monthy article, "Why Obama Matters," felt it was critical we move beyond that era once and for good. Remembering our mistakes but putting them to rest. His answer was to campaign with that in mind. To tell voters my story. That is what I have been doing ever since. I like to think my miniscule efforts are part of this greater whole. Tonight I ask all veterans to call Texas and Ohio voters in the phone bank with your stories, whatever they are. There is a reason you support Barack Obama and a reason you are in the military or a military family. That reason matters. It is your time to tell a voter who has not caste their ballot. They will listen to you. I have been amazed that my tired old story nd my little girl pain all wrapped up in a forty four year old person still matters when people are trying to decide. Texas is the big battle ahead. Let your voice be heard.

To the Texas Faith Community

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:05:00 EST

Back several years I was a Chaplain at a small Episcopal School in Connecticut. I had the opportunity and honor of going to a National Convention of Episcopal Schools. For people who are not aware Episcopal Schools today are attended by more non-episcopal children than episcopal. The context of faith in education is what parents and students desire. I was overwhelmingly impressed with these school's mission to educate not only the best and brightest in traditional terms, but to see the enormous gifts of children frequently marginalized in their primary school years by learning or physical disabilities. I was impressed by their willingness to allocate resources on the very people the community of faith is meant to succor. That is why I have faith in the Texas faith community. (That's redundant!) This election is not about politics. It is about belief in a candidate that honors each and everyone of us regardless of our differences. Please tell others in your community why you believe so deeply that Barack Obama is the candidate you believe in.

Urban Agenda: Obama Has Given Details

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:31:00 EST

Today is the day to write editorials that are informed by the record. T0day I laughed out loud reading an ignorant editorial in The New York Times entitled, "In Search of A Real Urban Policy" I want to ask the author if he has had his head buried in the sand. If there is an area of expertise and detailed agenda coming from Barack Obama it is in the area of addressing urban poverty. If there is a constituency who knows this, it is the urban middle class.

I live in New Haven Ct. and this is a critical issue for the Obama supporters here. It is also why he is so heavily supported. He has given a detailed agenda for urban centers to combat poverty, education, transportation, literacy, childcare, and family concerns. His plan is also comprehensive in that it would demand federal subsidies but more importantly personal responsibility and organizing. This is where his inspiration has already proven effective in urban centers. If people can't get to jobs, educational facilities, day cares and job training, all the federal help will be blowing in the wind. He is already able to motivate churches, community centers and civic leaders to come together to form van pools for voting. A web of ever expanding community involvement makes this happen. An expanded system of community activism is what is needed to make federal funding worthwhile. Because of his work in the South Side of Chicago he has the experience to know we are dealing with people, not just budgets. In fact this month's Ebony Magazine, which the New York Times writer clearly missed, details much of his work with combating single parenting and motivating absent fathers to grow up and take part in their children's lives.

This is not all rhetoric. Evidence based studies have shown that the services in Promised Neighborhoods that Obama has advocated, are the most effective at preventing recidivism in juvenile offenders and drug addicts. These are community based wrap around services for families. Providing transportation to counseling. Prvoviding transportaion to jobs and job training.Utilizing existing services at higher levels. Communication concerning employment possibilities. While he asks for funding of Community Development, his EXPERIENCE IN THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO informs him that additional infastructure must be in place so that people can avail themselves of these services.

This is leadership. Evaluating the existing resources in the urban centers so they are not redundant. Finding the means to utilize and inform the public of these already available resources. Increasing funding to these structures so they jobs are enhanced not duplicated.Icreasing funding so that social workers, tutors, clinics, daycares and preschools are excellent not barely adequate. Our urban centers can be not merely restored but be made to function more efficientle and effectively than ever by listening to a leader who has done the footwork himself. This is exactly when Obama's unique experience can be an assett no other leader can claim to have.

Kosovo and the Serbs, Obama is Well Informed

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:58:51 EST

Having just recently re-read Samnatha Power's work "A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide," and having met Ms. Power at a gathering of Yale Law students for Obama, I am finding it necessary to call people's attention to what happened during the Clinton administration, when the worst Serbian atrocities were being comitted.

Elie Weisel spoke out to a packed crowd (pg. 298) in The Dean Achenson Auditorium at the State Department. He begged policy makers to see the comparison between the Holocaust and what was happening in Bosnia. As Powers writes for page after page, the Clinton administration did not take action. In fact on page 362 this Pulitzer Prize work states that despite hearing Elie Weisel, despite knowing of the camps, the rapes and the autocities, "Clinton's support for the plan proved shallow and Christopher's statesmanship non-existent. According to journalist Elizabeth Drew, Hillary Clinton gave her husband a copy of Robert Kaplan's 'Balkan Ghosts', a deftly written travel book that portrays people in The Balkans as destined to hate and kill." The following page outlines how it was Senator Bob Dole that took to the editorial pages of major newspapers to critisize Clinton It was Dole that outlined the American interests at stake that Clinton did not grasp. Clinton was, bent on balancing the budget. At the same time Muslims abroad were using our indifference to the Bosnian Muslim's suffering, as a recruiting device.(pg. 303). Dole wrote that the Serbs must have an ultimatum set. "The Serbs must adhere to the latest cease-fire accord, permit the free passage of all humanitarian convoys, place its heavy weapons under UN control, and disband its parimilitary forces. If they failed to meet demands, air strikes should begin and the arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims should be lifted so that the Muslims themselves could protect the vulnerable safe area. DOLE WAS IGNORED RIGHT ALONG WITH the State Department's in-house hawks.(pg.304)."

Samantha Powers is fair in her assessment. She goes on to outline why Clinton's team, including Colin Powell did not want to intervene, but in the end it was the polls. "The Clinton administration kept one eye on the ground in Bosnia and one eye fixed on the polls."

This lack of commitment went on while Serbs were indeed set on a policy of ethnic cleansing. Marshall Harris, was a Bosnian desk officer and continued to write policy and send it to President Clintoon. It would be discussed but not seriously entertained. "Harris was tired of the hypocrisy of Clinton's rhetoric. The administration refused to lead either the American people or its European allies and the complained the policy was constarined by a lack of support from both.(pg.313).

During all this the United Nations was invoking the genocide convention and created the first international crminal tribunal since Nuremberg. "But in the Bosnaian War .what was missing was US willingness to risk its own soldiers on the ground and to convince the Europeans to suppport NATO." Remember people, if anything went wrong, Bill Clinton may not have been re-elected. He needed to wait to stop Slobadan Milosivic after the elections. In fact European negotiator Lord David Owens, begged the Muslims not to wait for an American rescue. It wasn't going to happen. Clinton did finally act but only after the Rwandan tragedy was coming to a close with 800,000 dead.

I write this summary of the harrowing work by Power, knowing that I don't do it well. I simply am enraged when people say that we are not giving Clinton his due. Barack Obama has hired Power as a foreign policy advisor and Power stated in a meeting I attended that Senator Obama is the greatest foreign policy mind she had ever met. She would have done anything for him. Well, now she is advising him. This is why I know he is well aware of how we waited to long to intervene in a war that made sense. When people critisize Barack Obama for not giving Clinton his due, maybe that's because he knows better.

Sergio Vieira de Mello: A New Book by Obama Foreign Policy Advisor, Samantha Power

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:31:57 EST

I wasn't too happy with Francis Fukuyama's assessment in the New York Times Literary Supplement, of Samantha Power's newest work on the Sergio Vieira de Mello entitled "Chasing the Flame." That, I suppose is because I have never been so impressed by a journalist's courage and dedication to the cause of diplomacy and the protection of victims of war through her work. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on "A Problem from Hell.."but anyone who has traced the violent places she was covering and the victims she briended often shortly before they were killed, may not be suprised that she admires the late de Mello. He devoted his life to United Nations Peacekeeping worrk. He died in Baghdad trying to find an alternative, or supplement to the "work" of the United States at bringing democracy to Iraq. L. Paul Bremer's team treated him with distant disdain when he came to Baghdad. His death was a tragedy, and turns the stomach.

What I didn't like about the book review were words like,"It wasn't entirely convincing," or, "in the end the book does not make a persuasive case that the United Nations will ever be able to .." blah blah. Having met Samntha Power, having read on the edge of my seat her work, I can't believe it is not a persuasive case, but I am running out to by the book in a few minutes. What annoys me is that I was certain that the tone of the article was preachy, and I thought, this will be it. This will be the time the Times mentions, finally that this Harvard, Yale powerhouse of courage and intellect is Barack Obama's (one of) foreign policy advisor. I was right. This campaign has made me so clever. I n the midle of a paragraph on the United Nations stretching itself too thin, having a weak bureacracy Francis mentions the Obama connection.

The review was not negative, it just wasn't phenomenal. I will report back very soon.

"Volunteers Are Urged To Avoid Talking About Policy?" Not True

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:42:59 EST

As an active volunteer on this campaign for Obama, I have never once been urged NOT to talk about policy. In The New York Times this morning, Feb. 17, I read in an article called, "Examining the Charisma Mandate," just this. In fact, when I went to New Hampshire to volunteer young very intellectual volunteers in the Keene phone bank identified exactly to whom I could pass the phone if a person on the line had a specific question about a particular policy area. Why would the Times want to make Obama volunteers look like a cult. On a very subtle, okay not so subtle, level there seems to be a desire to look for the impetus behind the movement in all the wrong places. Just when I think they have it right they publish wacky ideas like this to discredit a group of often extremely intellectual volunteers eager to see policy change. Most are happy Obama is great to listen to and pleasant to look at, but those are fringe benefits that have nothing to do with the candidate himself.

I have been urged, and urged others to read his record in the Illinois Senate. I have read his book "The Audacity of Hope," which makes clear his impetus for many of the overarching themes that lie behind his candidacy. There have also been volunteers that directed me how to use the pull downs on the internet to get a picture of what his specific policies would look like if elected. I was a extremely befuddled by the quote of Doris Kearns and believe it must have been taken out of context. I won't write it because it adds to the erroneous assumptions already swirling.I admire Doris Kearns, but to associate that quote, with Senator Obama is ignorant. I cannot believe she is reading it and thinking, "that is exactly what I meant." Obama doesn't want you to believe him o be a talisman. Right, "I'll look into my icon of barrack and pray to the Obama vehicle."

This is about getting off the couch and not just coming together to scream and shout, but to get together to implement change. Many of us, like myself, have several graduate degrees. I have a degree in Public Administration that may come in handy when traveling through the municipal maze to set up Promise Neighborhoods. Teachers and admisinistrators, counselors and politicians are ready to begin restructuring after school programs so that our children will be safe when we are at work and educated when they are at school. It is frustrating when people sit in their study and make pronouncements that are so misinformed. That's life.

Slow Voter Returns in New York City Reveal Narrower Margin

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:45:01 EST

This will be a short blog. I just read that New York City had certain areas that had reported zero votes for Senator Obama. Gee, that must have sent up a red flare, a news flash, a red flag. I'm a little suprised also that New Mexico chose to reveal its final tally after the momentum of Senator Obama had taken on a life of its own. Let's all take a deep breath. Or at least I will, as I remember it will take time for all of America to realize the winds of change are blowing. Some people aren't ready to put on their windbreakers. Oh well.

The Irony of Paul Krugman's Op-Ed: A Crisis of Faith

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:17:55 EST

A contagion has spread across markets. People who bought AAA rated sub-prime mortgages are losing their homes. He asks the question, "Why has a crisis that began with loans to a limited group of homebuyers ended up disrupting so much of the financial system?" His answer is, "It's a crisis of faith." Well said Paul. So wouldn't it follow that a manager type president with attention to detail might not be able to solve this problem? Might it not even, just maybe, make the crisis worse? I'm just asking.

The reason I was first attracted to Barack Obama was his personal transparency.This translates into his desire tort ransparency in the markets, in the government, in politicians personal lives and financial disclosures. This seems to be what everyone is after. Right? Well, when one reads either "Dreams of My Father," or "The Audacity of Hope," it is refreshing. Admissions of personality flaws, as well as strengths fill the pages. Wouldn't it have been nice if lenders had treated their investors that way. Say, it doesn't really look like you will make the payments for this motgage based on your income when the interest rate climbs, do you think you want to look at a house without that third bathroom.?" I do think many may have changed their minds. Or, "prices have been really going up for some time in this neighborhood, they may have peaked. Will you be okay with staying in this house for at least ten years?"

Okay, where is the irony? So many pundits and analysts have said that Barack needs to get specific with his plans for this and that. Two points: he is very specific on his website. I know while all Americans don't have access to the internet the pundits do. All you have to do is google Barack Obama and click onto his site. He has policies outlined for everything from the Iraq war to pverty, infrastructure to healthcare. There are detailed blogs which discuss these policies. Really people. Second point:What people need now is faith in a leader. Faith not that they will be perfect, faith that they will tell us easy and difficult truths as they arise. Obama admits he has made mistakes. He will outline the mistakes and how he plans to remedy them. He had his crisis of faith and we can read about it. People are done with a sixties revolution, they want to live their lives. I want to live my little life with a modicum of security. I don't want to wonder if my blog is wiretapped because I can be a little passionate.I want to believe the heparin my sister need isn't tainted because no one was inspecting the Chinese medical plat in which it was made. What a hassle. Maybe I'm a little paranoid, I know. I want to have faith.

Krugman goes on to say that loss of trust is a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Now that new investors won't buy auction-rate securities because they no longer believe they're as good as cash, those securities become a much worse investment." You nailed it Paul. It doesn't really help the political faith meter when I am reminded in The New York Times of the B-52 bomber that, oops, transported six nuclear tipped missiles for 1,400 miles unnoticed for 36 hours. My reaction is yeah right. I don't believe we didn't know. I just believe e got caught. Period. But that's me. Are we idiots? Are we corrupt? Or are we corrupt idiots? Hmm.

So back to Krugman's faith. We need faith. Faith in each other to heal the country. We need faith in a new kind of leader. We need faith that we can enter into a new era of bi-partisan legislation. We need faith that we have a leader that is free ffrom entanglements of the partisan divide that swept our country during the Gingrich years. I have faith that this is possible. If this cynic has faith in a recovering financial market under a new administration maybe you will too. A newly rstored faith may be just the self-fulfilling prophesy we need to enter a new era.

"Arrested Development" :Today's Politics

Hunter Sloan Smith — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:40:44 EST

Barack Obama writes, eloquently as usual, about the politics of arrested development that began during the rise of Newt Gingrich right wing fanatics. He is so well read as both a Constitutional Lawyer and an historian that he can read the "strands in the historical narrative.(pg. 36 Audacity of Hope).

When confronting the political stalemates we have created in government between the left and the right, democrat and republican, it seems absurdly clear, that without adressing this stalement in the next administration, all of Congress will reach a petrified state, rivaled only by a Manhattan gridlock at rush hour during the Christmas season. Really. We pass no bills. We get nothing accomplished. The executive takes over and the Pentagon continues to spend the future away on our own weapons of mass destruction. Bummer.

Obama ponders the work of George Kennan , George Marshall and Bobby Kennedy. He is right. It is possible for people to work all their lives and lose everything. My parents, both Professors, one of political science the other American History, (with the best universities and brains on their side,mind you) lost a diligently acquired pension fund due to the Enron scandal. Yes. Let's not forget that fiasco. Those executives should be in Guantanamo, if you ask me, probably good that noone asked me.It is in fact possible that Obama will become President and all hell will still break lose in Iraq. The situation is indeed untenable. He is not God. The point is that instead of this ,"endless psychodrama of the babyboom generation-a tale roted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago-played out on the national stage'(pg.36 Audacity of Hope), needs to stop. We need to pass legislation. We need to remember that the admission of women and minorities into full citizenship was a good thing. Now as Americans let us be an example of liberty in motion. We do share common beliefs.

While I may be pro-choice and someone else is pro-life, both have to do with the shared belief that life is sacred. When we sit down and explain, and listen, maybe pro-life people could come to understand the implications of their political stance. If you simply eliminate legal abortion, you are not pro-life. What happens to the fourteen year old destitute mother with an eigth grade education?How will she raise a well functioning family? Who cares about her baby's life? I do. We need to listen to one another. We need to share with open hearts and minds. This is what THE AUDACITY OF HOPE is about. Our comon goals and dreams as Americans. The possibility that sound legislation can be passed if the House and Senate will attempt to compromise so that something gets done. The fierce urgency of now is upon us. Another Barck Obama in this generation is unlikely.

TEXAS......You do everything big, now WIN BIG

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:16:52 EST

WHen I think of Texas I think of huge hats, tall beautiful people, HUGE buildings, ENORMOUS highways. If you WIN HUGE and by an ENORMOUS margin, it will be BEAUTIFUL!

Akron, the Home of Change

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:07:16 EST

Dear Akron, You know that as Ohioans, the rest of the country is watching. Isn't it great to be needed? I had to join this group when I saw Akron. You are the city of change. Millions of people all over the world changed because of the conversation between Bill W. and Doctor Bob back in 1935. Alcoholics and drug addicts finally had a chance to live because someone was willing to share and someone else was willing to listen. That is what this campaign is about. One of you committed supporters goes out and searches for an undecided voter. Speak from your heart about why you are supporting Senator Obama. What are the policies you have researched on the website that really resonate with you? Learn about them. What is the solution? Outline the solution for the undecided. Because of your passion they will listen. In listening they may join you. If they join you , you are stronger. If they don't, they lose the chance to be part of a massive change taking place NOW. If they don't want to "recover from the metaphorical disease of partisanship," don't worry. Just keep sharing. At some point ,they may have suffered enough, just like the active alcoholic. You will have new friends. You will learn a new way way of life. May an awesome God that loves us all bless you and everyone on the planet. START SHARING THE MESSAGE AKRON. YOU"VE DONE IT BEFORE!

Dear Ohio, we need you...

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:54:15 EST

I am from Connecticut. Nobody thought Barack Obama could win here. ANd we did win. But we won because we canvassed. We won because we went into different neighborhoods and reached beyond our limits. We made new friends. I have friends from this campaign that mean so much to me because we share the same vision of what America could be, what America will be and we were willing to give up Saturdays working for it. In return we had a blast and we also realized we really are making history. I know that when Obama wins I played my part. PLEASE PLAY YOUR PART> GIVE IT YOUR ALL< Go to the rallies even if you have to wait a few hours in line, phone bank, it's not hard....Don't make any exscuses or you'll kick yourself later....WE LOVE YOU> GO FOR IT!

Ohio and Texas: We Need YOU!

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:47:24 EST

I am from Connecticut. no one thought we could win and yet we did. I know we gave it a real grass roots EFFORT. That meant asking for help when we needed it, sometimes from the outside. Do you need any advice? I know one thing you may be asking; where are all the yard signs? Our answer was they are online but difficult to order HOWEVEr...if you want a professional yardsign look at CafePress on line they deliver in a few days, and they have some cool products...lots of buttons. There are democrat on line purchasing sites as well. Use your resources. There is also a can of acrylic paint and a bedsheet. Very eefective. Kids love this one: take an empty cereal box and glue two enlarged pictures of Obama on either side. Turn it upside down and put two metal plant stakes in it...SPonge Bob? No your own Obama yard sign. Clever or what? More than anything the campaign headquarters want us all to tell people face to face or on the phone..everyone...why are you voting for Senator Obama. Think about it, then tell them from your heart. WE NEED YOU OHIO AND TEXAS!!!!

A Question to All Urban Obama Supporters

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:26:55 EST

I am wondering if any of you are from Harlem's Promis Neighborhoods? I live in New Haven CT and I am interested in getting information on how to proceed in setting up a model in New Haven. Our Mayor, John DeStefano is a strong supporter of Senator Obama and has also done an enormous amount at combatting urban decay, poor schools's and the like. Clearly there is more we can do. As a student at Yale Divinity School I spent several afternoons with Juvenile offenders in the Whaley Ave detention center. Many of these children were just that; kids. They were kids that should not be locked up. In fact, I read one boy's journal which said, "I dream of going to jail when I get to college." I thought "My God." Yale is only a thousand yards away. It might as well be a thousand miles.

Urban Poor Disagree with Affluent on the Merits of Homework

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:26:22 EST

I was on my way home and listening to NPR's All Things Considered, when a story about the pluses and minuses of homework in terms of student achievment, came on. I don't know if the story was intended to outrage or evoke laughter. It would take hours to unpack the complexity of the issues set forth on the table but I want to underline what I consider as the American dilemma concerning homework.

If you have a school in an urban area where principals and teachers are sensitive to the variety of pressures facing the diversity of their students things tend to work out. If principals and teachers are not aware of the demands on diverse American families in urban centers, many children of the poor or non-English speaking parents are at a grave disadvantage. I know life isn't fair, I'm just stating reality.

The radio program interviewed an urban teacher in a poor district of Baltimore. If you don't know Baltimore you need to watch the HBO series, "The Wire," to get a feel for the desperation facing this population. The teacher explained demanding hours of homework from children who are after school caretakers to siblings is setting them up for failure. Many older children have part time jobs to supplement their income, or simply have no adult who can help them with organizational skills or providing them with an appropriate setting to complete the assignment. Let's face it, many of them are being raised by a single parent and that parent is working during hours they would be completing assignments. They need to do their work at school and get rest when they can.

Let us juxtapose this student with a girl from the DC suburb of Chevy Chase. This is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the nation. Of course she thinks her excellent job at her assignments is an outward manifestation of her inward glowing character. Why shouldn't she, just look at her test scores. She is responsible and a good citizen. Is she attending English as a second language class with her parents?No. Ballet. Or Korean school so that when her graduate school father completes his schooling in the US he will not have fallen too far behind back home?. No , but she has a French tutor.Is she trying to adjust to life in America after making it here from Nigeria?No, but her SAT coach is foreign. Is her Mom smoking crack in the bedroom. (Actually she might be, I take that back). Obviously, if you come home from school, stop at Starbuck's for a Skim Latte with your college coach, greet the housekeeper, and go into your "office" to work at your "work station," before Mum comes home from the School board meeting and Pop comes home from the Ambassador's dinner, it may be more an environment more conducive to doing homework. She's a lovely girl, I don't begrudge her that.

Well, if I figured it out, and I'm no rocket scientist, I'm sure all the other listeners did too.

I write this story to remember why Obama's Promise Neighborhoods are such a great idea. We can work together to create comunities where we help one another. We do however, need to have a leader who feels this is a priority.

New Yok Times's Article says Even Pakistan Wants Change

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:09:59 EST

I was heartened by the Times article this morning that the NorthWestern fronteir provinces are finally learning that the Taliban is as corrupt as the governments before them. they are not educating children they are allowing them to be slaughtered. So much of this nightmare did not have to have taken place if we had listened to level headed policy makers like Obama. We needed to finish the job against the Taliban in Afghanistan when we had them cornered. We needed to eleimnate them and rebuild the Afghani infrastructure.

Obama Style Politics

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:55:55 EST

As Barack Obama takes has begun to command the public national stage I paused today to remember what attracted me to his political style in the first place. I opened his book,"The Audacity of Hope," and read the first paragraph in his chapter on politics. Barack held thirty-nine town hall meetings in his first year in the Senate. He hosted them in churches, community centers and college auditoriums. He fielded questions and concerns on the nuts and bolts issues in our communities and answered as he writes,"to the people that sent him to Washington. This is what has always impressed me about his style. It was formed out of necessity as a community oranizer and he found that it worked. It was a grass roots way of finding out what was on the minds of Americans. At a higher level I believe that is what he is doing now. This website offers him access immediately to what his supporters are concerned about. It also offers him access to the knowlege we have from the undecided voter. Not just about how to win, but about what our nation needs. He is a listener. He wants to know how to best serve the needs of the people.

I think back to new Hampshire when the lines to see him weren't quite so long and the crowds not quite as big. My young son has stood for four hours in 10 degrees to assure himself of a front row spot and a handshake. My son spent four years in a bitterly cold russian orphanage with an unrepaired cleft pallate. He had "failure to thrive," or basically he had shut down his pituitary gland and ceased to grow. He also refused to spreak and was mute for years. When he became my beloved child his life turned around and he began to grow. He also, after years of speech therapy, never stops talking. He is however, still very attuned to suffering and oppression. For years we realized that he was certain, despite his fair hair and blue eyes that he was black. We discovered this watching the Cuba Downing and Robert DeNiro movie about the first black navel diver. When DiNiro was holding Cuba's head under water my son went shreiking out of the room, "I don't want to be black anymore, why can't we all be normal.He sobbed uncontrollably for fifteen minutes. You see, after much discussion, I realized that his second grade social studies teacher had taught about the oppression of black people. He didn't see ANY black people around him. Who were they? as in the color black. People are shades of brown and peach he explained later. We live in an urban environment that is very racially diverse. he had come to believe because of his suffering that he was one of this mysterious group of people referred to as black. He didn't make the connection that it was a racial, one drop designation. His sister's then boyfriend was "black," he knew but his skin was light brown. Black was therefore something people felt inside. Hmmm. ANYWAY..BACK TO NEW HAMPSHIRE he wanted to ask Barack Obama about this and many other things. I worried he would be sad that Mr. Obama didn't answer questions in a rally. He did that day. My son asked a question right in the middle f the rally in Keene New Hampshire. Obama was talking about late nights and cold pizza and rhetorically asked the audience if they liked cold pizza, that was my once mute child's in. He launched in on the beauty of cold pizza if the time was right. Barack laughed. He wasn't angry at about the interuption. WHen the rally was over my son threw himself into his arms and told him he loved him. The secret service were non too pleased. I was five spots away in a crowd. Barack Obama found me and said with a smile, "Your son is adorable." He didn't say your son is rude, or dangerous or nearly made me fall over. No my son is adorable. How did he know?He is attuned to the people that put him in Washington.

The Star of Worthington Hooker Elementary School's Black History Month: Barack Obama

Hunter Sloan Smith — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:10:50 EST

My son came home yesterday from his school and was bubbling over with excitment. Misha, my son, is a young political junky and absolute Obama loyalist. He explained that the schoool had held their annual Town Meeting to celebrate Black History Month. This is a very special day at Worthington Hooker since we are an urban school in New Haven Ct with a racially integrated community that thrives. (For more info. on the school read other blogs on its magic). In any case, the third grade class members each select an historical figure of African American heritage that they want to study and research. The project culminates in dressing up and "becoming" that person and sharing, with the school assembly, about your life.

The ussual stream of great black figures came to the stage. One student was Rosa Parks; many cheers. One student was Harriet Tubman another Frederick Douglas, and of course many respectful and excited cheers of praise went out for the greatness that is and was Martin Luther King. What happened next was an historical moment; I am sure of it. A young white third grade boy portrayed Barack Obama. I asked, "did they cheer." He answered, "no." "What ?" I answered. He replied, "Mom, they didn't cheer, they screamed louder than you at the rally. They went crazy. No one could hear anything over the cheering and it went on for five minutes." I am not suprised. Children have an instinct for greatness that is not clouded by rationalization and fear. things may be bad but if they change they could get worse. So what. Maybe we will have to buy less for a year of two while the economy stabilizes. We will be proud again. Something we haven't felt in a long time. Once again, thank you children.

The Grace of Barack Obama in a Broken World

Hunter Sloan Smith — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:55:12 EST

Last night I felt compelled to reexamine my journey as a volunteer on this campaign. It was my fifteen year old daughter that called to my attention the new vitriolic nature of some of my blogs. I had to agree. Instead of doing my usual defensive laceration of the tongue I thought of all the reasons I had been drawn to Mr. Obama in the first place: hope, eloquence to articulate overarching themes confronting American life and their underlying origins, the call to all people to participate in transformation, and above all grace. When I say grace it was, I admit, a little bit of the preacher in him I was talking about. This has been maligned a little in the press; but honestly, I believe it has to do with grace.

I am a student of theology. I spent four years at Yale DIvinity school and have found no better definition for grace than,"a gift." It is this gift that is so apparent when listening to Barck Obama whether in a New Hampshire gymnasium or a stadium in Hartford, CT. There is a danger when we over intellectualize charisma. Webster's defines it as :(favor,grace), a special quality that inspires devotion and fascination. Hmmm. That would be it. A woman behind me in Keene New Hampshire, put her hands in the air in a symbol of adoration sand screamed, "he has the light." My daughter warned me, "Mom, don't you dare."

In Mr. Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope," he openly discusses his faith journey and why he was attracted to the black church. He had intellectual knowledge of all religions imparted by his mother, but a lack of substantive commitment to a community of faith. I am jealous of his color. Living in an urban center as a white woman devoted to justice issues it has been difficult to find a community of faith that is wrestling, really wrestling with the issues our community is facing. Many of the churches I have belonged to can only pay lip service to the poverty and despair that is only a mile away because it is not theirs. We are on "the right side of the tracks." A donation to the soup kitchen ussually of left over food, a token scholarship to a disadvantaged student we never mtruly embrace(write the check job done) ..the issues that call me are not adressed. It is not that that Church is not meeting the needs of some parishioners, it simply wasn't meeting mine. But, I felt more than a little awkward, being human, to enter the black church. I am blonde, blue eyed, fourty four and from the exterior look like a L.L. Bean catalogue aging model. ( On a good day).

There have been times that I have had explatives hurled at me in deteriorating urban centers because of my color or bearing. It has made me cry.

This campaign has changed the relationship of the black church in New Haven, at least for now, for the passionate Christians displaced by the white religious right. I know too much about the Hebrew Scripture to suspend rationality and become a fundamentalist. God asked me to lose my selfish life, not my mind. I have spent days working with black Church leaders in their Churches because of Barack Obama. A pin on my lapel and a bumper sticker was all I needed. I was making sandwiches and hauling water while black leaders mapped out the agenda. This is how it should be. I was graciously thanked. Handsome well dressed black intellectuals as well as plumbers and electricians embraced me for my grunt work. They seemed amazed at the "devotion," I have, so many have, for Barack Obama. This is grace working in our lives side by side with intellect. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Mr. Obama shares on pg. 207 of "The Audacity of Hope," out of necessity the black church never had the luxury of seperating individual salvation from collective salvation. It had to serve as the center of the community's political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and pricipalities." This is the crux of the devotion to Senator Obama. How long can a wealthy country go on in a state of denial with a fundamentalist religious right clamouring for more blood in the quest for oil. There comes a time when you read the paper and then drive through the ghetto and nothing makes sense. I am so proud, so invigorated in my white, middle aged woman way, in the progress the black churches have made in this campaign. I have been welcomed into communities of faith with grace and love. I believe that this interracial harmony can be the beginning of something powerful in America.

When our communities of faith are opened to one another with grace in the full knowlege of our sinfulness, we can work together to overcome selfishness, greed, racism, hunger etc Inner cities need churches, Mosques, temples etc to be safe havens for the homeless. Now the doors are locked tight when the worship service is over. If we work together we can have alternate after school programs much like a traveling soup kitchen that exists already. When we get to know each others faith journey's and realize we are all worshipping the same awesome God, we can come together and continue to dream greater dreams for our communities and the world.

"Since when was failure, unredeemed by subsequent success, a qualification for the top job?"

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:32:34 EST

This quote from Clive Cook in yesterday'a Financial Times, has had me thinking. No one I asked, not even Freshmen at Yale University, who were undecided before Connecticut's primary, knew that Hillary Clinton was not responsible for a Health Care bill that passed in the House in Senate. One Yale woman who came to a small dinner I had in honor of our candidate actually believed that Hillary had indeed made inroads toward universal health care. Well, as Cook wrote, her bill was a policy trainwreck. Political apathy has worked for Hillary. I believe that as voters listen as never before, because it is impossible not to turn and listen to his voice, the truth has begun to win. If we are patient I believe we are ready to read, to get involved and not only make Obama our Nation's leader, but also get committed to understanding what is happening in politics. We will volunteer. The best and the brightest will want to emmulate Obama and commit to helping turn inner cities around through personal involvement and jobs in the public sector. We believe.

Should We Pity the New York Times?.....Read the Financial Times

Hunter Sloan Smith — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:52:45 EST

Yesterday, while making my Obama crazed rounds of yesterdays newspapers at the Yale Barnes and Noble near my home, I was giddy. "The Financial Times," a world business publication had a presidential picture of Senator Obama with the headline, "Triple Triumph, One small step for Obama." Inside the editorial page Clive Crook wrote,"Why Democrats Must Choose Obama." he warns Democrats in his conclusion, "They have waited an awfully long time fo a politician like Mr. Obama. If having come so close, they still manage to nominate Mrs. Clinton, I think it is a decision they will regret for years and maybe decades." THIS IS THE FINANCIAL TIMES PEOPLE!!!

Now I am preaching to the choir. I am a mother working at home with an Masters in Public Administration and an MDiv from Yale University. I am relieved that a paper reaching the rich and powerful may sway even Republicans if we get the nomination, but why is the New York Times so reticent to admit oops, we made a mistake backing Clinton. Let's admit it and move on. Maybe a "dreary and simultaneously angry," candidate is not what the American people are looking for. The Fnancial Times went on to say,. "MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS A ONCE-In-A Generation POSSIBILITY. Says it all. We cannot afford to make this mistake. And each and every one of us that knows this fact has a responsibility to our childrenand the future to share this fact with anyone and everyone in Texas and Ohio.

We can't pity Hillary, she had a shot at Health Care and failed. As Crook so aptly noted when speaking of the political train wreck that was her shot at overhauling health care, "since when was failure, unredeemed by subsequent success a qulification of the top job?" Hmmm...

It Isn't the Military that is Wrong Directed But the Politicians

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:19:07 EST

Barack Obama has said he no longer wanted to particpate in a politics of fear. It is this politics of fear that is driving the soon to come trials of the six Guantanamo detainees, who are most certainly terrorists. Should we, (the USA) call for a secret executions on Cuban soil for international terrorists. Col. Lawrence Morris installed to head a commission in Guantanamo six years ago to prosecute terrorists arrested around the world, is not to blame. His chain of command should not ask him to submit to such an outrageous posting. They were arrested from around the wrold, they operated around the world, why in the world would the USA feel they were the only nation that should participate in their prosecution? The Wall Street Journal,(NOT JUST ME!!!) feels he Col. J. Morris may be being asked to act now in order to "rescue a central part of the President's legacy." (2/11/08).

I'm a little confused. Does he really want a legacy of acting outside of international courts for international crimes? What kind of legacy is he trying to leave? Maybe he fears that Barack Obama is so close to being the next President of the United States that he needs something that will really differentiate him from Obama. This should do it George.

The US Should Not Be Holding A Nuremberg Trial in Guantanamo

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:15:19 EST

It would be a perilous mistake for terrorists being held at Guantanamo to be executed by the US government. One; execution is barbaric, two; we are internationally walking a fine line ourselves of committed war crimes. The old, "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" saying. Maybe? I am in no way being anti-US, in fact I believe I am deeply patriotic. I believe however, moving too quickly in a secretive trial that is calling for execution is not only medieval, but will lower our reputation world wide when the it is already curbside. I fear also that it is a political move. Lives are in balance, whatever value people do or do not give to those lives, and a strong conservative move like this would be for the Bush Administration's claim on histiry. "Poor George. Stop and think. Your instincts aren't always wrong." George knew the CIA was right about Sadam Hussein. George knew there was no Al Queada connection to Sadam. George invaded Iraq anyway. Poor George.

Whoever is telling George that executing them will make him look tough is either lacking in humanity or has something to hide. These terrorists aren't from Iraq. Will a public trial underline that to people who are confused about the geography of the Midle East? Is there something bigger to hide? I know I can be a little paranoid but I would like a little jail time to find out the Pakistan connection. How about if we take the time to establish firmly and publically who ordered the sick and gratuitous beheading of Daniel Pearl. I don't think Marianne Pearl wants an eye for an eye, why do we. The execution is about silencing them. We don't want the Pakistan connection exposed. We don't want to remind everyone the Trade Centers and Iraq were unrelated, especially when the "surge is working." Working? Working to what. Restore electricity?To get us back to where we started when we screwd up and invaded the wrong country? Build all the buildings we blew up? Locate the National treasures that were pilfered as well as tons and tons of ammunition that went unguarded after we fired loosley connected "Bathist Symympathizers." (That's another name for people who had the nerve to want to feed their families when we had such limited access to oil we needed for Hummer Limosines)? There are a lot of executives, Sports figures and Heiresses that were suffering as a result of nasty Bathist professors, teachers, museum currators and miltary men went to work every day symapmpathizing. What were they thinking? Working every day? Tring to have normal lives when George Bush has limited access to oil.

I am being facetious. I am not understimating the evil of Saddam Hussein. But this Nuremberg at Guantanamo is sure going to remind us that the war is completely unrelated. "Off with their heads?" The American public might also remember Barack Obama did not want the war to begin with.

International Criminal Courts Should Participate in Trying Six Terrorists Arrested

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:07:42 EST

If there is ever a time when the United States must look to other countries for guidance it is in the case that will be tried against the six plotters arrested in connection with the 9/11 attacks. Today as this arrest at Guantanamo was made public, a red flag went off, at least for me, hopefully for the Pentagon: we must proceed with wisdom. How we handle these men, where we try them, what the court is like, how information is gathered????All these questions are an opportunity to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the international criminal courts.

If there was ever a time for the International Criminal Courts to implore they not be tried and convicted in Guantonomo it is now. I fear they will be sentenced to death. Maybe some think that is the right thing to do, I cannot agree, nor do I believe the international criminal courts would agree. It is barbaric, nor will it help to unravel the tangled internation cells of terrorism we know to exist. One only need look at Ramzi Binalshihb:he was a Yemenese citizen operating in a cell out of Hamburg Germany. Couldn't these countries benefit from either refusing to harbor terrorists in the future in the case of Yemen and begin to methodically with intelligence continue to unveil cells in Europe and elsewhere abroad. To execute them can certainly only be to send them to the martyrdom they so crave.It will also cast an even darker cloud of suspicion on Guantanamo.

Six Terrorists Arrested; Funny That None Are From Iraq

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:47:30 EST

I know the story has been beaten to death; we shouldn't have gone into Iraq if there was no connection to Al-Queda. We will not tolerate nations that habor terrorists. Has anyone seen the movie, "Idiocracy." It lays it all out on the table, or at least one explanation why people voted for the Iraq War. They were too embarrassed to say they didn't know their Yemens from their Amens. Actually I think some thought Ramzi Binalshihb's country of origin was the Yiddish pronunciation of "Amen." Maybe.

So as much as I honor John McCain as a war hero and Hillary Clinton as an intelligent attorney, their votes for invading Iraq tell me one thing; McCain should write an historical memoir if hasn't already, and Senator Clinton should be happy with the "blessed life" she described on 60 Minutes.That leads me to another point......and on and on I go....................

The Grammy Award For "The Audacity of Hope" is Symbolic of Popular Support

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:18:08 EST

It seems to me that Senator Obama's Grammy Award was symblic of so much more than his ability to recod his beautiful book in cadences that are engaging to the listener. We all know that Grammy's and Academy Awards reflect the mood of a nation. Okay maybe they reflect the mood of the democrats more than rebuplicans but we are still in the primaries.

By giving Barack the Grammy over Bill Clinton, a clear message was sent. Back when Bill Clinton played his saxaphone on late night television it was endearing. It was however, an effort to make up for blowing at the Democratic Convention. He droned on and on and for once in his political life couldn't read the mood of the audience. Breaking out the sax made him cool. But then all sorts of other lovely things occrurred, not the least of which was the Republican take over of the House and Senate. Now, I am perfectly aware that Bill is not running against Hillary. It is hard to separate the two however, because when it was to their political advantage we got, in Bill's words two for the price of one. Is it really feasible that we mentally seperate them today for their political sake. I don't think so....I know this is about Barack Obama, but what the people want matters. I am siding this time with the awards.

Reshaping the Pentagon and Restoring the Balance of Power

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:34:24 EST

We desperately need a Commander and Chief who will be able to diplomatically and respectfully communicate with the leaders in the Pentagon. The fiasco that took place prior to the invasion of Iraq seems to be, possibly, a definining moment in military history. The story is out. The CIA knew where Osama bin Laden was. He was the main architect of the 9/11 tragedy. He managed to hit the Pentagon itself. The oly plane that didn't hit its designated target,(to my limited knowlweg) was flight 93 over Pennslvania. Dick Cheney tried to take crdeit for that but it was in fact American civilian heroes that kept that plane from hitting the White House.

The insight, the prescient ability to discern facts under pressure of an American voting base invested in military spending, of Senator Barck Obama is remarkable. He was willing to be disliked and ostracized by those around him for not wanting to attack Iraq. But let's think about it. If Bob puches my brother, shouldn't I tried to do something about Bob? Why would I beat up Jimmy instead. Because he looks a little like Bob? Because others think it will scare Bob if I show Jimmy and his friends how tough I am? We really have to sind Bob. I think Bob may need some of the psychiatric help that Britney is getting, albeit for different symptoms. Bob, aka, Osama has amassed a fortune and can certainly make the copay.

Robert S. McNamara Isolates the Fear Factor

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:56:48 EST

Reading how MsNamara, during WWII, was hired from Harvard University Business School, to use a statistical analysis to isolate the causes of the abort rate in the Eighth Air force unit under General Curtis LeMay is breathtaking. There are times we manage, in the civilian world, to sanitize war. Reading this passage helped me digest the fact that military people, at their core, are human. The main reason for the aborts, which is wll analyzed in "House of War," by James Carroll, (pg.29), was fear. That was it. The statistics made it clear. I will write more about it later but I wanted to get it out there. If, even in WWII, when the enemy was slightly more well known, pilots going to their death are afraid. Now put a lot of teenagers in a war zone they don't understand and their nation doesn't understand, how do they reconcile their fear with their confusion?

This is why we need a Commander and Chief willing to negotiate and engage in diplomacy before assaulting civilain populations and putting other nations in survival mode. People are willing to fight to the death when their children and their society is at stake. People are afraid and confused when their life is at stake but their are other options besides dying. Iraquis often have no other options. Americans do. It is not human to put our troops into a dmeonized population the fighters know at their core are not all evil. The children and civilians are not evil and we are killing them anyway. We went into Iraq even though we all know the source of evil were in Afghanistan. Hmm. More later. Barack Obama for Comander and Chief.

House of War to House of Diplomacy

Hunter Sloan Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:28:40 EST

Last night I was reading "House of War," by James Carroll which won the National Book Award. It reads like one of those page turning spy novels you cannot put down.I was literally chilled when I was transported back to the building of the Pentagon, originally to be a temporary structure, and onto the battlefields of World War II. There is so much to talk about I pray that more people will engage in conversation to add personal accounts of what I see as the major obstacles to successful diplomacy and the cessation of military blunders in the future.

James Carroll descibes the militarization of American society in the nascent nuclear age. He writes, "-the Pentagon was at the center of an implicit and more profound militarization of American society. Economic, political. martial, academic,scientific, technological and cultural forcescombined at the Pentagon...to create the new phenomenon that was well established by the time Eisenhower warned of it at the end of his presidency.(pg.29)" He goes on to explain how higher education;Harvard, MIT and many other higher educational establishments were so enriched by the Pentagon that, (here I'm reading between the lines), that it was impossible from WWII on to untangle the allegiance to military contracts. This was happening at the business level, the employment level and with the trickle down of the recipients of the economic boom the political and personal level. We were a war society. The horror is that we were financially benefitting from a war machine that took on a life of its own. Politicians up for re-election knew where their bread was buttered, or should I say, know where there bread is buttered. The new nuclear age, Carroll goes on to describe created a social fission as well as nuclear fission.."one could say the radioactive core of this unprecedented energy, what justified it, sanctioned it, mythologized it, even sanctified it, was the atomic bomb...." Our society had undergone an exitential shift.

I wrote recently of the announcement of Robert Gates that the military will have to sustantively change if we are going to have success in the new wars breaking out throughout the world. This type of World War II model of unconditional surrender or we will vaporize you, simply is ineefective. At the core of even top Pentagon life there is humanity. I believe General Petraeus knows this shift is taking place. Our nation will have to come on board. The days of "you win, I lose are over."

I am hopeful that a Commander and Chief of the extraordinary intelligence and diplomatic skills will be able to call forth the equally extraordinary intellect of Petreus and find a method of transforming The House of War into a House of Diplomacy. Commander and Chief Obama will be repected as he moves forward in the coming years to find solutions to Kenya, Chechnya, and of course the Middle East. I believe when we begin to send home our soldiers and give them rest, the best and the brightest should be enrolled in these academic institutions to begin accumulating the linguistic, cultural and diplomatic skills that are critical in reshaping the world. Peace through superior firepower is no longer a viable solution.

Gosh Now the Campaign Managers are Quitting the Oppossing Team

Hunter Sloan Smith — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:38:27 EST

I just read that Clinton's campaign manager S. Solis stepped down after Obama swept the Saturday races. I guess I would too. I know it must be difficult when your competition has people like us; unpaid, unknown citiziens that just want Barack Obama to win because he would be great for the nation. There is nothing else to be gained but our nation healed. How can you campaign in the cynical style when we don't want anything but decency, transparency and our country restored. This was not inspirational writing but I am waiting to hear about Maine and came across that little tidbit.