Organizing for America | David Ball's Blog: My comments leading the national prayer call today

My comments leading the national prayer call today

By David in Charleston - Nov 16th, 2007 at 10:47 pm EST

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Why I pray for Barack Good morning to everyone of faith supporting Senator Obama for President. When Paul Monteiro asked that I participate this morning I did some soul searching about why I feel compelled to toil to make Barack our next President. I am not a religious man and I haven’t always bothered to vote never mind have a house party, go door to door, or donate three times as I have so far for Senator Obama. Sometimes it was because the candidates seemed the same. Often it was because my vote seemed insignificant. I’m kind of lazy. I guess I figured my responsibility as a citizen would get picked up by someone else. Today I feel differently. I don’t know if it’s because of hanging chads in Florida, the stark differences between candidates, or our daily preoccupation with security and foreign affairs. For all these reasons America needs a change. My introduction to the Senator was when I heard him speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. At the time a strange and wonderful emotion swept over me. I was too young to remember hearing Rev. Martin Luther King speak but I immediately made the connection and savored every word. I don’t remember Bobby Kennedy but I felt a youthful, optimistic groundswell when Barack spoke. While browsing an airport bookstore I ran across Dreams of My Father. What a remarkable book! To share your past mistakes and hopes for the future so beautifully was a real gift. I returned home to send a copy to my mother. It was also then that I sent a check and called Chicago to urge the Senator to run for President. Like countless thousands I believe I found him and convinced him to run. I’ve traveled to hear him speak three times. Each time I swear he is speaking directly to me. He speaks to me about foreign policy. A policy that does not encourage preemptive war and that allows world leaders to talk, without preconditions. As an Air Force officer who served last year in Iraq I witnessed the suffering and futility that the Administration carefully hides from the American people. He speaks to me about healthcare reform. As a Registered Nurse I know that for all we spend on healthcare we should be the healthiest nation on the planet- and we are not. As the wealthiest nation we can afford to insure all our children- but we do not. He speaks to me of faith. Not as a pulpit bully but as a family man and genuine human being who sees the welfare of others as a sacred duty. As a Jew I believe we are our brother’s keeper. I wonder how our nation might be transformed if we replaced a Texas oil tycoon with a Chicago’s South Side community organizer. Let us pray. (Hebrew prayer here) Let me close by paraphrasing Rabbi Hillel who said - If not me, who? If not now, when?

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