It's a little scary to commit to a presidential candidate early - akin to meeting your husband in your first year of high school and promising yourself you'll never wonder how life might have been different if you'd chosen another path. Despite this, I committed to Barack Obama as my next presidential candidate when, one day in 2005, while breezing through the Chicago airport, I saw a big display of his first book and decided to buy it to keep from being bored at night in my hotel room.
"We have big hopes for Barack," said the clerk at the airport bookstore. It was then I vaguely remembered Obama was a senator for Illinois.
"Think he's our guy for 2008?"
"Well, that's too soon, but one day." This "gee-I-wish-but-it's-too-much-to-hope-for" attitude ignited my imagination. Why too soon? After reading the book, I was hooked and convinced. It wasn't only not too soon, it was imperative we get this man in the White House.
Which is why I've supported him since then, and will continue to. But there is one area in which I am waiting and watching - immigration.
Polls show that something like 70% of Americans are "against illegal immigration," whatever all those words really mean. Yet one of Senator Obama's charms is that he speaks from his heart, not from his pollsters'. As the son of an immigrant, and as a citizen of the world as well as America, I believe he is the person to lead us to a more global and compassionate view of immigration in general and the "illegal" immigrants in our midst in particular.
There are creative solutions, and I'd like to hear him doing more to champion them.
How about microloans to individuals (not governments!) in Guatemala and Mexico to start businesses that will keep them happy and secure at home? How about more education? How about employment centers? Not all popular ideas, surely, but the right ones.
Senator Obama and your young and energetic staff, let's hear more about how we not only help ourselves but help others in the process, particularly on immigration.
Keep up the good fight.
Maria E. AndreuThe Immigration Blog - Illegal Immigrants Speakhttp://mariaeandreu.typepad.com/illegal_immigrants_speak/
Comments are closed for this post.
