Obama Mama!

I have been working on Barack Obama's campaign during the last few months. I turned 18 the year they let 18 year-olds vote and I am proud to say that I haven't missed an election - local or national. Voting is our right, our privilege, and it is exciting.

The experience has been good, and at times challenging. Lots of smart, young, and enthusiastic supporters have been working on the campaign, in the NYC campaign office and on the streets (this is a grassroots movement!), and I feel good about the future. I feel that someone is finally "getting it."

Throughout his campaign, Barack Obama has said, "I see one America!" I believe that's what he sees and wants us to see and be - one America. That's the kind of American I want to live in.

I fear that a lot of people don't. Yes, I feel good about the future, but I worry about the present, and sometimes, I curse our past.

While distributing Obama literature, ("Lit" is the lingo), an older, not yet elderly Black woman said, "I don't think Black people are smart enough to be president." I've heard similar statements from Black people, and from shock, shame, and sheer bafflement, I didn't respond. Yesterday, my tongue caught up with my guts and I responded, "Maybe it's the people YOU know." A man who owns a newsstand that I frequent - or, I should say used to frequent - remarked that he would die before he went to a Black doctor, and he sure wasn't going to vote for a Black man to be president. At a dinner party last summer, a woman who thinks highly of her opinion voiced her belief that this country isn't ready for a Black man or a White woman to be president. I asked her if she voted, and my assumption was correct when she said, "No!" I felt comfortable in telling her that her opinion didn't matter. (I liked her even less - and I didn't think that was possible.) A friend cannot seem to understand that it isn't just Black people who are supporting Obama. American people from all walks of life are supporting Obama. Some people don't get "it" and probably never will. Poor them.

I am supporting Obama.

I have always been an idealist, and for better or worse, for once, I can support a political candidate who I believe thinks like me and can include all people in his vision. Of course, I don't know anyone who thinks exactly the way I do. I don't want anyone to think exactly the way I do. I am an anarchist at heart, even though I know it isn't practical.

There is "something" about Barack Obama. Toni Morrison so eloquently put it: "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom."

To all the naysayers who say (and think) that this country isn't ready for a Black man or a White Woman, or a Black woman for that matter, I say, "This country is ready for the RIGHT person to lead it!"

I urge everyone to vote. People are dying in other parts of the world for the right to vote. People have died in this country for the right to vote. You have the right. You have the privilege. VOTE!!!

(And if you live in my Congressional District, please look for my name under the list of delegates for Barack Obama. Yep! That's me. If I am elected, I intend to take the train from New York City to Denver, CO, where the Democratic Convention will be held. I will keep a blog of my American Journey - and tell you all about my adventures at the convention.)