Headed Home

We've been in Las Vegas for the past 5 days, celebrating my 40th. We've had a great time, despite Amber's new found addiction to Roulette! See you on the East Coast.

39

Ambition: Go to Uva or Brown, major in political science, and make America safe for Liberalism, or become a Navy pilot and own a Porsche 911 convertible.

That's what I wrote for my senior yearbook in high school, way back in 1986. Tomorrow I turn 40, and I've been feeling a bit melancholy and down, but reading that makes me feel a lot better. I actually did what I set out to do. I didn't become a Navy pilot, obviously (too tall), but I did go to Uva, majored in International Relations/Religion, and I think this past November I've achieved my dream. Not too shabby!

A lot has happened to me since 1986. Some major ups, some major downs, but I think I'm actually at peace with myself and where I am in life. A major reason for that is the incredible support I've had from my parents, who've been by my side through everything, and the love and support of my wife Amber for the past 7 years.

When I met Amber, I was coming off of on of the most dismal periods of my life. I was a life threatening accident the summer of 1999, got divorced in 2000 and lost my job in early 2001. The summer of '01, everything started to change – I was hired by NEA, and I met a woman who believed in me and has helped reach my true potential. I don't have the words to show how much she's meant to me, but anyone's who's met her knows what I'm talking about. She really is my rock.

So, here I am, my last day as a 30-something. I've got great friends, a wonderful family, and the best wife anyone could hope for. Here's to 40 more!

Nod yo head

Yeah, I'm still here

About to turn 40 - have much to write about that later.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Hug your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you.

Inauguration Ball 2009‏

The following was sent to me by my father - a friend sent it to him, but it was originally published at Daily Kos: on Oct. 29th. I wish I could write this well.

Inauguration Ball 2009
by Kenyada
Wed Oct 29, 2008 at 02:58:06 PM PST
I don't know, maybe it was one too many re-runs of The Twilight Zone; maybe it was one too many posts at 538. All I know is that one night I found myself in a huge ballroom, somewhere in the middle of Washington, D.C.

Guests began arriving early. There are no place cards and no name tags. Everyone knows everyone else here. Now, there's a grand foursome Malcolm and Betty Shabazz sharing laughs with Martin and Coretta Scott King. Looks like Hosea Williams refused the limo again, keeping it real. And my goodness; is that Rosa Parks out there on the dance floor with A. Phillip Randolph?

Seated at a nearby table, Frederick Douglass has a captive audience in W.E.B. DuBose and Fannie Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers has just joined them. Marian Anderson was asked to sing tonight, but she only agreed to do it if accompanied by Marvin Gaye, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Look, there's Harriet Tubman. No one knows how she arrived, but there she is. And my guess is that, when the time comes, no one will see her leave. There's Jackie Robinson swiftly making his way through the hall as the crowd parts like the Red Sea to the unmistakable sound of applause. "Run, Jackie, run!" Along the way he is embraced by Jessie Owens. Three beautiful young women arrive with their escorts - Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney. Ms. Viola Liuzzo flew in from Michigan, exclaiming, "I could not miss this."

Richard Pryor promised to be on his best behavior. "But I can't make any guarantees for Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley," he chuckled. Joe Louis just faked a quick jab to the chin of Jack Johnson, who smiled broadly while slipping it. We saw Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole greet Luther Vandross. James Brown and Josh Gibson stopped at Walter Payton's table to say hello.

I spotted Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem having a lively political discussion with Eldredge Cleaver. Pearl Harbor WW II hero Dorey Miller shared a few thoughts with Crispus Attucks, a hero of the Revolutionary War. And there is Madam C.J. Walker talking with Marcus Garvey about exporting goods to Africa. General Benjamin O. Davis flew into Washington safely with an escort from the 99th Fighter Squadron - better known as The Tuskegee Airman.

At the table on the left are three formidable women - Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, and Barbara Jordan - gathered for a little girl-talk... about world politics.

As usual, all the science nerds seem to have gathered off in a corner, talking shop. There's Granville T. Woods and Lewis Latimer needling each other about whose inventions are better. Someone jokingly asked Benjamin Banneker if he had needed directions to Washington. And George Washington Carver was overheard asking, "What, no peanuts?"

Dualing bands? Anytime Duke Ellington and Count Basie get together, you know the place will be jumping. Tonight is special, of course, so we have Miles, Dizzy, and Satchmo sitting in on trumpet, with Coltrane, Cannonball, and Bird on sax. Everyone's attention is directed to the dance floor where Bill "Bojangles" Robinson is tap dancing. Right beside him is Sammy Davis Jr., doing his Bojangles routine. And behind his back, Gregory Hines is imitating them both. Applause and laughter abound!

The Hollywood contingent has just arrived from the Coast. Led by filmmaker Oscar Micheau, Paul Robeson, Canada Lee, and Hattie McDaniel, they find their way to their tables. Dorothy Dandridge, looking exquisite in gold lamé, is seen signaling to her husband, Harold Nicholas, who is standing on the floor with brother Fayard watching Gregory Hines dance. "Hold me back," quips Harold, "before I show that youngster how it's done." Much laughter! Then a sudden hush comes over the room.

The guests of honor have arrived.

The President and Mrs. Obama looked out across the enormous ballroom at all the historic faces. Very many smiles, precious few dry eyes. Someone shouted out, "You did it! You did it!" And Obama replied, "No sir, you did it; you all - each and every one of you - did it. Your guidance and encouragement; your hard work and perseverance..." Obama paused, perhaps holding back a tear.

"I look at your faces - your beautiful faces - and I am reminded that The White House was built by faces that looked just like yours. On October 3, 1792, the cornerstone of the White House was laid, and the foundations and main residence of The White House were built mostly by both enslaved and free African Americans and paid Europeans. In fact, most of the other construction work was performed by immigrants, many of whom had not yet become citizens. Much of the brick and plaster work was performed by Irish and Italian immigrants. The sandstone walls were built by Scottish immigrants. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that The White House is, ultimately, The People's House, with each President serving as its steward.

Since 1792 The People have trimmed its hedges, mowed its lawn, stood guard at the gate, cooked meals in the kitchen, and scrubbed its toilet bowls. But 216 years later, The People are taking it back!

"Today, Michelle and I usher in a new era. But while we and our family look toward the future with so much hope, we know that we must also acknowledge fully this milestone in our journey. We want to thank each and every one of you for all you have done to make this day possible. I stand here before you, humbled and in awe of your accomplishments and sacrifice, and I will dedicate my Presidency, in your honor, to the principles of peace, liberty and freedom.


If it ever appears that I'm forgetting that, I know I can count on you to remind me." Then he pointed to me near the stage... "Kenyada, isn't it time for you to wake up for work? Isn't it time for all of us to wake up and get to work?"

Suddenly I awake and sit up in bed with a knowing smile. My wife stirs and sleepily asks if I'm OK. "I've never been better," I replied, "Never better. It's gonna be a good day."

These are additions from the comment section of Daily Kos- all great in their way.

Alice Walker and Maya Angelou were greeting sisters like Shirley Chisholm and Marian Anderson. "There are so many strong women like you," one of them murmured. "You've kept the light on for so many others."

Ray Charles smiled his million-dollar smile over the keyboard.

I can see them too. White tux, black tux, glittering beaded dresses, rich gold brocade-Jackie Kennedy style. I can also smell rich French perfume mixed with pomade as each of them pass by, finally able to come in through the front door instead of making a quick dash through the kitchen or the back service entrance. Some tip, others stride-all not believing that they are the guests invited to stay and dance instead of the entertainment or a quick photo op.
"We can stay? All night and have dinner and dance? But one look at Obama says it all-they can stay and laugh and drink and talk and feel they belong-truly belong in the crowd.
Some unexpected guests show-Ron Brown, while disappointed its not Hillary, joins the political crowd to have a long chat. He's still gratified that because of his work with Clinton, Obama will have some experienced people to work with in Government. Malcolm X tiptoes in just to get a look at the Lincoln Bedroom and to look over the shoulders of Keith Ellison. He's proud, despite his skepticism, that a fellow convert has made it in Congress. He's also proud that despite all the efforts, Jordan was still crossed in a sense.
Then I too wake up.

Reverend James Cleveland humming to himself.
I don't feel no ways tired
I've come too far from where I started from.
Nobody told me that the road would be easy,
I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me.
Can you hear? Can you hear?
Two voices, not dueling, but joined in harmony. There's Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward singing.
How I got over,
How I got over, my Lord
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord
just listen

Don't miss the opportunity to shake hands with Thurgood Marshall - he's over there in the corner, quietly contemplating every move Frederick Douglass makes. ;)

Justice Marshall will be in the book version, along with some other glaring omissions, Admittedly, I wrote this out too quickly on a yellow legal pad (I write faster than I type) The words flooded through the pen to paper damp with tears. I know there are names that belong in this piece, and I hope that those now heavenly bodies will attribute the slight to my head and not my heart. (Kenyada)

A stirring performance from Nina Simone.

Langston and Zora setting pen to paper no doubt.

You missed the two lean, tuxedoed gentlemen who strode in, bathed in the light of hundreds of chandeliers, and more. John and Robert Kennedy made their way through the applauding room to the new President's table, each kissing the back of Michelle's hand, then clasping Barack Obama's hands, and bowing slightly, as the beaming new president humbly returns their gesture.
As the brothers slip off into the celebrating crowd, a tall shadow falls across the head table, and Barack turns to receive the large hand proferred by a man with thinning hair and a deceptively gentle Texas accent. "America has always been a place of new beginnings. Once again, we begin anew with you, Mr. President.", drawls Lyndon Johnson , who then steps aside to introduce a silver haired gentleman. "May I introduce Senator Albert Gore ." who adds "My son speaks highly of you in his prayers. Politics means nothing unless you arrive with your conscience intact."
In one corner, we see a cluster of Black faces, all in neatly presented uniforms - of every historic American epoch. Union Army blues; jaunty Army Air Corpsmen with their caps cocked to one side; a young man still in Viet Nam combat fatigues, wearing a helmet with a can of gun oil secured by a strap, just under the magic markered words "What's Going On?"; young men in desert camo. Ice cubes tinkle in their glasses as cigars are smoked, when they are suddenly stopped in mid-sentence by the approach of the grim black face of a man in ragged knee breeches. One of the group exclaims "Father!" and across the centuries they snap to a salute for the quiet man whose name tag reads Crispus Attucks .
A sweet voice with a ragged edge suddenly belts out. "I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go!" sings Levi Stubbs , as Barack and Michelle walk hand in hand to the dance floor. They pause to shake hands with a natty, bespectacled old gent in a linen suit. "Enjoy your night, son. There's a ton of shit headed your way at a mile a minute!" says Harry S Truman , adding "May I introduce my boss?"
Harry steps aside to reveal an elegant elderly woman directing an antiquated wheelchair. A beaming Franklin D Roosevelt parks his cigarette holder and holds out his hand "Delighted, sir! Absolutely delighted!" Barack excuses himself from Michelle, and dances slowly and gently with Eleanor Roosevelt , and their quiet conversation continues. Meanwhile, a melifluous baritone asks Michelle "Madame, would you do me the honor?", and Michelle glides off to the dance floor with Paul Robeson .
When he wasn't dancing or holding court with women of varying ages, Ben Franklin commented that he had not seen such a diverse crowd "since my funeral, and I am certainly enjoying this occasion much more!" He then fell into conversation with Matthew Henson after paying their respects at President Obama's table.
Meanwhile, Malia and Sasha Obama are in the next room at the children's celebration, laughing and playing with their new friends: three little girls , dressed in their starched Sunday best, just as they were when they went off to Sunday school at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, so many long years ago.
The night glitters on, and for an evening, wounds are healed, tatters are sewn, optimism is unbridled. Like Cinderella eyeing the clock, the revelers know the harsh realities that will still be with us in the morning.
But tonight, our better angels dance.

We Did This One Right

Watching President-Elect Obama's press conference right now. Folks, we did this one right. Dude just oozes self confidence, gravitas and is just plain cool. I think we'll be okay.

WE DID IT!

I'm still numb about what America just did and I still can't believe it. We did it!! It wasn't about Obama - it was about us - each and everyone one of us who volunteered, blogged, donated, and most of all voted. We showed what the power of positive can do for the world. He's got a tough job ahead, but together, we can make sure he succeeds. Yes We Can!!!

FUCK YEAH!!!!

We did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just voted

I woke up early this morning, before my alarm went off. Amber asked why I was up so early, I said "Honey, it's like Christmas"! Walked to my polling place and the line snaked around the building - longer than I've ever seen it there. People took it in stride and had a good time talking and laughing. Brothers were giving each other "The Nod". I was in line for about an hour and a half, but the line seemed to move quickly. When I got in the booth, my hands were trembling - I couldn't believe that we've finally reached Election Day. Of course, I voted Obama/Biden, Warner, Moran, and then walked home.

We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For

This is it folks. Polls open in 12 hours - the long journey is coming to an end. Or is that a new beginning?


I admit, I never, ever thought we'd be at this moment in my lifetime - the USA this close to electing a black man as President. I'm only 39 years old, so I have no idea the surprise and anxiety people my parents age or older are feeling.


The year I was born, it was illegal for someone like me to marry someone like my wife. The year I was born, MLK and RFK were murdered, gunned down in cold blood. My father took part in sit-ins, my grandfather had to get a sponsor so that he could attend grad school at UVa. And here we are.


The feeling I have is a mix of euphoria and fear. The feeling you get just before getting married, or graduating, or Christmas. For the first time in a long, long time I don't have the words to describe my feelings.

I'll try my best not to jinx this, but I have the utmost belief that we'll prevail tomorrow and that our nation will once again be seen as symbol of what's right in the world, not what's wrong. If I'm right, my future children will grow up in a world in which they'll never NOT think that they can't become President. That, to me, is the most powerful thing about what we're witnessing. For all of my intellect and optimism, I never grew up thinking that one day I could be President. A congressman, a judge, an astronaut, sure. But President? They'd never let that happen, would they?


We'll see.

When will we know?

Tuesday night? Wednesday morning? One complication caused by early voting is that the exit polls Tuesday will sample only 60-70% of the electorate and it may well be a biased sample given the fact that so many Democrats have voted early so Tuesday voters may be disproportionately Republicans.

Don't Believe The Hype

Today, Rasmussen has a poll showing McCain only down 4% in PA (Obama 51 McCain 47). Bullshit. The Rasmussen internal shows McCain getting 20% of the black vote. I guarantee that 20% of us are not voting for McCain. Utter bullshit.

4 Days

5 Days

I haven't written very much on here lately, I've been doing most of my election writing over on Facebook, but I'm working on a piece I'll post in a few days about this race. In the meantime, VOTE! This election is about you and your family. You're not voting for Obama, you're voting for yourselves.

One More Week

Woman's "Health"

Asshole:

What, he's black?

Yikes!

Something doesn't add up...

I keep hearing McCain brag how he's gone against his own party, worked with the other party, etc., etc. He then attacks Obama for not disagreeing with his party. But if McCain is going against his party, that means he's working with the Democrats, right? So he's attacking Obama for working with the same people he's working with?

Keating Economics

Bluegrass for a Blue Virginia!

Talking about the Sixties

Truth to Power

Citizen Josh

Owned

The Great Schlep

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

This is how a President reacts

Thank John McCain

Hmm.

Why is it okay to spend trillions of taxpayers dollars to bail out failing companies but not okay to spend the money on universal health care? Just wondering.

Straight Talk My Ass

Maverick? Um, nope.

Obama's response

Stay Positive

How do we fight back? Watch and learn:

Cautious, but not worried.

After watching Gov. Palin's speech last night, I went to bed wondering "WTF? That woman's someone to be reckoned with". But this morning, in reflection, I'm not too worried. It's obvious that the Republicans plan on running the same race today that they ran in 2000 and 2004, i.e., play on people's fears. That got them the 50% plus 1 the last 2 times, but remember, that was against 2 very lackluster Democratic nominees in Gore and Kerry, 2 nominees that did nothing to excite the Democratic base, much less enlarge it. 2008 is a whole different story. Between the huge amounts of enthuism that exist among the Democratic rank and file about our candidate, and the incredible numbers of new votes we're getting (especially minorities and younger voters, 2 groups who have not really shown up in numbers before), we're more than ready to take on the Rove machine. You can try to scare folks all you want, but we know it's about more than fear this time. It's about doing what's right. It's about caring for your neighbor, for those less fortunate than you. It's about embracing our differences, about this being a nation that respects the Constitution, it's about turning this economy around, and about going after those that really attacked us, not some straw man. To quote our last good President, it's about the economy, stupid.

So go on, keep being ugly and divisive. Keep throwing those punches. We can bob, we can weave. And when all of your attacks have been thrown, and we're still standing, not even breaking a sweat, it's your time to be afraid. Because that's when we'll land our knock out punch. Don't believe me? Ask the others who doubted our candidate, who doubted what we've been able to achieve. We hear you, we see your threat, but your time has come and gone. We are not afraid of you anymore.

Um, say what?

1st, we were told that Gov. Palin decided to keep her baby after finding out the child had Down's Syndrome. Now we're being told that Gov. Palin's daughter has decided to keep the baby she's carrying and marry the father - "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents".

I thought if you were Pro-Life, it wasn't a choice, so how could you make a decision that doesn't exist?

Scranton

45 Years Ago Today

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation."

It's official

I never thought I'd see this day. Incredible. I've got tears flowing down my face. And Hillary has been a class act in Denver!

I Wish Gramps Was Around

I was talking with someone the other day about what this presidential race means to me, and got to talking about how my family has always been involved with education, and mentioned my grandfather, who was a teacher, a principal and a superintendent (back in the day, if you were a college educated black man/woman, your options were pretty much limited to either to become a teacher, a funeral director or sometimes a doctor). So, I just Googled my grandfather, Booker Reaves, to see if there was any information on him out there (he passed away in 1995). I found the following 2 interviews he did with the University of Virginia (I actually knew about these and had CDs made about 5 years ago for Mom, her brother and sister and my grandmother). Very cool to see that they're still online, especially nice to still be able to hear his voice after so many years. I just wish he had lived long enough to see Obama.





Interview of Booker and Donna Reaves by Mr. Ashlin Smith and Ms. Jean Hiatt on September 8, 1994.
Booker Reaves, who was raised in the Ridge Street neighborhood, was a pioneering black educator in Charlottesville and was the principal of the Jefferson School before and during integration in the 1950s. His wife, Donna Reaves, also worked at the Jefferson School (and later at Albemarle High School) and together they raised four children on 755 Ridge Street. The Reaves discuss schooling before and after integration, social and commercial life in and around Ridge Street, and their experiences as black educators and community members in a racially divided society. The interview covers topics including the development of the Ridge Street neighborhood, recollections from the Jefferson School, Howard University and the University of Virginia, and details about businesses and commerce in Vinegar Hill.




and



Interview of Booker Reaves on November 7, 1980.

A native of Charlottesville, Booker Reaves went through the Jefferson School, on to Hampton Institute and Howard University, and then back to Charlottesville to teach at Jefferson School in 1939, becoming Assistant Principal in 1947. From 1951 through 1955 Reaves earned an advanced degree from the School of Education at the University of Virginia, the first black to graduate from the University's graduate school. Reaves describes Charlottesville's school system and the NAACP's legal battle to integrate schools in Charlottesville as well as the Massive Resistance movement against integration. Reaves tells two "myths" behind the Vinegar Hill name, and names several black neighborhoods in the Vinegar Hill area, also in cases providing the name's origin. He lists some black businesses, churches, social organizations, fraternities and sororities prominent in Vinegar Hill. Reaves comments on the apparent harmony among Vinegar Hill residents despite differences in wealth and home owning versus renting status. He concludes that "the segregated days were not all bad days" in terms of community cohesion, and that the Vinegar Hill project was a good thing black people in terms of standards of living.

Thoughts on 2nite

Wow - America is seeing a black family like mine. That is, a normal, American family that's black. Not different, just black. Parents who struggled to send their kids to school. College graduates. Professionals. Cute kids. We're America too!

I'm 39, soon to be 40. And I have to admit, I never, ever thought I'd live to see this. I'm an optimist, but I just never thought I'd see it. I'm too choked up to write now, that'll come later. But I'm am so, so proud!!

The Obama Family

Rocks!! Those girls are too cute!

Let's Count!

Can we talk, Ben Stiller?

The Missing Episode

The Time For Game Playing Is Over

And Another

Counter punch

Let's try this again

A few years ago, I wrote a little blurb about trying to find an old friend here, and it worked! So today, I'm going to try again. Anyone reading this know how I can contact my 9th grade World Studies teacher, Walter Bailey? He taught at Rippon Middle School, Gar-Field High School and Hylton High School.

Thanks!

What's Wrong With My People?

Have you heard about this? In Dallas, a city commissioner got upset when a colleague referred central collections (for traffic tickets) as a "black hole". He said it was a racist term. Excuse me?



You've got to see it to believe it:

Perfect Match

I went to see Batman yesterday, and one of the previews shown was for "The Watchmen". It was an awesome trailer - it didn't tell you anything about the movie, but the matching of The Smashing Pumpkins "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" with the footage from the movie was perfect. Never before have I seen music match the mood of what's on the screen as vividly as with this. Take a look:

Who you gonna listen to?

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes," - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He's Just Not Even Trying Anymore

Seriously, McCain is not only running for the 3rd term of Bush, he's using his speeches:

Happy 4th!

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Complete 180

Gotta admit, seeing Obama and Clinton on the stage together, they looked like a pretty formidable tandem.

Obama/Clark 08?

I just got back from the Caribou Coffee between The Washington Post and my office building) @15th and M. Coming out of the ladies room was Caroline Kennedy. Sitting outside was Eric Holder - they're heading up Obama's VP search. I saw him coming out of the former Swedish Embassy across the street from Caribou. About 2 hours earlier, headed to lunch, I saw Gen. Wesley Clark leaving that building. Could this mean we'll see an Obama/Clark ticket?

Hmm

Yesterday, leaving the grocery store, the garage attendant wanted to know if he could ask me a question. I said sure. "Would you allow your daughter to live with her boyfriend?" he asked. I replied, is she 18 or older? He said she was, so I told him I see no problem with it - she's an adult and you can't allow or disallow an adult to do anything. He looked a little upset with my answer and asked me if I based it on religion, culture or spirituality. I told him all of the above. He waved me on and that was that. Strange, eh?

Father's Day

Thanks Dad. You're the best!

Straight Talk

In Case You Forgot

Hot!!

Can't blog - too hot! How did we survive as a species without A/C?

Any woman, or just Clinton

Much has been written this election cycle about feminism, sexism, etc. as they relate to Senator Clinton's historic run for the Democratic nomination - and a lot of women are very upset that Mrs. Clinton didn't win, as if she was the last great hope for a woman to become President. I just want to remind everyone that we Dems have several female governors (Ruth Ann Minner,Jennifer Granholm, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, Kathleen Blanco, Christine Gregoire), not to mention Nancy Pelosi and other female members of Congress who are more than capable of becoming President. Those that say they won't vote for Obama because of perceived sexism, and that he must pick Clinton as his VP, what about the women I just named? Would any of them do?

Wow, I'm kind of speechless.

Well, it’s happened and I can’t believe it. Barrack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. A brother is going to be “The Man”. I’m 39 years old, I never thought I’d see it. Well, the optimist in me, the one who married a 1st generation Irish woman, who’s going to name his future son Liam, and whose children will have American, Canadian and Irish passports believed it would happen. The realist in me, the one who’s great-grandparents where slaves (my grandfather was pretty old when my dad was born), the one who had friends tell him the only reason he got into the University of Virginia was because he’s black, the one who received some pretty hostile stares while travelling across Nebraska and Wyoming just 2 weeks ago with his white wife, that guy didn’t believe it. And yet, here we are. We’ll get back into the dirty, nitty-gritty part of the race soon enough, but for now, I just want to savor it.

Historic

I've got a lot to say about Obama being our nominee, of which I'll write about later. I do want to say that sometimes everything lines up just right. Obama will give his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention on August 28, 2008 -- 45 years to the day after the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. Unbelievable.

Yes We Can!!!

Random Thought

I hear that Hillary Clinton is open to being Obama's Vice-President. That's nice - I'm open to being the starting goalie for Arsenal.

Podemos Con Obama

A Long, Strange Trip

Just arrived in Thermopolis, Wyoming after driving for over 5 hours from Keystone, SD. Had to go over the Big Horn Mountains, through a pretty serious snow storm. Good times.

Headed to Little Amber's Farm

The Road to SD

A quick word on our video log

Hey gang. You'll notice that our video log of our trip isn't in chronological order. It's because I'm just too tired to upload them in the order they were shot. I'll try to rearrange them later.

Dinner In Morrill

We at the Rustic Tavern in Morrill, NE the other night. Mmm, mmm, good.

Huh?

So we have free wi-fi, but no phone signal in this town. Weird.

Mt. Rushmore

On the road to Nebraska

Denver, Thursday Night

Just got back from having dinner with our friends Amy and Erin. Afterwards, they took us to my first Country/Western Bar, Charlie's. Oh yeah, it's a gay CW bar. Good times. Amber had the DJ play Rhinestone Cowboy!

Vacation Vlog (video log), Pt. 1

Disgusting

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Hillary Clinton yesterday. So, only whites are hardworking Americans? And when questioned by a reporter on this Clinton rejected any idea that her emphasis on white voters could be interpreted as racially divisive. "These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that."

Got that? And do you see why I, as a black American cannot vote for her if she somehow steals the nomination?

Update

Turns out it was my wife's card that was she used. I expect some major apologizing!!

Net Fraud

Someone has gotten a hold of our debit card # and is purchasing an insane amount of 'net porn. My wife of course thought I was responsible, until I pointed out that I was with her on a plane all day yesterday, so there's no way I did it (plus, what idiot uses a joint account for that?). She's on the phone with the bank now.

In other news, we had a nice evening with our friends Nick and Kara yesterday. Went to an awesome place for dinner, Lola and then went to a wine bar for a nightcap.

Vacation, Day 1

After a nice, uneventful flight, we arrived in Denver a few hours ago. Picked up our rental car (a Buick Enclave), drove to our hotel (Hotel Curtis), then walked around a bit to find some lunch. Had a great burger at Appaloosa Grill, now about to nap and then meet Kara and Nick for dinner.

How many of me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 148 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Vacation!

Well, not quite yet. We leave at 6:00 am Wednesday morning for Denver. We'll be there until Friday, when we drive north to Morrill, Nebraska for Little Amber's HS graduation, then on to Mt. Rushmore on Sunday. Monday we drive to Thermopolis, WY (Dinosaur Capitol of the World!), then on to Jackson Hole on Tuesday. We'll take tons of pix, I swear and will also try and figure out our video camera and do some vlogging (video blogging).

Deep

The Split

Obama came out strongly today against Rev. Wright's comments at the National Press Club:

In Winston-Salem, Obama sharply attacks Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the substance of his remarks yesterday, a far sharper disavowal than he gave in Philadelphia last month.

The core of his message: That Wright was not only offensive, but the polar opposite of Obama's own views and politics.

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," he said.

Obama also distanced himself from the man in a way he has been reluctant to in the past.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs," he said.

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for," he said.

Good Job, McCain

In response to the North Carolina GOP running ugly, negative ads about Obama and Rev. Wright, John McCain wrote the following letter:

Dear Chairman Daves,
From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.

This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve. There is no doubt that we will draw sharp contrasts with the Democrats on fundamental issues critical to the future course of our country. But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.

Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.

John McCain

Can you imagine what a real, dirt free campaign we'll get once Clinton to realize the inevitable?

Pyrrhic victory

A Pyrrhic victory is one that comes with with devastating cost to the victor. And that's what Clinton had in Pennsylvania. She has squandered a 20 point lead and any goodwill left in party. Even the NY Times, which endorsed her, is calling for her to step down:

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

By staying on the attack and not engaging Mr. Obama on the substance of issues like terrorism, the economy and how to organize an orderly exit from Iraq, Mrs. Clinton does more than just turn off voters who don’t like negative campaigning. She undercuts the rationale for her candidacy that led this page and others to support her: that she is more qualified, right now, to be president than Mr. Obama.

It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind with they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs.

Prediction

I don't know why, but I've got a funny feeling about today's Pennsylvania primary. I'm probably wrong, but I think Obama's going to pull a Truman and win this thing - by 2-3 points.

OBAMA JAY Z MASH UP

God, that was awful

Things not talked about during tonight's debate:

The financial crisis
The collapse of housing values in the US and around the world
Afghanistan
Health care
Torture
The declining value of the US Dollar
Education
Trade
Pakistan
Energy
Immigration
The decline of American manufacturing
The Supreme Court
The burgeoning world food crisis.
Global warming
China
The attacks on organized labor and the working class
Terrorism and al Qaeda
Civil liberties and constraints on government surveillance

April Fool's - The Aftermath

Apparently, I'm much better at April Fool's than I thought. I'm still amazed at homw many people actually believed I would leave the States for Ireland because of the election. As if Amber would ever leave her little sister. People at work started lining up for my office, and I received numerous e-mails from friends and family, some quite touching. My favorite, however, was the following timeline from my good friend Matt.

Morning:

- Stay at home with child while wife goes to dentist

- Arrive at work 20 min before big meeting

- Read Charlie’s email

- Reply to Charlie’s email with condolences

- Forward email to wife wondering WTF



Afternoon:

- Leave meeting, very hungry

- See reply from Charlie stating “Thanks for the email, check the calendar”

- Grab lunch with boss and tell him about crazy day

- Boss mentions that it is April Fool’s and Wiechmann might be getting taken

- Reply to Charlie’s message with a smart email with smiley

- Try to save some face by playing along and emailing others

- Bigler replies that Charlie’s email was a joke

- AJ replies that Charlie’s email was a joke

- Wiechmann feels sad

- Wife replies that Charlie is crazy, but when can we visit him?

- Wiechmann feels a bit better J



Stupid April Fool’s Day!

Someone Please Make Her Stop

This is just getting embarrassing now:

Moving On

Hey folks,

After a lot of thought and anguish, Amber and I have decided to sell our place and move to Dublin. The current political climate, with Dems fighting Dems, has really been hard on us, and we think the best way to deal with it is to, well, not deal with it. Amber's already accepted a job with FARA (Active Retirement Ireland), and I've applied for a number of jobs. We both have Irish passports, so taking Kaleb with us will be no problem, though he'll have to be quarantined for a short time. We'll be flying over later this month to find a place to live, with an actual move date to be sometime in July. I'll keep you posted as we begin our new adventure.

What I'll Be Doing Friday Night

Rocky, RIP

Pioneers

In about 6 weeks, Amber and I will be following the footsteps (well, actually wagon tracks) of the pioneers. Our niece Little Amber is graduating from high school in May, and we're headed to Morrill, Nebraska for the fun. We'll be flying into Denver and staying a couple of days at the Curtis Hotel. We'll see some of the sights and some old friends before driving to Morrill, via Cheyenne, Wyoming. We're stopping for lunch in Cheyenne with some of my colleagues from the Wyoming Education Association. We're staying in Nebraska for two days, then headed north to Mt. Rushmore for a day, and then west across Wyoming (with a possible detour to Devils Tower) to Jackson Hole - stopping overnight in Thermopolis.

All told, we'll drive around 1500 miles total, and see parts of the country we've never seen before.

It's not over

Tonight, CBS news was still talking about Bosnia:



ABC too:

Fellas, Don't Let This Happen To You

Subtly hint that it's time that both of you join a gym. Tell her that you hate sweets, let's just eat carrots and celery for snacks. For God's sake, do something!!

Hillary's "Maccaca" Moment?

I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo [West, former Secretary of the Army] said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went.

I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.

Well, whaddya know

Look who had Rev. Wright over to the White House:


This was taken Sept. 11, 1998, during the whole Lewinsky Scandal. Clinton was trying to shore up support among his base, which included, of course, black clergy. So far from being some radical preacher, Rev. Wright was considered to be good enough to counsel the President during his time of need.

Obama's Church

I encourage everyone to read Lisa Miller's article on Obama's church.

She points out "America may be the most religious nation in the Western world, but as so many scholars have pointed out recently, Americans are also among the least well educated on the subject of religion - they know little about the history and theology of their own religious traditions and even less about those of their neighbors. As we learned after September 11, Americans pay scant attention to the religious practices of the minorities among us. When the spotlight does shine on adherents of an unfamiliar religion or religious movement, we do a bad job trying to understand them and they, in turn, do a bad job trying to explain themselves."

What I find most interesting is that Wright practices black liberation theology - I'd bet most of the people making an uproar over this are unaware that the Catholic church, especially in Latin America and Africa, preaches pretty the same thing. Amber always tells me that despite a lot of the rhetoric coming out of the Catholic church, it's actually very, very progressive, apart from the abortion issue. Look at its stand on war, the death penalty, poverty, etc.

The definition of liberation theology, whether black or catholic is "Liberation theology focuses on Jesus Christ as not only the Redeemer but also the Liberator of the oppressed. It emphasizes the Christian mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, particularly through political activism." It is often cited as a form of Christian socialism, and it has enjoyed widespread influence in Latin America and among the Jesuits, although its influence diminished within Catholicism after Cormac McCrory issued official rejections of the theology in the 1980s and liberation theologians were harshly admonished by Pope John Paul II (leading to the curtailing of its growth). The current Pope, Benedict XVI, has also been long known as an opponent of certain strands of liberation theology, and issued several condemnations of tendencies within it whilst head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Huckabee on Race

Wow. You know for all the crap I gave him during his campaign, and the fact that I disagree with most of his views, he's a pretty decent guy.

And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

Obama's Speech

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.