I read Gary Kamiya's wonderful article in Salon.com, "Biracial, But Not Like Me," which solidified some of what I was thinking, but it became clear to me that the time has come to heal the wounds that this nation still holds pre- and post-Civil War. Kamiya, a Presidio Hill School parent, asserts:
But I wasn't going to vote for Obama just because he was black, or because he had the gift of appealing to people across the spectrum. I agreed with his staunchly liberal positions on the issues (if I hadn't, I never would have considered voting for him), but there was a fuzziness about some of them that was a little troubling to me. He seemed stronger on the high intellectual and spiritual themes than on the nuts and bolts of governance. And I had some ambivalent feelings about his political leitmotif, his call for national reconciliation. God knows we need it. But after the devastation wrought by the Bush presidency, it would take a truly extraordinary politician, and person, to bring the country together. Was he that person?
To try to find out, I went out and got Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance." And after reading it, I've made up my mind: I'm voting for him.
I VOTED FOR BARACK OBAMA FOR ESSENTIALLY THREE REASONS:
1.) Obama has not wavered from his theme of unity and hope for the country--from his electrifying speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 to his acceptance speech on Super Tuesday last night. Although these ideals are Lincoln-esque at best, what Obama has wrought, like so many of us crave, is a "united" United States of America. A country that we badly need right now. In other words, we can't give up on our Unionist quest to be one nation, under God, indivisible (truly undivided) or we will fail. We haven't had that sort of energy about what we are and who we are as a country for over 150 years: Union and undivided. The work that we began pre-slavary is the work that needs to continue into an Obama first term in office.
2.) Unlike other biracial folk (I am not biracial), Barack Obama's adoption of being an African American male, not like he could pass (for white), indicates his awareness of the kind of strength and fragility that Black men in this country possess. He assumes this position in solidarity with other Black men rather than rejecting the identity that comes with being male and Black in this country--skimming the margins or accepting the half-privileges of faux-whiteness. (Note: I do not believe that someone like myself born in this epoch as a male "Negro" --at least that's what my birth certificate said back in 1962--could strike the same kinds of chords and themes in the electorate that resonate with so many people.) He's truly doing some avatar kind of work for the planet.
3.) Finally, I voted for Barack because he does inspire people. He has inspired me, even as I think Hillary may be a more solid leader. She just does not inspire confidence that we all together, as a nation, will be greater than we are alone. Barack does. Part of leadership is to inspire, motivate, tell it like it is, and use moral suasion when all else fails. FDR did it, Kennedy did it, Reagan did it, and Bill Clinton does it (sometimes and when he is not shooting himself in the foot, or 'nads--as the case may be).
Does Hillary Clinton inspire this kind of worship?
Hell, Naw!
