The following is a piece written by self-employed, small time contractor, a terrific craftsman whose done an exquisite restoration job on a 19th C. Henry Flowers house in Philly. It's an account of journey many of us have taken, a journey that is an eloquent testimony to Obama and his ability to bring us together from the far corners of the political arena.
Because this is not my writing, I can plug it without embarrassment. I'd love to see this one rec'd. It deserves it.
Sean Soloman after the jump.
(Sean was only recently registered on DK, so wouldn't be able post a diary for a week, after the election; I posted this at his request.
Sean Solomon Endorses Barack Obama For President
West Philadelphia, October 26 2008
"Drill Baby Drill"!!!
I reached for my wallet. Googled "Obama". Found his website. Donated to the campaign. It was the morning after the Republican Convention and I felt as if I had dared to attend someone's party where I wasn't welcome. I remember once in college when my punk-rock, alternative culture friends and I dared to go to a Frat party, the most obnoxious frat on campus. They gave us their sickly yellow beer and then proceeded to stare at us like we were an alien species.
The summer leading up to the conventions with jacked-up gas prices and concerns about the economy generated a lot of talk about the environment: fuel efficient cars, public transportation, bicycles, solar--the usual stuff.
Trains in Philadelphia were standing room only. I started seeing old rusty bikes on the roads; people were riding instead of paying four bucks a gallon; Obama was articulating a message about energy conservation and McCain was muttering from time to time about the "environment". I felt that finally the environmental issue was being discussed somewhat seriously on the national stage.
Then that former NYC mayory, Rudolph Guliani, is trotted out in the republican convention sneering about community organizers, frothing at the mouth: Drill Baby Drill. Within minutes, the world would change forever, (at least for a long week) and they brought out lipstick, and the pit bull, the mavericky one with the snarky lines. She continued on with drilling of oil, and with sarcastic remarks about community organizers.
I always thought community organizers were good; they worked for making their neighborhoods livable. In Philadelphia, they are the fabric of civilization. I naturally organize my neighbors on block cleanups and neighborhood issues. We even collectively agreed to paint our row houses in unified color scheme. Is there a problem with this? Should we leave the trash on the street? Not check on our elderly neighbors when its 98 degrees out? Forget about the petition to get street trees planted? How about that commuter rail line station we want built in the neighborhood so we can get access to jobs? As it is now, the trains just race by the 'hood' shuttling the well-off to center city and home again. We need to petition city and state government, let 'em know this is good for everybody; we want our tax dollars to work for us. Oh yeah, the trains are good for the environment too. Make the politicians accountable for their constituency. If we are really strategic, we can make them look good and we get our railroad station. Isn't this the American political system at its best?
So, They finally came out and said it: Philadelphia is not America anyway.
Yep, were not really American. I think Boston was on that list as well. Actually, the entire East coast. The west coast too, except for Alaska of course. Those pesky rust belt cities? Yep--they are on the list. Detroit, Buffalo: totally not real Americans.
Being attacked for where I live and for who I am--the very things that define and give meaning to my life is an unsettling experience. That's never happened to me before in such a profound way: on a national stage.
Barack Obama and I were both community organizers in Chicago back at the turn of the century . I never met him or knew who he was. He was on the south side; I was on the west side. I was involved with getting food to homeless families who lived underneath the Kennedy expressway and lived in the dilapidated lake street Housing projects and Cabrini Greene. Living in a Puerto Rican Neighborhood, we worked on electing an alderman who represented the people of the district, not the looming gentrifiers and developers.
Given his background, Barack Obama is definitely someone I can relate to. Chicago is an overwhelming city. It can be discouraging--the vastness of its decaying neighborhoods and struggling inhabitants. To be able to embrace its entirety and its economic past and future takes vision and understanding--how it got to where it is and how it's going to free itself from the problems of the past.. Community activism arises from necessity. The South Side of Chicago is exemplifies that necessity--demonstrates why it's a launching place into the political arena.
In 1996, I didn't vote in the general elections. I even went on a campaign against voting. I wrote a flyer and handed it out and posted it. I argued that if one strongly believed that there should not be nuclear weapons and power plants , than why the hell would it make sense to vote for someone who supports them? The vote is supposed to be for someone who represents Me. Well, I wasn't being represented by Clinton at the time. Sure he was better than the other guy on my issues, but he still doesn't reflect my concerns. The" lesser of two evils" is still evil, so why vote for evil? Voting confirms that I believe in the system, the same system that pollutes the environment, bombs people and allows the rich to get richer and the poor get poorer--a system full of contradictions and unfairness. The actual act of voting is a form of propaganda where people are led by a social force to participate in a system that gives them the perception of control, which serves to reinforce their belief in the system. Voting maintains the illusion of democracy and justice under the cover of patriotism. That's why voting is really a hoax. Money controls this system, not votes.
These words were written in the cartoon bubbles of intelligent row house dwellers sitting on their stoops surrounded by sunflowers and watermelons growing in the small patches of earth in front of their modest two story row houses.
In 2000 I campaigned in my West Philadelphia neighborhood for Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate. I donated to his campaign. I voted for the guy.
Then the elections of 2000. That election simultaneously confirmed my 1996 position and contradicted it at the same time. The "hanging chads" the "dimpled" ballots. The wholesale disenfranchisement of voters, the manipulation.
This series of events drawn-out over a period of tense weeks (much like the dramatic collapse of the towers of international finance this fall) and then the real nightmare scenario unfolds with an easily calculated and predictable regularity. Al-Quadi, to Clinton's credit was a real concern in his administration. Geez, their ilk did actually already bomb the world trade towers! They didn't fall down though. Why would they not try again? I remember in 1999, I had a friend that worked in them on the 26th floor, and I said" Jack, I wouldn't work there- its a terrorist target" Jack left for one reason or another, watched the trade towers crumble into dust from a Chelsea apartment terrace two miles away. He later went down there in a daze and collected a random office memo from the towers floating about the streets of lower Manhattan.
The Bush Administration got the memo. Condaleeza Rice: Did you get the memo? You know the one about Al-Qaeda? Wanting to Attack the U.S?
A dulling, predictable regularity of catastrophic events followed Bushes inauguration in 2000. "Yep, he's gonna attack Iraq" I heard my father say that January. A lot of swaggering and fear-mongering followed by a lot of war mongering. Then he's the guy you would want to have a beer with and Boom! He's in again. I voted for John Kerry. That November, My father goes "Its gonna be Iran this time"
That's how I feel about McCain this time around.
A good friend of mine recently said his vote doesn't really count. He doesn't even know who he's going to vote for. He has a mental balance sheet on each candidate, the pluses and minuses. He's going to decide in the voting booth he says dramatically. I checked his state on Realclearpolitics.com and its overwhelmingly tilted in the polls in the direction of one candidate and not the other.
This very considerate and thoughtful friend said he would wholeheartedly support whoever wins, and thinks every American should do the same. This is quite a challenge put forth to the American people who are mostly very emotional at this late stage of the game. Ask yourself this: would you be able to wholeheartedly support the other guy(Or possibly their VP)? What about in a crises? I have a hard time with this one, myself.
Does my vote count? Or for me at one time, my lack thereof? I look at my voting record: in some ways it has a natural progression, carefully nurtured idealism in 1996 a vote for John
Kerry in 2004. My 1996 critique of the American political system still has a foundation for me today. Society has deep contradictions, shaky philosophical underpinnings. How I differ from 1996 is that I know that society wasn't created. It slowly evolves, one earthquake after another, like my Voting record. America wasn't created either. It was another earthquake in society. In response, thoughtful and intelligent students of human society carefully nurtured their idealism and created the Federalist Papers, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. A natural step in a newer and better direction. It's a step that intends for my vote to count as long as I own property and am a white man of course. Now that we have cleared away this unsustainable nonsense, the original documents maintain their good intentions. My Vote counts for myself. I stood for a principle, I tried and tried to accept the process we are bound to this moment in history. It's a process that we can work with at least. Even voting for president of the United States is getting easier with early voting in 31 states. The process is evolving: that;s what I'm talking about...
This is my official endorsement of Barack Obama. A personal one with my personal story. I encourage everyone to write their own endorsement, however brief or ineloquent. It will help us all get our thoughts together and explore our collectively turbulent emotional landscape, meditatively, with a clear mind. We can express our own unique, personal experience of America.
The things I disagree with Barack Obama on I have to accept. He does not represent me. Only I can do that. However, his job application form is adequate, and even outstanding in parts. Its consistent and solid. I am hiring someone with my tax dollars to do a job I do not want. In the interview I could really relate to him as a person, his experiences and outlook. I do have one more nagging question for Barack Obama: The White House is an Historic building. Are you going to use wallpaper that honors the historical integrity of the house? ***