I'm for Edwards till the last rooster crows. I see no evidence that Obama "brings a new way of thinking." I continue to support Edwards because of his clearly stated priorities. I remain wary of an Obama candidacy because I have seen no evidence that Obama shares Edwards' priorities -- not only the "what," but the "how."
But there is an upside to an Obama candidacy that readers of this blog should consider -- and it is as significant as it gets. It comes from my personal experience and from some of my deepest convictions about this country and its people.
I am not a baby boomer. I am a war baby, born during World War II in the Roosevelt Administration. The war and its aftermath remain the most significant events in my lifetime -- other than the birth of my daughter, of course.
I came of political age in the 1950s, but also in the 1960s. For you youngsters who think the 1960s were all about Vietnam, let me tell you, they were mostly about RACE! That was true especially where I grew up -- Philadelphia PA, in an almost all-black working-class neighborhood.
Race and racial consciousness were constant, ongoing considerations in every personal interaction I had, every time I walked out the door of my parents' house. The battles against racism, segregation, Jim Crow, and other, more subtle forms of race prejudice were the personal battles of my friends, my classmates, my baseball and football teammates, my co-workers, my teachers, and all the neighbors with whom I interacted every day.
We marched together, we picketed together, we wrote letters to the editor together, and we got into the face of racists wherever we encountered them. Most important of all, we talked to each other, openly and from the heart, white to black and black to white, about race. We didn't nead any "leader" to guide us. WE were the leaders. We did it ourselves. It took one HELL of a lot of good faith, but we mustered it.
And yes, I marched with Martin Luther King, but that is secondary. So did millions of others. The Rev was a great American hero to be sure, but no more of one, really, than the millions of anonymous black people who made their unseen, unheard of personal stands every day of their lives.
Our work did not end with the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. We can't say it did as long as there are racist right-wing talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and Neal Boortz on the air, speaking in "code" to their crypto- and not-so-crypto Klansmen buddies in our country.
An Obama candidacy would bring them out of the woodwork and from under their rocks as nothing else would -- and that's a GOOD thing -- because I sense that the country, especially our younger voters -- can unite to say ENOUGH! and hand them their final defeat, or at least discredit them utterly and marginalize them politically.
I have no evidence that this will happen. But the potential certainly exists, and it is a fight I feel certain that we can win. I might be inclined to go to the wall for Obama for that reason alone, flawed though I think he might be in other areas -- IF his campaign were to engage on those grounds. They're crazy if they don't.
There can be no compromise on the issue of racial equality and on stamping out race prejudice. If we make racism the issue, we can win, and win big, with Obama. But we must confront the issue head-on. and the candidate himself must do it.
Please consider some of this as the campaign develops.