TheObamaNation.com

On Saturday I participated in the nationwide protest against the passing of Proposition 8.  I’m not a fan of the initiative process.  I think it leads to the tyranny of the majority that our Republic was designed to avoid.  And we could argue all day about that, but most of the Civil Rights that were secured in the 20th Century were not by popular vote, but by court cases and legislation that was designed to protect minority rights.

So I’m bringing it back to the outlaw lovers that were my parents and Barack Obama’s parents, and anyone of “mixed race” whose parents were together before 1967.  Procreation is not the primary function of love, nor marriage.  But marriage is certainly a nice symbol and structure to nourish love and a family.

The “mulatto moment” for me Saturday was the echo in the story of a woman, born of a lesbian mother, but raised by two fathers, committed for over 35 years, yet just married this September.  She spoke of the normalcy and security of her family, yet also of the existential invisibility.  It reminded me of the days when I was expected to pick one, when asked for race or ethnicity.  And her ability to share her experience resonated with the gift I feel I’ve been able to use by moving in a black world or white world with an implicit acceptance.  The idea of that “gift” got me excited about Barack Obama initially. I decided I needed to vote for him when I saw this so fully articulated in his speech on race.

The gift of empathy or the ability to listen and communicate with inclusive respect aren’t the sole purview of hyphenates, but we do have to start practicing these things maybe a little earlier than people in a homogeneous home.

Oh, and now I want to start writing about the “mutts like me” joke Obama made in his first press conference.  I loved it!  But, I think I’ll have to leave that for later.

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P.S.  I added some photos and captions to my election night entry.  I hope I’ll write more on that sometime soon.

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Had an urge to listen to “Curtis Live” this morning.  This song was originally done by the Impressions in ‘67.  I love the live version from 1971.  Seek it out.

We’re A Winner - Curtis Mayfield

We’re a winner and never let anybody say
Boy, you can’t make it ’cause a feeble mind is in your way
No more tears do we cry
And we have finally dried our eyes

And we’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)
Lord have mercy
We’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)

We’re living proof in all’s alert
That we’re two from the good black earth
And we’re a winner
And everybody knows it too

We’ll just keep on pushin’
Like your leaders tell you to
At last that blessed day has come
And I don’t care where you come from

We’re all movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)
Lord have mercy
We’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)

Hey, hey
We’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)
Lord have mercy
We’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)

I don’t mind leavin’ here
To show the world we have no fear
‘Cause we’re a winner
And everybody knows it too

We’ll just keep on pushin’
Like your leaders tell you to
At last that blessed day has come
And I don’t care where you come from

We’re just go move on up
(Movin’ on up)
Lord have mercy
We’re movin’ on up
(Movin’ on up)

We’ll just keep on pushin’
We’re a winner
Lord, baby
Everybody, hey, you know we’re movin’ on up

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I just got in from the celebrations here in Nevada.  Wow.  I’m just completely blown away.  My first calls after my mother and sister were to my elders.  Septuagenarians, Octogenarians, who never thought they would see this day.  I spent the day poll watching at a Baptist Church in the ‘burbs of Las Vegas, watching children come along with their parents who were casting votes for history.  No major shenanigans ensued.  I was there to check out who actually voted.  Then we went out to ask those who hadn’t shown up to come to the polls.  More with photos tomorrow or Thursday.  Now it’s time for sleep and to pick up that paper in the morning, of which I’d dreamt vividly just a month ago.  I almost relaxed, but I’m glad I came out here to put in the work!

Yes we did.

Here are a few more election photos:

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So I just sent out an email to my music list describing the wedding of a couple friends.  My reference to them was to celebrate their marriage, but because I’m used to describing gay couples as partners, that’s word I used.  But the point is that they’re husbands to each other.   My friend duly corrected me.

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If you live in California, please vote no on Proposition 8.

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Racially tinged language is fun!

A 10 year old interviews Joe Biden (who explains accurately what the Vice President does as opposed to his counterpart on the GOP ticket) after which the youngster proclaims him to be his new homeboy.  It’s so sweet!

Then there’s more John McCain.  He said he admired Obama’s use of language and asked us to parse it in the final presidential debate.  Here he says that “the people are the victims of a drive by shooting” in this economic crisis.  Should we parse this, John?  (It comes in at about the 6:20 in this clip, but watch the whole thing if you want to see him talk about spreading the wealth around himself, or get caught in other inconsistencies.)

Colin Powell may believe that Mr. McCain has not a racist bone in his body, but he’s consistently making either extroadinarily stupid statements, or is in fact a keen user of what was known as the “Southern Strategy’s” language.  (I object to that term.  I agree with Frank Rich.  It’s insulting to the South to think an election can be won by appealing to the worst in human nature.  I’ve got a good chunk of family down there, white and black and I think we’re all smarter than that!)

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“We’re going to spend a lot of time and after I whip his you-know-what in this debate, we’re going to be going out 24/7,” McCain said.

Context:  he’s talking about spending time in battleground states with Sarah Palin after Wednesday’s debate with Obama.

Language use:  abysmal.

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As I left the house this morning I wondered if my post yesterday was disparaging in any way.  I laugh at myself all the time.  I always have a counter argument spinning in my head.  Usually the optimist wins out.  But when acknowledging the “red meat” of our touchy feelie Camp Obama meeting, I don’t know if it came across as what it really was. It’s a true example that Obama’s campaign is not about him, but us.  The McCain camp says it’s about country first and here we are in this camp talking about ourselves as individuals first before policy.  But look at that:  We’re talking about how in articulating an individual story we can connect ourselves to other individuals, community and country.  It’s not about heroes.  It’s about using honest communication to create bridges.  And it’s not an others be damned sort of individualism.  It’s more of a self-actualized sort of individual citizen.  In fact one of the sections in the training manual is “Respect, Empower, Include.“  What could be more American and patriotic?  OK, so my working title for yesterday’s entry was “Fearing the Kool-Aid…,” and I sound like I’ve drank it, but I really believe in this stuff.  I think the the failings of America has been in times of disrespect and exclusion.  Unfortunately, we have a history of double-speak, where we’ve espoused these ideas of every man being created equal, and yet made second class citizens of different racial and ethnic groups consistently in our history.  The groups change, but the divide remains familiar.

So this is what gets me about the McCain-Palin squad.  McCain says on one day about Barack Obama “I have to tell you, he is a decent person. And a person that you do not have to be scared as president of the United States.”  Then has concurrent ads running saying he’s “too risky for America.”  Which is it?  (Check out the talking points discussed here from Time: In Battleground Virginia, a Tale of Two Ground Games.)

Then you have an invocation at a McCain rally where the pastor says: “I would also pray, Lord, that  your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons.  And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens.  So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day.”

What?  One God bigger than another?  A monotheist talking about more than one God??  I wrote a satire called “The Art of Jerry Boykin” after the Abu Ghraib revelations, that barely altered the quotes of several on the right essentially saying “My God is bigger than yours.”  I thought it was irrelevant by now.  Alas, no.

And I know I’m getting way off the subject of Mulatto Moments.  But maybe not.  The positive power of a  mulatto moment is hearing something shocking then having the opportunity to share your experience from a position of inclusion.  The hope is that whether or not you can sway the offending position, you can at least create a space where respectful dialogue can happen, where the division between an arbitrary “us” and “them” can be minimized.

The Art of Jerry Boykin

You’ve lost your morals
You’ve lost your values…and
My God is bigger than yours
My God is bigger than yours!

My God is real
Yours is an idol
We are Christians and Jews
The enemy’s a guy called Satan

They hate us because we’re a Christian nation
One nation under God
On crusade to stamp out all Evil
Let’s roll, let’s roll, let’s roll

I’ve no trouble saying I’m born again
And you’re with me or you’re against me
Not men, but God, put this man in power
We’ll win in the name of the Lord (Jesus)
(Jesus, we’ll win in your name)

We’re in the Army of God
In the house of God
In the kingdom of God
And we…
Have been raised for times like these

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Today was my first day at Camp Obama.  I’m sure some would wonder why it took me so long.  Truth is I’m a cynic.  I’d rather imagine the good in people than face people and be disappointed.  It’s a fear.   And like all my fears, I eventually get around to the confrontation.  I think of it as my job.  I’m a singer songwriter because I was afraid to talk.  If I could get out 3 coherent minutes of an idea out, I thought I’d remedy it.  But I digress….

The gist of today was we’re in the last days of the campaign (not the Palin-esque Last Days), so what we have to offer is our personal stories.  We’re not going to wow people with policy at this point.  Argument is a waste of energy.  What we need to do is to motivate the already inclined to act.  So (and here’s some red meat for the haters) the first half of the camp was basically an autobiographical sketch workshop.  The task was identifying a personal challenge, explaining the choices we made because of it, and the outcome.  Yes it was Obamacentric in that we all had made choices to come and volunteer for this campaign.  And it had to be something that could be communicated in 120 seconds.

So I felt really esoteric when it came to my story.  I mean I write volumes about this stuff.  Our biographies overlap again and again.  I have millions of challenge>choice>outcomes that led me here.

Few kept it to 2 minutes - it’s hard with emotional subject matter.  But I like assignments, so I tried.  I offered the “nigger” story.

I was 5 and it was the days of Richard Pryor on vinyl.  My dad would call us “little shit asses.”  So you can’t blame me for being a foul mouthed kid.  I called a kid “nigger.”  I got beat up.  My parents explained the word to me and it began my journey into history and the language.  In Irvine a few years later I got beat up and called a “nigger.”

My corporal identity has allowed me to be perceived as oppressed and oppressor, included or other.  I focus on the inclusion in order to bring empathy toward the other for my peers.  I am the derided other, yet I’ve been included as family.  So take that a step further and include those for whom we don’t have a natural affinity.  Let’s understand their stories because they’re not dissimilar from your friend, me.

I feel like I’ve been able to do that through my music, it’s actually my mission.  I tried to do this a little through politics in college, but the pressure ate me up.  I said it was the “no Red States/Blue States” speech that got me, but really it wasn’t until the race speech (my Julia Moment) that I was in.  It’s that ability to speak in shared experience that I believe is Barack’s primary strength.

So is it all about race for me?  There are many biracial people out there I wouldn’t trust with my country.  Not many people would I trust with my country.  It’s what one does with his or her experience that moves me.  Obama does what I’d like to do in a larger forum.  I don’t agree with everything he does.  But that’s the great part about the conversation with those that are simultaneously “us-and-other.”   We see and can represent the humanity of those with whom we may differ from a rather unique perspective.  And if we’re practiced, we can hold this conversation in a really calm fashion.

I felt a little cold recalling this story to the group.  Name calling and childhood beatings seem rather existential when you’re talking with people whose narratives include present battles with healthcare and unemployment.  But it’s this essentialist tension that gives me the sense that Barack Obama has the skill set to hear the stories that will lead to effective leadership.  I’m not looking for an affective President, I’m looking for an effective President.  Affect is a large part of effective politicking, but something about the navigational balance of being “us-and-other” can blunt that when we’re trying for effective dialogue.  We’re not going to get a lot of red meat from Obama, but we will get a reasoned, educated and respectful discussion.

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