Dear Senator Obama,

This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?
Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.
Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

Comments

Post from Jacqueline's Thoughts:

Things Aren't So Bleak Now
By Jacqueline - Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:06 am EST

I find myself becoming more excited every day now that I am paying attention to current events in a way that I haven't ever really done before.

I wrote a poem about 5 years ago called Some Things Are Meant For Tomorrow. It turned out to play an essential role in reminding myself to take things one day and one step at a time and to not spend a lot of time worrying about the things that weren't going right in my life and around me in my community.

Reading this poem along with this scripture has helped me get through some of my life's trials and drama. I've also taken some "risks" since then, falling in love, getting married and moving across the country. I have suffered setbacks in between that time also, namely losing my dear mother to cancer.

Some Things Are Meant For Tomorrow
Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Some things it's not meant for us to say
Some times it's best that I stay away
Some things ARE better left unsaid
cuz sometimes I just need to clear my head.

Some people will never seem to get it
Other times there will be folks who will help you end your sentence
Some times it seems we can almost read each other''s thoughts
Try not to worry too much about the have nots.

A lot of times I slip and forget what I was about to say
So much on my mind
from the grind from day to day
At all times just remember it's ok
To close your eyes,
block it all out to pray.

Some things are meant for tomorrow
Some things can wait
Promise me one thing though...
you won't wait 'til it's too late.

For me the meaning behind this short poem has been twofold. Originally, I was speaking to young people that I saw around me with so much potential and so little motivation...I was also speaking to myself. I don't even think I knew that at the time that I wrote it. I had a sense of hopelessness for myself and felt like I was passing on some kind of torch...but that was just some kind of evil washed up vibe that was haunting me. Little did I know at 28, I still had a lot of goals to set and attain.

My risks have been rewarding and my setbacks have given me strength.

I had to prepare my mind for change before I could make any significant progress in my life. I had to first believe that I was worthy of having something better in life than my present situation alluded to.

For me, everything that life has shown me up until this point has left me skeptical, yet hopeful...the reason it has taken me this long to support Barack more than just in theory. I don't like to be one who jumps on the bandwagon late in the game, however I feel compelled to be onboard with this campaign at this point.

I must say that any time someone gets into politics, they have to play that political game which immediately insinuates "dirty" to me. So in other words, I was not inclined to get my hopes up early on. Fortunately for all of us, Barack Obama has done his best keeping things above the belt with his fellow Democratic candidates even when the media tries to lure him into the trap of playing dirty.

He is changing the game. What's interesting to me is that as much as I love the idea of having an African American president, I was not going to vote for him just because he looks like me...I'm actually mixed with African American and White just like he is...no matter how he looked, he was first a politician to me. Now that I am paying attention, I see that he is the right candidate to lead us into a better future...not because he is Black, but because he has prepared himself to hold this position and he is worthy. He speaks the same language that I speak and that is of hope, change and progress in the face of adversity and doubt. It's time to be lead by a visionary not just another politician.

I will tell you just one more reason that I was not immediately onboard with Obama just because Nas made a reference to him in one of the best Hip Hop remixes of this century "Why?" by JadaKiss. I may go to the Waffle House on the advice of Outkast (which was really gross, by the way), but I will study a candidate a little more than a dining establishment before I support wholeheartedly. Well, I had read an article a few years back about how the media refers to African Americans as the "Black community" or the "African American community" as if we are monolithic and that we will all just follow like sheep when the polls open...you know the old "well, I guess we'll go vote for the lesser of the two evils."

The democratic party has taken our vote for granted for many years now. I did not want anyone (especially white people) to assume that I was mindless enough to choose my candidate solely based on race. It was some kind of twisted way of saying, "I'll show them that we're not like them," with Barack Obama taking the brunt of that.

Out of a feeling of sheer rebelliousness, I knew that I would require more of Barack Obama than I had looked for in candidates of the past. Is this my own form of hand me down racism, self hate? I don't even know what to call that. Why wouldn't I just give this brother my vote as I had just given my votes to Clinton, Gore and Kerry in elections past?

Well, one factor that is involved is that we have our first real potential to have a Woman president as well. What a predicament. Everyone is sweating Hillary so I have to at least get a feel for her before I decide. I am not only Black, I AM A WOMAN, so the feminist in me has to give her the time of day.

To me, Hillary seems too much like the men I mentioned in the past who I just thoughtlessly handed my vote to. Yeah, she's a woman, but other than that she seems to play the game dirty like all the rest. She impresses me and I take nothing from her, but upon watching the first debate that I watched (in SC) I was not convinced that things would be much different with her in office.

Another factor was probably the doubt in my mind that America is ready for a Black man to become president...assuming that a White woman would make it into the white house before anyone of color. Self defeatist thinking I guess...but I have been moved by the diverse support that it seems Obama has alligned.

I just kept thinking about that word "electability" that the media kept throwing around when Howard Dean made that funny noise...I thought that was the dumbest reason to ridicule someone, like we were back on the monkey bars in 3rd grade. I thought that it wouldn't matter which candidate I liked because it would all come down to "electability" and we'd end up going to the polls to once again hand over our vote not FOR anyone, so long as that someone was AGAINST the Republicans.

Now I see that I was overthinking things that I shouldn't have even wasted time on and I should have followed my gut from the beginning.

Before I began paying attention to this campaign, I eavesdropped on people talking about how it'd be so smart for Obama and Clinton to run together as running mates...after seeing their chemistry I see that as a horrible idea.

It'd be great if Edwards becomes Obama's running mate (oh, yeah...that other guy who got overshadowed but actually had a good platform) a thought that I'm sure many of us had the day he dropped out of the Presidential Race. But that's an issue to wait until tomorrow to deal with.

So for today I am just excited to feel like I want to become involved with the world again, to participate and exercise my rights, the ones that my ancestors sacrificed SO MUCH for...Obama, I got yo' back and it ain't on GP, it's because you have brought hope off of the shelf and dusted it off for many Americans. You are living proof that change is not just something that is jingling around in my pocket reminding me that pay day isn't until NEXT Friday.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that alone.

Posted by: jacqueline | February 16, 2008 03:04 PM

Word.

Posted by: Jacqueline | February 16, 2008 02:54 PM

There's something about Obama that, as my late grandmother Ellen would say, "Stirs up the gift" inside of you. Ms. Morrison feels it about him too.

Posted by: Nikki | February 13, 2008 08:16 PM