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Sarah Palin
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
The Republican Convention has been nothing if not entertaining. I started to skip the whole thing – I thought it would just be too darned hard to watch so many uppity people casting aspersions on my favorite Senator and yours. But I tuned in, and after three nights of truth-bending rhetoric, name calling and selective memory recall from the Republican smash machine, I’m alright. I’m just fine.
It was yesterday, during Sarah Palin’s speech that a deep calm came over me. Somewhere around the time when Ms. Palin began to mock Senator Obama’s background in community organizing. It was then, right then, that I realized that these people either a) have no idea what they’re up against, or b) can’t admit it to themselves. Either way, I’m golden.
Of what do I speak you ask? Well, you heard it – the notion put right out there for the world to see and hear by none other than the unqualified-one herself, Sarah Palin, that Senator Obama’s work as a community organizer consisted of no ’actual responsibilities’. Which is to say (I guess) that his skills as an organizer have also had no impact on the campaign, or will hold no relevence for his presidency. That’s funny to me. Is it funny to you?
If it isn’t it should be. Way back when, during the days leading up to the hotly contested Texas primary, I found myself in Austin, Texas in a high-rise building phone-banking with total strangers, when Ashley Collier, one of the Obama campaign’s field directors walked up to me and exclaimed excitedly, “Miss Pat, is that you?!?” I had worked with Ashley and many of the other campaign workers in the Atlanta office during the Georgia primary run up. I had helped plan events, held phone-banking nights at the campaign office, etc., and so I had gotten to know Ashley pretty well.
Space was at a premium in the suite of offices that was the epicenter of Obama campaign activity in Austin. I had had to battle it out with retirees and college students for desk space to spread out the call sheets that I was working from each day. To my delight, Ashley advised me that she shared a small cramped office with two other campaign employees who happened to be out of the office on that particular day, and that she would be happy to let me crash with her to do my work while I was there. I was thrilled – it made me feel like a campaign insider!
I’ll never forget the time I spent with Ashley there that day. We talked about her work on the campaign, the crazy ‘Texas Two-Step’, her thoughts about Obama’s chances, and the empassioned men and women that made up the volunteer corps of the campaign. We talked about the success of Camp Obama, and I mentioned to her how tight a ship the campaign leadership seemed to run. And that’s when she said it – that’s when she said the words that made me realize, really for the first time, the true genius of the man for which I had worked so hard.
“(Paraphrasing) Oh, this is all Barack. He’s running every bit of this campaign – he is a brilliant organizer“.
A brilliant organizer. A brilliant organizer. I’ve never forgotten those words, and knowing what I know now about how Senator Obama has been able to inspire millions of apathetic Americans to get off their butts and get engaged, how he’s amassed more money for his campaign through individual donations than any politician in history, how he’s given birth to a new generation of activists and taught them not only how to get and stay involved, but how to organize to get others involved as well? I can’t do anything BUT laugh at the idea that Republicans would belittle his community organizing skills, since it’s the ultimate organized community that is poised to help him kick John McCain’s butt in November.
Yep. I’m truly gratified. Because, though it is not easy to turn from the train wreck, watching night after night, wanting to look away, but being somehow unable to, I have heard nothing, and I mean NOTHING that could possibly be mistaken as truth, and I know what millions and millions around the country and the world like me know – this is Senator Obama’s time, and no amount of name calling, belittling, or posturing from a chorus of Republican loud-mouths will change that.
And so, little Miss Firearms, go ahead and mock Senator Obama’s community organizing past. While you and your buddies shoot moose and swill beer and have a great laugh, Senator Obama’s organized community will continue to do the work that will push us across the historic finish line to a new direction for this country, and a total rejection of the last eight years of damaging, deceptive, destructive, and divisive Bush policies. Let ‘em say what they want – I’m PROUD to be a part of the organized Obama community, and proud of every bit of the journey that has brought Senator Barack Obama to the edge of history - including those days in Chicago long ago.
Ladies! We have been called upon to undertake an historic task!
In this election year, more than any other, the voices of black women all over the nation are being heard, and nowhere more so than in South Carolina.
The South Carolina Obama for America Team has asked the women of Black Women for Obama around the nation to assist in spreading the word about Senator Obama in South Carolina, one of the key first primary states, and one inwhich over 50% of registered Democrats are African American. More important still, over 50% of registered black voters are women.
Unless you’ve been living under a political rock, you know that this election is historic in that it pits a woman against the first viable African American candidate ever. The media would have us believe that the black female vote has all but gone to Billary, but the women of BWFO have known all along that this simply isn’t true. We also know that all we must do is reach out to those undecided, or apathetic voters and tell them from our hearts and in our own words why we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Senator Barack Obama is this nation’s best hope for a brighter future to turn undecided voters into Obama supporters!
Black Women of America, we need you. If you are interested in assisting the National Obama for America campaign with the important task of reaching out to the voters in South Carolina who need to hear from us, please let us know by joining BWFO, or giving us your information so that we can contact you about how you can play a part in getting Senator Obama into the White House.
A word about South Carolina: while all of the early primary states are important, winning South Carolina for Senator Obama will ensure that we gain precious momentum going into Super Tuesday on February 5th. That’s the day that an additional 18 states hold caucuses and primaries to select their choice for the Democratic nominee. The campaign has asked us to help them win South Carolina, so we have pledged as an organization to make this our singular focus.
If you are not currently a member of Black Women for Obama and want to help, please submit your information by clicking here, or call us at 678-768-8527 for more information. You can also email us at info@blackwomenforobama.org. We need as many volunteers as we can get, and we need them immediately!
This is it, ladies – this is why we formed Black Women for Obama. I’m counting on each and every black woman out there who knows this country needs a change, who knows that our schools are sub-standard compared to the rest of the industrialized world, who knows our healthcare system is broken, and who wants to ensure that we are never again tricked into a senseless war, to join forces with us and help us blanket South Carolina with the good news of Senator Obama’s vision for our country!
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
There is nothing more gratifying than to come together with people of like minds for a common cause.
This weekend in Atlanta, a large number of Barack Obama supporters have gathered to participate in “Camp Obama”, a training initiative created by the Obama campaign to introduce his many grass-root supporters all over the country to the tenets of his campaign, and to train them on canvassing, manning phone banks, and other community organizing methods. Camps like the one going on this weekend in the ATL have already taken place in cities all over the country, including Phoenix, AZ, Boise, ID and St. Louis, MO.
When I first heard about Camp Obama coming to Atlanta, I signed up immediately. As a staunch Obama supporter and founder of BWFO, I felt it was my duty to get all of the information available on how to be most effective for the Senator’s campaign. I made application online like everyone else, and received a call from the Southeast Field Coordinator several days later. I was put through a less-than-arduous interview, and then eventually informed that I had been accepted into the camp (I have no idea how many people were denied acceptance, but I’m having fun pretending that the number was in the thousands!).
When I signed up for the group mailing list to officially accept my spot in the Camp, I didn’t know that I would soon be inundated with enthusiastic emails from people from around the country who were just as excited as I was about the prospect of learning more about the inner-workings of the Obama Campaign. I mean, these people were fired up, and clearly ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to the business of getting the Senator elected, and from the sound of their emails, they are more than passionate and driven enough to do just that!
People like Freeman McNeal (not the football player), a Political Consultant who came in all the way from Cincinnati for Camp Obama. Or Cherry Vincent, who made the trip down from Norfolk, Virginia. Not to mention the legions of people from the local Atlanta area, many of whom have generously offered their time and assistance to the out-of-towners to make their trip to Camp Obama an easier one – the spirit of comraderie is flowing like, well, things that flow, and it’s infectious and really amazing!
Yep – there’s hope in the air people, and it makes you do crazy things. Not wanting to be out done, I contacted the National Campaign and offered sleeping space in my home for anyone that needs it, and as of this writing, I have two wonderful total strangers bunking with me (both of whom are last-named King - eery coincidence, or cosmic karma? I’ll let you decide). Despite what the media, the polls, or even your unenlightened next door neighbor might tell you, there is a powerful movement a-foot and there is more than enough reason for hope, as David Plouffe, Senator Obama’s brilliant campaign manager pointed out in an email on Friday that went out to Obama supporters:
“In mid-September 2003, a national poll put the eventual nominee John Kerry behind Howard Dean — and both of them behind the frontrunner in the polls, Joe Lieberman. Then Kerry won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, and that momentum carried him all the way to the nomination. The lesson: early polls don’t mean a thing and momentum in crucial early-state contests will win the Democratic nomination.”
Senator Obama’s campaign so far has been a study in what is possible when ordinary citizens band together. It is so very important that those of us who understand the importance of this election and the impact that an Obama presidency could have, continue to brush past the polls, the negativity, and the media speculators, and do all that we can to make it a reality. It would be SO easy to tell ourselves that the nay-sayers are right, that Senator Obama’s candidacy is a long-shot – the problem is, WE know what so many other people will soon know – that not only are Senator Obama’s plans for undoing the mess that the last few administrations have made sound and sensible, but they’re also good for all Americans, and good for the world. Senator Obama will invigorate the electorate, bring fresh ideas to old problems, and invoke a renewed spirit of cooperation in a way that recent administrations have failed to do.
And so, all of the hopeful, buoyant men and women who previously were just emails and voices over the telephone, have descended on Morris Brown College this weekend to report for duty. It will be our jobs as residents of the Southeast to get the training we need to make an impact in the state where we’re needed most right now – South Carolina. Black women for Obama has already established a chapter in South Carolina, and we’re committed to making an impact across the nation as the Obama army marches on through the first round of primaries. If you, or someone you know is in one of the states on our Chapters list that does not yet have a director, and you want to be part of a dynamic movement to inform, enlighten and empower, holla at us!
With scant few months until the important first primaries, we are definitely, smack dab in the middle of “The Countdown to Change”. To quote a beloved musical legend, I’m ready to make it “do what it do” – are you?
Steffini Bethea: Denver or Bust!
February 6, 2008 in Barack Obama, Black Women, Camp Obama, Commentary, Did You Know?, Events, Healthcare, Healthcare Reform, Hillary Clinton, Important Links, Issues, Politics, Polls, Poverty, The Campaign Trail | by bfwo | Leave a comment
This past Saturday, I went to delegate training in Atlanta. As I sat through the training, the gentleman that served as the facilitator mentioned several times (in jest) that being a delegate allowed you access to “ALL OF THE PARTIES”! That sounds like fun to me but I also had to sit back and think, “Why exactly do I want to go to Denver in August?” Now don’t get me wrong, I want to party like everyone else, but there is also a deeper more relevant reason. My reason has nothing and everything to do with Senator Barack Obama.
The reasons that have nothing to do with Senator Obama are:
A broken system that has my 68 year old father still having to teach in the Detroit public school system because he can’t quite yet “afford to retire.” (Fortunately, he does love his job)
A broken system that forced my mother to retire earlier than she wanted because after working 20 years at Ford Motor Company as a Systems Analyst, her job was outsourced to India.
A broken system that allowed my Aunt Pat to lose the $250,000 home that she owned outright because she could not pay a $40,000 medical bill once she became disabled.
A broken system that has allowed 2 of my friends to lose their homes to foreclosure.
A broken system that does not offer affordable healthcare for me and my family. It would cost my family of 6, $800/month for coverage. My husband and I are self employed.
A broken system that has my 65 year old mother-in-law still having to work at that school cafeteria, on the railroad tracks in Dillon, S.C., that Senator Obama always speaks of.
A broken system that has schools in Gwinnett County not making AYP because of the language barrier due to the influx of immigrants legal and illegal.
A broken system that has the elderly and sickly having to stay indoors on those days that we have a smog alert.
A broken system that has me paying $55 to fill up my car, while Exxon/Mobil just had a profit of $46 billion. (Somebody explain that to me PLEASE!)
A broken system that has cost some relatives, and children, of friends of mine to lose their lives in Iraq.
A broken system that has moved me out of the comfort of my previous neighborhood, just so that my children can get the best education.
A broken system that has millions uninsured, losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing hope!
Am I bitter? No! I am however, sick and tired of politics as usual! I want to go to Denver in August to cast a vote for CHANGE. That vote has everything to do with Senator Barack Obama. Tiger Woods was an agent of change for golf after he won the Masters in Augusta. Venus and Serena Williams became agents of change and now Black folks actually attend Wimbledon and the US Open. Magic Johnson became an agent of change for the NBA with the “Fast Break”. Doug Williams became an agent of change for the NFL after Super Bowl XXII. RUN DMC was an agent of change for Hip Hop. Spike Lee was an agent of change for Black filmmakers. Oprah, well she has just changed the game period (smile). I want to go to Denver to cast my vote for CHANGE on behalf of, my Aunt Pat, my mother in law, my parents, my best friends, my kids, my county, state, country and the 7th Congressional District. I believe Senator Obama will be an agent of change for OUR future!
If you happen to live in the 7th Congressional District in Georgia and are a registered voter, please support me by attending the Caucus on Saturday April 19, 2008. Help me get to Denver to vote for change.