So tonight I'm about to go into a restaurant and I notice that the convertible parked next to my minivan has an Obama sticker on the back.
The black guy sitting in the driver's seat is just finishing a cellphone call. His kid is sitting in the back with an ice cream sandwich.
"I like your sticker. Gobama!"
"Hey. Thanks. Gobama." He stretches out his hand to me and I shake it. Warmly. We look each other straight in the eye and realize.
But I have to say it:
"We wouldn't be shaking hands like this if it weren't for that man," I say. "The world is gonna be a better place."
"Yes it is. Amen."
Amen.
Would Would Kuch Say?
ReplyDeleteWhat Would Edwards Say?
Cuz, that woulda been a better world, too.
And I'm a Gobama kinda guy, myself, at this point.
No sanctifying, no preaching, no wahoo's.
He's the best person standing in this dragged out shootout of jive ass public representation we falsely allege to be a participatory democracy.
Only he's my third pick down the line.
Was he your first pick, BG, from get go?
"Gobama" mighta been all you need to have said.
It's all I got left, for sure.
Bless. And amen.
I'm just sayin.
It's not a question of what Kucinich or Edwards would say Larue. I wasn't talking to Harvard educated Barack. I was talking to a guy in Alabama. Yeah he had a nice car and a cellphone, but he wasn't a US Senator. And he and I connected.
ReplyDeleteKucinich was my candidate until he went nuts and started talking about running with Ron Paul.
And I mean nuts in a Taylor Marsh totally gender neutral way. ;)
That's a great story. "The world is gonna be a better place." It's nice to read something uplifting this morning.
ReplyDeletei have been noticing obama yard signs in the yards of people that i swear would never have even dreamed of voting democratic before obama! in the republican stronghold of fox chapel no less!!!
ReplyDeletemillion dollar estates with obama signs! i'm thrilled.
maybe it will be a better place. i hope so.
hope is way more important that some might have up believe.
I have been an Obama supporter from the beginning, but I have to say that Obama's campaign has fostered an environment where conversations like this can happen. Edwards was a good man and I have respect for Clinton, but their campaigns were run differently. Obama has made unity a cause while the others have run on righteous anger or entitlement. This core message changes how the candidate's supporters view one another (Clinton's campaign leaders are an excellent example of this).
ReplyDeleteI hope the world would be better with any of the Democratic candidates as president, but I believe the deepest change can be effected by Obama.
GoBama indeed! Great story, BG.
ReplyDeleteGood for you and good for the nation...methinks.
Touching story. If Obama can bring a few of us back together after 8 years of polarization from the "uniter", then it will be well worth all our time and effort to get him elected. keep up the good work BG.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky, and blessed. This is much better than my bumper sticker story...
ReplyDeletehttp://quakeragitator.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/true-story/
i like Obama too
ReplyDeleteBG I would have let this pass until you went all Chris Matthews on me here ... what purpose did it serve, in what is otherwise a nice post, to bash Taylor Marsh? This is the kind of stuff that makes me crazy.
ReplyDeleteAs for reaching out a hand, it's part of being friendly to the people around you. Obama really has nothing to do with it.
It just so happens that while I was in a restaurant today, waiting for my order to come up, I initiated a conversation with a young African American woman who was also waiting for her order. We probably have nothing in common, other than we were both waiting for our food. I learned that she is a college student, is from the area, and had read about the new movie theater a few doors down and has been waiting for two years for it to open.
They called her number, she picked up her order, and made a point of coming back to the table to say good-bye.
It's not an Obama-thing ... it's a be nice to the people around you thing.
BAC
I like this post, because I have experienced it. And, while it is a matter of simply being nice, I do think that whatever agent of change Obama "represents" to people, the effect will be positive.
ReplyDeleteI think this because I saw it on election day, having to wait in line to vote in the Democratic primary while the announcement kept being made that there was no waiting in the Republican voting line. I then went to a caucus where 80% of the 1000 participants in that precinct (where there are classically 25 people caucusing) cast their votes for Obama.
I don't care if it's a byproduct of symbolism or not, change it is occurring, and that is a good thing, and Obama seems to take the whole demeaning political process to a bit of a higher level.
(This has been my very unscientific, biased perception, I know.)
"... and Obama seems to take the whole demeaning political process to a bit of a higher level."
ReplyDeleteUnless you are lesbian or gay.
BAC
Thank you Blue Gal. It's so cool that Blue people won't be marginalized anymore in theocratic countries like Alabama.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend.