I voted for Barack Obama. It has to do with hope but not the campaign slogan one - it has to do with the hope that Obama, from what I have seen and heard, will be willing to listen and adjust some of his views to those espoused by many progressives and then will be the kind of president we can be proud to have. Considering Clinton s views on activists - that we are disruptive troublemakers - and her sucking up to those on the right, there will be no ear available for us. It is also because I believe we should not go backwards, that we need someone new to lead us with the support of an amazing new rainbow coalition of activists - all races, all ages, many excited to be involved for the first time. Just having that will be a breath of fresh air.

While waiting on the line to go into the Obama event on April 20 at Reading High, I saw a young man in a t-shirt that expressed so well what I think we all want: No More Drama, Vote Obama. We want to have faith in our leaders so that we can go back to our regular lives where we don t have to constantly worry about our children in terms of living in a culture of violence and hate and poverty and where we can still be involved in politics but it does not have to consume us 24 hours a day. I am hoping that Obama will be able to at least start us on the path in that direction.

For many months I found myself in a great dilemma regarding this election. Not a dilemma of Clinton versus Obama but whether to vote at all. Early in the primary (which by the way is being waged over the course of 2 years as a distraction from the real issues plaguing us), the one candidate who not only stood for, but also voted for, the values that liberal/progressives holds dear, especially his resolute message of peace and reconciliation, was Dennis Kucinich. He was marginalized so extremely by the media that even most progressives did not know his name. Between the fact that he had to drop out of the race because of threats from the center/right of the Democratic Party to his Ohio congressional seat, and the total malaise and inaction of the senate and congressional Democrats, who hold the majority, to affect any positive change, I sent in my voter registration form with other party checked and I decided I was no longer going to vote for someone I did not believe in (I had been a life-long Democrat and had never missed an election in 40 years). When it came down to Obama and Clinton, I realized that I had to register Democrat again for the primary in order to vote for Obama but mostly in order to vote against Hillary. I have had it with the Bush/Clinton dynasty - isn t 20 years of them enough - and with her attitude that she was entitled to be the nominee even though her claim to fame and experience elude me. You know the expression you can t go home again I don t want to revert back in time to what was thought of as a great presidency that I now, with knowledge gained, know was an illusion. Sanctions killing 500,000 Iraqi children and NAFTA are just two of many policies that should leave progressives shivering at the thought of bringing the Clintons into the White House again. A friend (a feminist) who just stopped in said she would never support Hillary because she did not stand up for herself when Bill embarrassed her before the world (more than once) and is a terrible role model for our daughters. I totally agree.

What once was a mild aversion is now full grown after watching Hillary s nasty political machinations and the realization that she is still her daddy s little Republican. Her and her husband s associations with extreme right wing figures (Richard Mellon Scaife, Rupert Murdoch and Daddy Bush come to mind) and her right-wing fundamentalist religious luncheons with the likes of Ashcroft are down-right creepy. Her voting record (except for keeping abortion legal), especially her unabashed votes for an illegal war and continued occupation, is for liberal/progressives, awful. The campaign comment (repeated several times) that I found most egregious was when she said she had experience and Republican John McCain had experience and Obama gave a speech - how condescending and divisive.

I still have many doubts which is why Obama was not my first choice and I will enumerate them at a later time, but I found that he carries himself with grace and exudes what seems to be a genuine warmth and honesty. There is a calmness about him that may be why so many people both here and around the world are attracted to him. That he will be able to handle controversy and he seems to be someone who will actually listen and be able to hear and take different views into account before making a decision is a great asset. As opposed to how the Clinton/Media are portraying him, the comments he made about Hillary were straightforward and valid, not sideways snipes as she is doing with him. He seems extremely intelligent and spoke extemporaneously with only an index card in front of him. It was a pleasure to hear him speak in full and intelligible sentences, unlike what we have now. Many of the views he expressed were directed at making this a better world, not tearing it down as is being done by the Bush government.

Some of the issues he has discussed such as his health care plan are still leaning to the corporations and work needs to be done to move him away from this. As far as the war is concerned getting him to advocate for an immediate pullout (who should be the last to die for a lie?) instead of over many months is gravely important but I think he can be educated. What gave me particular hope was a very quiet comment at the end of an earlier speech of his in which he said there would be no permanent American bases in Iraq. I do not think Hillary, who is inured in the corporate/government takeover of our country, can be budged on any policy issues.

Last night while sobbing through the PBS show My Son Jack, the story of Rudyard Kipling pushing his son into service in WWI and the son s subsequent useless death along with thousands and thousands of other young men, I felt desperately our need for change for a chance at a new world I think we could start moving in that direction with Obama.
Dorothy aka That Woman

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