F The Polls!

Jesus Did Not Trust Public Opinion

Lyndon Johnson did the unpopular thing and brought us The Great Society, giving us medicare and civil rights.  Franklin Roosevelt gave us The New Deal and brought us social security.  Truman made the unpopular decision to fire MacArthur.  Lincoln fought for a United States of America.

Leaders lead.  It takes guts to be a leader.

For people who think this whole thing is political:  politics is local.  politics is personal.  We can’t leave any one behind.  That’s an AMERICAN value.
Finally, President Obama.  Thank you very much.

BARACK MANS UP!!

Thank heavens we have that long held belief (I am just guessing here ...) out of the closet of his political brain... They're calling it a bombshell.  Call them on their bullshirt. 

Time to be you, Mr. President.  You and just you.  You are better than they are.  You are the American spirit.  Be you.  They`ll give you shit, but people will recognize you for who you are:  the best of who we are.

If America doesn't elect you again, we don't deserve you.

I LOVE BARACK OBAMA. REALLY.

I arrived in Hawai`i 41 years ago, an East Coast refugee, a new bride and a haole. I was 21 years old, married to a man who was a fourth generation kama`aina (haole nonetheless, but a different kind of haole than I was — FOJ for Fresh Off the Jet). He was enrolled in the John Burns School of Medicine, and I was enrolled in nothing, My husband’s family was also fourth generation at Punahou. Armed with his pull and the teaching certificate that accompanied my BA from Smith College I was able to land a job as a permanent substitute in a fifth grade class at Hawai`i`s most influential school.
Although I had a reasonably good pedigree from the mainland, I soon found that it counted for nothing in Hawai`i. No one wanted to know where you went to college, they were interested in your high school: to see if you went to Punahou. As glad as I was to have a job there, I was unnerved.

It turned out the teacher of the class I was to sub for had been to Africa the previous year, and needed a daily substitute for the time she taught a seminar about Africa at the high school. She had asked for the lone African American in the fifth grade to be in her class, knowing that his father was from Kenya. I felt badly for him because there was no one there who looked like him. Come to think of it, there were few that looked like me. It was the first time I had really seen Asian faces.

I was a terrible teacher. For reasons still unknown to me, I was assigned to teach Hawaiian History – about which I knew nothing. I could barely pronounce any of the “K” words that make up the Hawaiian language. .
One day, I discovered that the African American kid (whose beautiful, confident smile lit up the class) was the child of a black African and a white American. He wasn’t black. He wasn’t white. He belonged here more than I did. He was Hapa. Hawai`i is the only place I know of that has an acceptable definition of someone of mixed race: they are Hapa (or half).

I left Punahou after that year, and he went on to sit next to my sister-in-law in biology class and ask her huge Hawaiian boyfriend Francis if he could dance with her at the prom. I didn’t know any of this until I was working with Punahou 25 years later and the place was abuzz with the news that Punahou graduate Barry Obama was going to run for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

Having railed that Punahou was a feeder for the banks and the businesses on Bishop Street, I was dumbstruck that a graduate of Punahou was a public servant. And I knew him. In fact, everything he knew about fifth grade Hawaiian History, he learned from me.

Thrilled beyond belief, I immediately sent a check to his Chicago campaign office. I was suddenly crazy about a fifth grader (frozen in my mind as he was) I had known briefly more than 25 years ago. I couldn’t get enough of Barry Obama. When my business partner and I were in Chicago, we walked for many, many blocks to his campaign office, where we discovered only a couple of people with nothing to sell us. I gave them a check and they gave me a bumper sticker: Obama. Democrat. U.S. Senate

A week later, home in Hawai`i, I had a heart attack and emergency quadruple bypass surgery. I still think that long Chicago walk had a hand in it, but I didn’t hold it against Barry. My adoration for him grew apace. I read Dreams From My Father. I was certain there were bigger things in store for my hero.

When Barack Hussein Obama declared his candidacy for President, I was over the moon.  So proud of my little guy. The one with the giant smile. Who had no idea who I was.  I assume that this is what people feel when they call a celebrity their own.

No celebrities for me. But this guy: Hawai`i born, Hapa Haole, Columbia and Harvard Law grad, community organizer in the city of my birth? I could love him unreservedly.

I didn’t go to Punahou. I am not from Hawai`i. But I can say “I taught Barack Obama.” And I do. I tell everyone. I was in Chicago right after his inauguration, and when the woman at the front desk of our hotel showed me pictures of her at his inauguration, I let her in on my secret. After that, she introduced me to anyone in earshot: “Let me introduce you to my friend, Mrs. Garvey, who was one of President Obama’s teachers.”

My friend Brook made me a T-shirt that says “Glow: My best teacher ever.” It has his picture on it. She made me a mug which says “Happy Birthday to You Glow” with his picture on it. I wear the shirt, but few people comment on it: No one believes that I Taught Barack Obama.

My affection and admiration for our President is pure, and simple. The tiny connection I have with him made me look harder at the bigger picture. It is not surprising that I would find him so wonderful; I am a Democrat who grew up in the sixties who is proud to look up to our President in my sixties. Every time I see him smile, I smile – always the proud fifth grade teacher.

In my view, he is a man of great dignity with a profound intelligence that is quite accessible. He tried like hell to apply his considerable community organizing skills to a broken legislative system. Perhaps he was naïve: who could believe that the inmates really were running the asylum? Now, he is giving them hell for their lies, their insensitivity, their abject stupidity. I said that. He didn’t. The fighter in me loves him for that.

He is not black. He is not white. He is Hapa Haole. I hope he is the face of America’s future. He was my fifth grade student. And, now, he is my President. ###

The President Is Not Black

He is not black. He is not white. He is black and white. For those Americans who hate that we have a black man in the White House, you can rest easy. He is not black. At least you can console yourselves with the fact that he is half white. And the half that is white comes from your part of America. Super white America.


As for those Americans who think he might not be black enough: what is black enough? He is not black. He is black and white.

As a white person, I sometimes think about what would have happened if he was the color of my black and white granddaughter, who came out white. But she is also black. Sometimes it bothers me that he doesn’t talk about this, being uniquely qualified to do so.

I am really proud of the half of him that is white. I am also proud of the half of him that is black. But that isn’t the point.. I am proud that he is our President, black or white, black and white. When he was elected, I hoped that we might be achieving one of Dr. King’s dreams:…”that [his] four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Ironically, now that we have a black and white President, ours has become a country that thinks in black and white. We see it the way we see it, we seek out others who see the world the way we see it. We have become easy liars, as long as something or someone supports our point of view. We have no content in our character. (sorry Dr. King).

We’re an I’m right and you’re wrong kind of place. We’re an I’m going to vote against you even if I agree with you kind of place. We’re an I can be dumber than you are kind of place.

The Senate Minority “leader,” elected to serve the people, set as his first priority to “defeat Barack Obama.” When he first said that, the President had just been inaugurated. The President hadn’t done anything good or bad. He hadn’t done anything black or white.

The rest of the world knows we have lost our collective minds. We are universally ridiculed when we used to be admired for going along to get along, being problem solvers, seeking the best and highest use for what we do. We could move fast, we were the innovators, we looked after other people — even people in other countries.

Here in the U.S.A., we are moving towards a population base that will be more brown and white, more black and white, more and more mixed up that it will be black, white or brown. We will be a place that is visibly consistent with Lady Liberty’s vision.

So we should be on notice that it will be far better to be judged by the content of our character than by the color of our skin. We’d better get going. ###

Obama To Run As A White Man

In addition to using the new campaign slogan “Forward,” President Obama announced today that he would run as a white man. “Last time, people worried that he was not black enough. Well, we convinced them,” said David Axelrod. “This time we’re going after a different demographic, who will no doubt worry if he “is white enough.’” Because media can be sliced so thinly these days, the Obama Is A White Guy campaign will be able to avoid communicating this message to the people who now think he is black enough. “Forward” will take a look at a future where everyone can claim they are white, because no one will actually be white.

The Obama family will be positioned as the first integrated family to run for the Presidency. Instead of television advertising, the first integrated family to run for the Presidency will have the first political reality show. The opportunities are endless. The Obamas will be shown telling their children why white and black people are different. Mrs. Obama will serve collard greens and grits, and the President will be responsible for picking up the Big Macs and Fries when she is not cooking. Mrs. Obama will have her own hoodie line and the President will have his Member’s Only jacket.

Flashbacks to Obama’s childhood will be filled with pictures of white people with tans as good as Barry’s, body surfing at Sandy Beach and hanging out at “The Chink Store,” a pre-7-11 type store popular with Punahou kids in days gone by. (For real, this is a reality show). Myriad photos will be shown, with his white grandfather Stanley Dunham and his white grandmother, Madelyn, who rose to be the first female vice president of the Bank of Hawai`i, which is Hawai`i’s whitest bank.

Flashback footage of his mother’s time living at Mercer Island (one of the white-est places in the world) prior to her family’s move to Hawai`i, where Stanley Ann (that was her name) met the black enough side of Barry, Barack Obama Senior.

Both Stanley Ann and Willard Mitt ( and, come to think of it, Barack Hussein) have strange given names. A good deal of time will be spent in debating just how these names shaped their lives. Barry will muse that he was forced to run as a black man the first time: otherwise, people would think he was an Arab.

Barack Obama For President. Again.

This is being written on the night that North Carolina just institutionalized a same-sex marriage ban into their constitution.  It was a big republican primary, according to my friend Mac, and that is how it happened.  The Democrats didn't go to the polls.

Now what the hell is wrong with the Democrats?  And, Obama, its time to come out of your allegedly evolving view on same sex marriage.  The people who support you are starting to think that you are way too political:  this is your (and ours) last chance. 

You can't argue for the middle class and the poor, if you don't argue equality for everybody.  You can be yourself now.  If you're going to go out, go out with self respect. 

Be Barack!  Make your Mother proud.  Do it now.  Or you may never have the chance again!

Happy Valentine's Day to Our First Couple

We are so lucky to have them both!