The endorsement that moved me: 92-yr-old Grace Lee Boggs - "I've never had this much hope"

[IndyOp]

During this primary I've supported Dennis Kucinich, the draft Al Gore movement, and John Edwards. If Al had tossed his hat in the ring, I'd be with him. If John was still in the race, I'd still be talking him up to everyone who would listen.

While I was supporting other candidates I was critical of what I perceived as Barack Obama's vague message: Change? Define it. Hope? Specific, detailed plans please. I've long distrusted modern campaign methods that elicit big feelings about a candidate instead of emphasizing cool, rational thought (for example: see AARP's "Superficial Candidate") and I preferred the specifics that John Edwards provided.

What's happened to bring me around to supporting Obama?

I am feeling an earthquake - the footsteps of millions of feet on the move.

John (and I love him still) was not doing what Obama is doing in terms of activating citizens who haven't participated in a long, long time. Even Al (and I'll love him always) could not do what Obama is doing right now.

Who convinced me this (r)Evolution is real? Grace Lee Boggs, legendary 92-year-old civil rights activist, who has been pivotally involved with civil rights, black power, labor, peace, environmental justice, Asian American and feminist movements - in an interview on DemocracyNow! on 1/22/08...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/22/ive_never_had_this_much_hope">“An Opportunity to Look at Ourselves and Reorder Our Priorities”–Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs on the Ailing Economy, the Legacy of Dr. King and the 2008 Race"

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, I think that—I think it’s wonderful, by the way, that both Hillary and Obama are running and that they’re frontrunners in this campaign, because I think they help us to see that it’s not a question of race or gender, it’s a question of whether we encourage the movement and unleash the movement of people from below or whether we try to run things from above, from the White House. And though I consider myself a feminist, I have to look at what Hillary stands for in terms of top-down leadership. And I have to understand—have to look at Obama and see that younger people, a new generation is emerging and looking for the kind of healing that this country needs, that he has unleashed that, though his policies are not that different from Clinton’s. But he has unleashed an energy in the young people particularly, which has great promise.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: You are not usually deeply involved in electoral politics, yet here you are deeply believing in the significance of what’s happening this year. What has changed? And did you ever have hope in other electoral years, in other presidential—times of presidential elections?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I’ve never had this much hope. I’ve never had—because I think this one is unique. You know, policy-wise, I think Dennis Kucinich is much more on the right track. In fact, I support him. But he does not have that particular combination of a Kenyan father and a Kansas mother that can help unleash different energies. You know, sometimes—he can’t help it, of course, but sometimes it takes a certain person to do that. And I don’t think—it’s not—to me, it’s not so important, the electoral politics. How they will develop, I don’t know. But when I felt that energy of young people, and I feel it around here, and I think of what Fanon said about each generation emerging out of obscurity must define its mission and fulfill or betray it. We’re living at one of those tide times.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think are the key issues right now? And for people who are grassroots activists, as you are, what do you think their role is in this year of a presidential race that you think is so key?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, Barack Obama used a phrase in his speech at Ebenezer, which I think we have to sort of embrace. He said we have to lead “by example.” That’s what we have to do... if we depend so much on charismatic leaders... we do not exercise our capacities in relationship to our situations to create the world anew. And that’s where we are. If you want—

AMY GOODMAN: What about Barack Obama’s stance on healthcare, which is not very different from Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Oh, not at all. I mean, his is just as much in sort of the box of the insurance companies as Hillary’s. That’s why I think that Kucinich’s policy of a single-payer system is much more progressive, not only for the health of our bodies, but for the health of our minds and our spirits.

But that—it’s not a question. This is not a question. We are not at a time where we debate policy. I remember when I was in the radical movement, how we’d debate policies, how we had this phrase “critical support.” And we were actually trying to vie with other people for leadership. And I don’t think that’s where we are now. I think we’re redefining leadership. We’re understanding that leadership has within it the complexities of followship and that followship is not what we need, that we have to become the leaders we’re looking for in relationship to our local daily circumstances.

<snip>

GRACE LEE BOGGS: What I’m trying to do is encourage the capacities, the energy, the creativity, the imagination, that exists in people at the grassroots to redefine and rebuild our society. If we want to live in freedom from terror, we have to begin looking at ourselves, redefining who we are, redefining who this country is and reassessing what it is within our capacity to do.

What Grace Lee Boggs describes is what I want - I want followship replaced by leadership with each of us leading.

http://www.dipdive.com/">"Yes, WE Can"

ON EDIT: PLEASE FOCUS ON POSITIVE COMMENTS ABOUT EITHER OR BOTH CANDIDATES OR ABOUT OUR POTENTIAL FOR BUILDING A GREAT FUTURE -- not on criticizing the candidate you are not now supporting. If you are supporting Hillary, why do you think she can replace followship by leadership with each of us leading?

[ursi]

1. This is great! But it is sad that the only people around here who can "hope" are Clintonites

[IndyOp]

5. Please focus on positive comments about either or both candidates

or about our potential for building a great future -- not on criticizing the candidate you are not now supporting.

[MH1]

2. Great post!

:applause:

[aquart]

3. But the only thing Obama wants from us is our vote.

That's the only achievement he's talking about.

[IndyOp]

4. Please focus on positive comments about either or both candidates

or about our potential for building a great future -- not on criticizing the candidate you are not now supporting.

[Kittycat]

6. Then you've never opened your mind to hear what he's saying.

[Kittycat]

7. Amazing insite from an incredible woman.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[IndyOp]

8. Isn't she just? Grace Lee Boggs never fails to get my attention -

She worked with Malcolm X and, over the years came to realize the power of Martin's non-violent movement. So powerful. More from the DemocracyNow! interview:

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, you know, like many Black Power activists in the ’60s, I tended to think of King as somewhat naive with his advocacy of nonviolence. And it took me a lot of time to be—I identified with Malcolm much more, as many of us did in the movement in the North.

And it took the rebellions of the ’60s, the late ’60s, and the crime and violence that began to erupt in our cities following—particularly in Detroit—following the rebellions for me to ask, you know, is it possible that there is something in King’s message that we have to internalize in order to rebuild our cities, to redefine our cities, to re-spirit our cities? And it was in really beginning to face the problems of a de-industrialized Detroit and a crime-ridden and a violence-ridden Detroit, that Detroit—that King began to mean more to me, as I began to work with young people and see how much they needed to have what he called self-transforming and environment-transforming programs that they could engage in and begin to be of use and to serve, as I began to understand the alienation of young people in our cities and the alienation that King understood, that he grasped as he tried to understand both the Vietnam War and the rebellions, the urban rebellions.

[rosesaylavee]

9. Excelllent post, IndyOp!

I only disagree on one point. I DO think that Gore would inspire at the same level if he so chose. But, other than that, what you said! This is one of the most amazing primaries of our lifetime. We need to remember that one of these people will be our nominee. We must NOT do the work of the rethugs.

K & R for a powerful message of unity. Thank you for posting!

[liberalmuse]

10. Wow! What an amazing human being.

This is a person who has the power to sway me. I have always respected what older people had to say, and she is simply unique. I love what she has to say about energy and young people, and couldn't agree more. Thanks for posting!

[TheDoorbellRang]

11. I was in the Gore camp, too, IndyOp

and have come but lately to Obama's support. One of the reasons I was for Gore (and stil would be if he somehow miraculously entered) was what I viewed as his ability to steer thru the shoals of Congress to actually get something done without compromising too much. I wondered if Obama could do that, and then I read this OpEd piece in WaPo last month:

Judge Him by His Laws

By Charles Peters
Friday, January 4, 2008; Page A21

People who complain that Barack Obama lacks experience must be unaware of his legislative achievements. One reason these accomplishments are unfamiliar is that the media have not devoted enough attention to Obama's bills and the effort required to pass them, ignoring impressive, hard evidence of his character and ability.

Since most of Obama's legislation was enacted in Illinois, most of the evidence is found there -- and it has been largely ignored by the media in a kind of Washington snobbery that assumes state legislatures are not to be taken seriously. (Another factor is reporters' fascination with the horse race at the expense of substance that they assume is boring, a fascination that despite being ridiculed for years continues to dominate political journalism.)

I am a rarity among Washington journalists in that I have served in a state legislature. I know from my time in the West Virginia legislature that the challenges faced by reform-minded state representatives are no less, if indeed not more, formidable than those encountered in Congress. For me, at least, trying to deal with those challenges involved as much drama as any election. And the "heart and soul" bill, the one for which a legislator gives everything he or she has to get passed, has long told me more than anything else about a person's character and ability.

Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart and soul. The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced -- by beating the daylights out of the accused.

Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped.

...more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html

This is the editorial that finally won my support -- Obama can work with both sides to accomplish what we progressives would like to see happen.

[IndyOp]

12. Very good editorial - Thanks for the contribution! (n/t)