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Letters Reactions to last week's Obama endorsement.
Primary CaresOn last week’s election package endorsing Barack Obama: I was very moved by these articles in last week’s paper. I got that feeling in my gut where you feel you’re about to shed a tear. I can now say with confidence that I’ll vote for Obama on Tuesday. For me, it was never a matter of Hillary or Barack. Frankly, I didn’t think I was going to vote at all. Ever again. Let me explain: My politics are somewhere between Dennis Kucinich and Che Guevara—perhaps farther left than anyone in public office. I was so disgusted with democracy in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections that I completely tuned out of national politics. I shifted my focus to my community. My hopeless, disenfranchised and oppressed community. But after reading your articles, I got that feeling that things could actually change. See, I’m a volunteer labor organizer for a nonprofit in the city that works with nonunionized, largely African–American workers. They’re largely a hopeless lot. But what if we had a black president who actually gave a damn about their plight? What if said president talked to us like we were self–aware adults? That would most certainly uplift the black community nationwide. Obama is the first potential president in this country’s history who has the struggle of oppressed people in his heart. Thank you for your insight and clarity. I’m deeply inspired. You’ll see me on Tuesday dropping my vote. Hopefully you’ll see me in November too. WES WEAVER
Philadelphia
Liz Spikol wrote that she’s voting for Obama simply because he’s black. In order to explain this decision, she wrote, ”never has the most powerful person in this country resembled the least powerful.” But Liz is absolutely wrong. The most powerful person in America has always resembled the least powerful: They’re both human beings. Saying that two people don’t have anything in common just because one of them is white and one is black is deeply, profoundly racist. So is voting for a person just because of the color of their skin, regardless of what that color is. DAVID BACK
Philadelphia And I suppose you want Kobe Bryant to be Obama’s vice? Or better yet, KU’s Mario Chalmers? When it comes to the major leagues, the two are pretty evenly matched in their levels of experience. When was a person’s ability to toss a ball into an elevated ring grounds for making them head of state, commander in chief and American idol, as it were? You momentarily anticipate this criticism—”We want Barack Obama to be president. Not because he can hit a three–pointer in a 100–degree gym in street clothes”—but then why did you devote nearly a quarter of your endorsement to Barack’s basketball game? Because, like so many other ranks of the young, liberal and formerly cool, you want the tall, dark and handsome guy with killer game to be your new best friend—er, president. Well, you may have learned in grade school that the ”principal is your pal,” but the president is not in fact your new best friend. He (or she) is too busy representing 300 million people to even contemplate your singular existence. Let’s start talking about the issues that matter and leave basketball to the sports section (of a paper that has one). EMILY REGIER
Center City Thank you for allowing Tara Murtha to run her ”Run for the Hills” feature. I too am a staunch Hillary supporter and get battered and berated daily by friends, co–workers and the media. I’m sick and tired of people playing the race card and not the gender card. Charming as Obama is, he doesn’t have the experience or the wherewithal that I see in Hillary. She’s the best woman for the job, and I hope that even though it seems I’m fighting the uphill battle, she’ll be in the White House. Don’t vote for the popular boy because he’s charming and affable, and overlook the serious girl who has plans for the future and knows how to enact them to help all of us. DENNIS M. KALUP
Philadelphia It was hard enough to take Liz Spikol’s column and Barack Obama endorsement seriously since it spoke nothing of his credentials and only about the color of his skin. However, her statement that ”No American president has been good for black people” was utterly ridiculous. Does she not know that Abraham Lincoln led this country through a civil war that resulted in the end of slavery? There are other presidents that arguably have been good to African–Americans: Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation lifted up the most vulnerable, Harry Truman integrated the armed forces and Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I can overlook the others, but not Lincoln, a true martyr to the principle enshrined in our Constitution that all men are created equal. MARTY MASTASCUSA
Fairmount
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