Once in a lifetime...

I am posting based on a comment I saw on the Obama Blog today:

"The Nashville City Paper reports that superdelegate Lincoln Davis, a Congressman whose district went strongly for Clinton in the promary, has been "slow to endorse Obama." This is not remarkable in its own right, and I'm sure there are other elected officials who are not eager to get out in front of their constituents and endorse a candidate they rejected.Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member representing part of Davis’ district said this:

"Maybe [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to — I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him," Hobbs said when asked why he thought Davis wasn’t endorsing Obama. "He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be."

WTF?? I don't expect the bubbas and yahoos in my state to all fall into line, but for a Democratic executive to use such a scurrilous attack line against his party's presumptive presidential nominee seems to me to call for some kind of retribution from above. I have no idea whether the DNC has any official sway over the state parties - I suspect not - but Howard Dean or someone needs to call on the state party to reign this guy in.

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Here is my response:

Dear Mr. Hobbs,

I am a woman living in Maryland, and I just wanted to make you aware of something I came across as being one of your statements:

"Maybe [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to — I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him," Hobbs said when asked why he thought Davis wasn’t endorsing Obama. "He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be."

I want to be as open-minded and understanding as possible about these statement. Are you saying that he does not represent democratic values or democratic principles? Please help me follow your train of thoughts about the things he stands for. And when you say we don't know enough about him, what do you mean? What would you like to know more about him? Or are you saying that you don't know someone like him? Or are you saying that him becoming a senator on state and federal level is a farce? Please help me understand your thoughts because I want to atleast understand what you see that I don't. He has a respectable family history with family that served in WWII, his mother raised him with regular American values of work hard and serve others. He helped several families in Chicago overcome some really trying financial times because of steel mills closing. He wants our troops to be respected at home too. He understands the exclusion that so many people feel from our political system.

I can not and will not subscribe to the GOP standards of acceptance (or Clintons to some degree, though I don't think she meant it) of others not like ourselves. "We don't know people like him, so he must be a terrorist or do things as terrorists do..." This is fundamentally wrong! And for me it cuts me deep because that means the same would apply to me, my sons, and anyone else that looks like Mr. Obama or carries himself in a way to respect other that he doesn't agree with or are less than perfect. These are the politics that have made Americans feel cynical about serving as a citizen. You see, it is easy for the GOP to plant seeds like that into peoples head, because America is not use to the new America. America is full of disagreements, full of people that historically don't look like our forefathers and full of people that love this country because it is the land of the free no matter what we look like, sound like, come from, etc.! We must not let the GOP steal our love of country because of the seed planting they have succeeded in doing.

If you are worried about his church issues, let me tell you about my point of view about that. Many times in African American churches, the church is full of a variety of people, some with limited education, some with much, some with criminal backgrounds, some with no such thing, some from wonderful families some from broken homes. The whole gamet is there. Some are angry still over racial differences and want to explain these grievance all the time. Some are not and want those they love to soften up on those issues. See...Barack Obama is a lot like me. He has true compassion for all kinds of people, because that is what he is. I've seen the gamet of people in my life and rather than run away, I stay to understand and hopefully enlighten to a new more open and understanding way of seeing things, black and white. This is what we do as African Americans because we all have one common thread no matter what...exclusion. Exclusion from being a part of mainstream American because of what we like, see and do. The things we like see and do are because of the exclusion. So, we do a dance everyday between being who we are for each other and being enough so that we can be included. So rather than exlude people that are less than perfect we include and hope for change. That is our God given understanding and this is how I choose to believe when it comes to why he stayed in that church for 20 years. It can't be explained easily and I don't expect him to do so.

So, Mr. Hobbs, I request that you seek a new way of thinking by getting to know who he is and what he really stands for with all his imperfections and try to lead your constituents to support a Democrat. This kind of leader comes only once in a life time and I'm banking on him to be a catalyst to a better tomorrow mostly because of the way so many of the excluded view him.

Sincerely,
Ericka McLeod
Human Being
American
Democrat