What I love about VP Biden

Joe Biden goes "all in" on everything...he always has.

With Joe - what you see is what you get. Of course, sometimes that gets him into trouble. In this way, VP Biden is pretty much the polar opposite of Barack Obama. But one of the reasons the President made such a good decision in picking him as his running mate is that Joe also goes all in on having your back.

Who are the optimists these days?

Frank Bruni is pessimistic about America.

More and more I get the sense that we’ve lost it, and by “it” I mean the optimism that was always the lifeblood of this luminous experiment, the ambition that has been its foundation, the swagger that made us so envied and emulated and reviled.

We’re walking small. And that shift in our gait and our gumption has been palpable for many years, during an unusually sustained period of frustration that has the feel of something more than a temporary dive: a turned corner, the downward arc of a diminished enterprise.

To bolster his case, Bruni quotes his friends - most of whom are other NYT writers and columnists. Given the current demise of print media, that shouldn't be too surprising. But I suspect he's also speaking for a lot of - here comes the kicker - white Americans.

The very basis of white privilege is that it means not having to listen to the thoughts/opinions/experiences of people of color. If Bruni were to listen, he'd hear a different story. For example, three years ago, Ellis Cose wrote about The New Optimists.

African-Americans, long accustomed to frustration in their pursuit of opportunity and respect, are amazingly upbeat, consistently astounding pollsters with their hopefulness. Earlier this year, when a Washington Post–Kaiser–-Harvard poll asked respondents whether they expected their children’s standard of living to be better or worse than their own, 60 percent of blacks chose “better,” compared with only 36 percent of whites.

Since then, this finding has consistently been repeated. For example:

Although many African Americans identify long-standing problems that still plague the community—such as unemployment and access to high-quality education—the black population remains largely optimistic about the future and satisfied with the direction the country is going in, according to a new survey by Ebony magazine and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Almost 90 percent also said they were either "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the overall quality of their lives, the "State of the Black Family Survey" reports.

And apparently its not just African Americans who are optimistic.

The AP-NORC analysis of data from the General Social Survey, a long-running biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, found just 46 percent of whites say their family has a good chance of improving their living standard given the way things are in America, the lowest level in surveys conducted since 1987. In contrast, 71 percent of blacks and 73 percent of Hispanics express optimism of an improved life – the biggest gap with whites since the survey began asking.

This is an example of how privilege hurts white America. If we weren't so self-absorbed, we'd be noticing this phenomena and asking questions about it. I suspect we'd learn that the election of the first African American president has had a pretty big impact. But I doubt that's the whole story. There is also the fact that we now have a couple of generations who have grown up in a country without the limitations of legal segregation and Jim Crow.

But here's an even more interesting possibility. Its true that - because of their low position on this country's economic ladder - blacks and Hispanics were hit even harder than white people by the Great Recession. But its also true that what happened in 2008 was a great leveler...because it hit white people too. Perhaps, after decades of inequality, black and brown people have developed the ability to hope against these kinds of odds in a way that too many white people in this country haven't.

If there's any truth to that - maybe we have a thing or two to learn. Oops, that might be a bit of a challenge for us.

Mi novia says that it really frustrates White people that no matter how much they know or want to know, there may be an area of experience or knowledge that they cannot access. Bingo, Gringo.

This is another way of saying White Privilege.

How dare the world harbor some sort of Thing that I cannot experience! How dare you insinuate that you possess knowledge I may have to ask you about in humility! How impertinent of you to even imagine that I cannot, with study and great wisdom and effort, also know what it is like to grow up Brown™ in America! The voice of privilege thinks no seat is unavailable, no land unconquerable, no food untasteable, no right deniable, no experience out of reach. It is a slap in the face to this line of thought that there exists an area that cannot be known, even to a WHITE person. Gasp.

President Obama: "I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes"

Yes, President Obama wrote those words. Not only did he write them, he did it in 2006 - during the Bush administration. If you are a Democrat/liberal/progressive, they are jarring, aren't they? Here's a little more context to what he said:

I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes, no matter how much I may disagree with him. That’s what empathy does—it calls us all to task, the conservative and the liberal … We are all shaken out of our complacency. 

Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

I've often thought that one of the most powerful - and least known - speeches of this President is the one he gave at the 2009 Notre Dame graduation (that link is to the transcript, the video is here). In case you've forgotten, his invitation to do so sparked a pretty big controversy over the issues of abortion and stem cell research.  And yet, as the Aikido Way requires, he used the opportunity to "enter into the very center of the conflict" by using the divide in this country over these issues to make the same point he did in the quote above.

In this speech, President Obama scrambled the order of storytelling outlined by Marshall Ganz. He began with the "story of now" and the urgency of the tension we face.

For the major threats we face in the 21st century -- whether it’s global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease -- these things do not discriminate. They do not recognize borders. They do not see color. They do not target specific ethnic groups.

Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history. Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" -- is not easy...

The question, then -- the question then is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonetizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?

And of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.

President Obama then went on to tell the "story of self" about a time when a constituent called him on his lack of open-mindedness about abortion.

And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that -- when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

Throughout the speech the President reminded the graduates of the "story of us" as it has been demonstrated at Notre Dame. But then he connected that story to one that tied the "us" to a larger one.

I stand here today, as President and as an African American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Now, Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the "separate but equal" doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the 12 resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

There were six members of this commission. It included five whites and one African American; Democrats and Republicans; two Southern governors, the dean of a Southern law school, a Midwestern university president, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame. So they worked for two years, and at times, President Eisenhower had to intervene personally since no hotel or restaurant in the South would serve the black and white members of the commission together. And finally, when they reached an impasse in Louisiana, Father Ted flew them all to Notre Dame’s retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin where they eventually overcame their differences and hammered out a final deal.

And years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.

Finally, he called us to the kind of empathy that he talked about in that first quote up above:

Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family, the same fulfillment of a life well lived. Remember that in the end, in some way we are all fishermen.

What he's telling us is that the challenges that encompass the fierce urgency of now will only be faced when we can "try to see the world through George Bush's eyes." That is a high calling for any of us to accept. But it is one this President has answered in the affirmative.

A serious question

Has anyone ever seen Maureen Dowd and Peggy Noonan in the same room?

I'm not totally sure why these two women get under my skin so much. I suppose it has to do with their very obvious "daddy issues" (a sure sign of budding authoritarianism) and my distaste for the form of bullying most common with women - relational aggression.

In their two columns I linked above, they both compare President Obama with another leader (men, of course) that they admire at the moment - and find him wanting. I'll give Noonan props for swinging for the rafters in her comparison of the President to Pope John Paul II. Dowd doesn't have the imagination to aim any higher than Adam Silver.

But what they both do is cloak their nasty digs with pearl-clutching concern trolling. Its obvious they're pissed as hell but lack the intestinal fortitude to simply say so. In other words, they fight dirty.

Let's get honest, girls...its obvious that something about this President threatens you to your core. You might want to explore that in the privacy of a conversation with your therapist. After you've done that, perhaps you'll have something worthwhile to say. Whether you ultimately agree with President Obama or not - at least we'd have two of the very few women who are given national platforms in the media not acting like spoiled angry school girls.

Yep, that's why you piss me off. And no, I don't have to hide that anger behind some vicious concern trolling.

POTUS is Funny!!!!

On the eve of the White House Correspondent's Dinner, the folks at ABC have compiled their list of President Obama's funniest moments at the event. But I'm here to tell you that our President's sense of humor is not limited to this annual stand-up routine. Here are some of the times he made me literally LOL.

As we found out in the 2008 primary, he showed us that sometimes the best way to take on low blows from your opponent is not to return tit for tat.


He came up with a great way to suggest why we shouldn't vote for Republicans in the 2010 midterms.


While campaigning for Senator Reid in Nevada, President Obama had some fun pointing out Sharon Angle's extremism.


And when he delivered this one, I KNEW it was all over for Mitt Romney.


But one of my all-time favorites happened before he became POTUS - when he gave the "young brothas a tip."


ENJOY!!!!!

Love + Power = Justice

One of Cornel West's most famous quotes is:

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.

Its a beautiful sentiment that is embraced by progressives because we are drawn to values like love and justice. But theologian Paul Tillich reminds us that there is an ingredient that is missing.

Paul Tillich taught us that the work of justice requires power, and for power to become justice requires love. All three are intimately related. We cannot turn our love into justice without engaging power.

And so the equation would look something like this:

Love + Power = Justice 

Love without power is sentiment and power without love is domination. Neither have the capacity to bring justice on their own.

This is something liberals have struggled with - especially in the post-modern era. I believe that is because we have grown uncomfortable with the concept of power. We see it only in the form of dominance. And because we eschew that form of power, we remain victims of those who dominate and become cynical about the possibility of justice. 

As an example, I'm watching some progressive "thought leaders" respond to the demise of Donald Sterling due to the racist remarks he made that were captured on a recording. Ta-Nehisi Coates is right to suggest that he and Cliven Bundy represent examples of "oafish racism," and contrast it with the more "elegant variety" that is not so easy for white people to condemn. Leonard Pitts makes basically the same point.

The truth is, the idiocy of these men doesn’t mean a whole lot, doesn’t impact much beyond their immediate lives. We hyperventilate about it, yet somehow manage not to be overly concerned as black boys are funneled into prison, brown ones are required to show their papers, voting rights are interdicted, Fourth Amendment rights are abrogated and some guy has his job application round-filed when the hiring woman sees that his name is Malik.

Those are very valid points. But what do they have to do with power, you may ask. In this moment, when the dying beast of white male patriarchy is lashing out at every turn, rather than inspire us all with a victory (and examining the ingredients that made it happen), we are told that it really is no victory at all and asked to once again wallow in victimization. To have done the former would have been to claim the power of success - which is exactly what we need to continue the struggle against the more elegant varieties of racism.

The truth is that the consequences meted out to Donald Sterling happened because the power of both current and former NBA players was wielded. It was not the power of domination - but of partnership.

As I pointed out before, these players had access to money and fame that many others do not. But its also true that working together - they used what they had...and WON! Its instructive to note that former general manager of the Clippers Elgin Baylor was not successful when he acted alone to sue Sterling for racism. 

Yesterday I talked about the power of storytelling to mobilize hope in the face of daunting odds. What we need is not simply to be reminded of the challenges that remain, but a narrative that both captures the essence of success and inspires us to hope for more. For providing us with that, I want to thank the players of the NBA. 

Something we can all learn from President Obama: The power of storytelling

I've been thinking a lot about the speech Jon Favreau gave in Dublin about what he learned from President Obama. In it, he lists several things that have impacted his own writing - like how a simple logical argument is more important than a snappy applause line, that shorter is better, and the value of honesty and authenticity. But Favreau says that the most important thing he learned from President Obama was the power of storytelling to instill a sense of hope, and why that's so important today.

Its interesting to think about why stories are so important. One of the people who has articulated that is Marshall Ganz, professor of community organizing at Harvard and the man the President called on to develop "Camp Obama" during the 2008 election. You can watch Ganz talk about that in this video:


Or if you prefer, you can read about it here.

Ganz breaks the stories leaders tell to engage people in a sense of hope into three parts: (1) the story of self, (2) the story of us, and (3) the story of now. One way we can see the power of that kind of storytelling is to watch Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention...the moment that sparked the seeds of a campaign four years later based on "hope and change."


1. The story of self - "In a sense, all of us walk around with a text from which to teach, the text of our own lives."

Obama tells the story of his father from Kenya and mother from Kansas who shared a common dream:

My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.

2. The story of us - "What experiences and values do we share as a community that call us to what we are called to?...It’s putting what we share into words."

Obama shows how "his story" is also "our story."

I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible...Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago, "We hold these truths to he self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

3. The story of now - "the fierce urgency of now. The story of now is realizing, after the sharing of values and aspirations, that the world out there is not as it ought to be. Instead, it is as it is. The difference between those two creates tension. It forces upon us consideration of a choice. What do we do about that? We’re called to answer that question in a spirit of hope."

After spending some time talking about specific issues and John Kerry's candidacy, Obama highlights the tension and the choice we face.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

Finally, he reminds us of stories from our past that demonstrate what it means to hope in the face of daunting odds.

It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope!

If you have any doubts about the power of storytelling, just remember that prior to this speech Barack Obama was an unknown state senator from Illinois. The moment after it was done, people started talking about the possibility of him being our first African American president - a prescient thought. That's why its the most important lesson Jon Favreau learned from President Obama. I'd suggest we might all do well to pay attention.