Truth to Power: Obama Addresses Race

It is no secret that I am one of the millions of Americans who has watched this election saga unfold with a great deal of awe pointed in the general direction of Barack Obama. Yes, I once had the great opportunity to intern and provide a menial service to Obama in his first summer as a United States Senator in his Chicago office, and I have a photograph somewhere deep in some box of my fellow interns and I with Obama's arm draped around some of our shoulders. Sadly, if I am completely honest, that alone might be enough for me to vote for him - just that personal connection to such an important public figure makes me feel like I have participated in something far greater than myself.

But there is so much more to it than that. I became acquainted with Obama during my sophomore year in college. When I returned home throughout the year, my Godmother (a fierce crusader against social injustice before, during, and after her time serving with my Godfather, Monsignor Jack Egan) related to me stories of a talented and riveting politician from the South Side of Chicago who was gunning for Peter Fitzgerald's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat. She'd send me clippings from time to time, and I came to know this man through newspaper and magazine articles.

Then, like so many others, I witnessed history when Obama delivered his now famous keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. I remember it well. I sat alone in a dorm room in New York City, captivated as I had never been before by the words of a public figure. I couldn't sleep that night.

And I doubt I will sleep well tonight as I have just finished watching, for the second time, Obama's stirring speech on race from earlier this morning in Philadelphia. Addressing those dinner-table secrets and hush-hush sentiments that we so often pretend do not exist, Obama took the decidedly disgusting words of his own pastor and utilized them to promote progress and understanding in a way that is fundamentally different from anything else on the political landscape. (It reminded me of the Father's Day talk he gave at a South Side church in June of 2005, which is excerpted here, and which made me realize the degree of my own ignorance when it comes to race relations in America.)

And when I am lying awake tonight, internally debating the grand issues which Obama so eloquently addressed this morning, I will become once again, like millions of others, a participant in this presidential election, and that is what makes the Obama candidacy so special. That is the hope that the pundits and the critics so easily dismiss. Some might find his charisma to be a superficial character trait, a misleading attraction. I believe it to be the opposite, to be the foundation for an American rhetoric we might all share down the line, when push comes to shove, and when complacency with the status quo is understood to be good, but not good enough. Words are important. Words reflect our character and our own self-worth. His words, gratefully, reflect a country that might once more direct itself towards its fullest potential. See for yourself below, check out some media reactions here, or read the entire transcript here.

The Sincere Sequel: Tony Earley's "The Blue Star"

Some of us have had the great opportunity to learn under a great educator, those teachers who push forward our learning process and interest beyond expectations within a certain field, but also in the world outside of it. My friend, and Daily Snooze contributor, Alonso (see his previous post here) and I had such an opportunity when we enrolled in a freshman seminar at Vanderbilt about Ernest Hemingway's short fiction. Our professor for the class was the author Tony Earley. Though neither Alonso nor I received exemplary marks, we did gain a newfound hobby: reading and writing short stories.

By the time I signed up for my next class with Earley, essentially a beginner's guide to writing short fiction, I was a senior and had read his two collections of short stories ("Here We Are In Paradise," "Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True"), some of his fiction that appeared in the New Yorker, as well as his debut novel, "Jim the Boy," which garnered high critical praise and has sold upwards of 145,000 copies. The class multiplied my appreciation and understanding of fiction writers, and helped me grow past the self-consciousness that accompanies any sort of artistic endeavor. For that and many other reasons, I am extremely grateful to Prof. Earley.

Now comes Earley's second novel, "The Blue Star," a sequel to "Jim the Boy." A long time coming, some might say, but according to fellow novelist Scott Turow, who reviews the book in the New York Times Sunday Book Review here, some things are worth the wait. For Malcom Jones at Newsweek, the book is, "full of feeling but not sentimental, "The Blue Star" is both believable and enchanting." Expect our review here at the Daily Snooze as soon as we get our hands on a copy. In the meantime, check out this recent interview with Earley on Vanderbilt's website and find out why he (and probably every other successful writer out there) gets excited each time his phone rings.

The Seeing is in the Believing: Rev. Gary Davis Prays the Blues

I heard Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy offer some fascinating personal insights during a recent interview on a Chicago radio show called The Eclectic Company, hosted by musicians Jon Langford and Nicholas Tremulis. The program is one of the last remaining staples of a formerly great lineup at 93.1 on the FM dial, and the rotating hosts usually have a creative musical giant in the studio to discuss those influences on their work that may stray from the mainstream.

Tweedy stumped even the brilliant Langford with some of his random choices, but one they could both agree on was the great Rev. Gary Davis, whose guitar style has played a role in the development of great folkies and blues artists like Dave Van Ronk, the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. I had heard a couple of the Reverend's recordings in the past, but Tweedy's recommendation renewed my interest in the blind bluesman who migrated from Durham to New York during the Great Migration, where he became known as the Harlem Street Singer. I went YouTube hunting and came across this star-studded clip that includes Pete Seeger, Donovan and Shawn Phillips.

I am not a religious person, and when I first heard the Rev. Davis say in this clip that he wanted to play a number that came to him by the Holy Spirit, I admit to rolling my eyes. But then I heard him begin to play and sing like a man possessed. My eyes stopped rolling and I quietly wished that all it took to believe was the ability to see.

Dead or Alive: The Stones, Blind Melon, & William Safire

Sure, we always considered Keith Richards to be the Rolling Stone most likely to succumb to his rock 'n' roll ways, but now there's a report from BBC Radio regarding a plan hatched by the geniuses of the Hells Angels to assassinate Stones frontman, Mick Jagger. (Wasn't this a short-lived sitcom on ABC?) The plot came after the notorious fatal stabbing that occurred during the Stones' 1969 performance at Altamont Speedway in California, where the Angels were both providing and breaching security.

According to former FBI agent Mark Young, the Angels (ironically) chose to make their attempt on Jagger's life by sea near his Long Island vacation home. The Angels were thrown overboard when a storm hit, and the plot went kaput. I think the obvious lesson here is that the Hells Angels should probably confine their outlaw activities to dry land.

In other frontman death and survival news, Blind Melon is back on tour with singer and songwriter Travis Warren filling in for the deceased Shannon Hoon. The Washington Post has this more detailed account of how this came to be, 12 years after a Hoon overdose left his band mates thinking it was all over.

And finally, with Hillary Clinton's front-runner status dead and gone, Barack Obama's buzzword, transformative, has come alive to such an extent as to garner some attention from my favorite wordsmith, William Safire. Safire, a former speechwriter for Dick Nixon and Spiro Agnew (he famously coined Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativism" line), slowed down his Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic career a few years ago and keeps his contributions limited to a recurring column in the New York Times Magazine called "On Language." Check out his latest here, and find out why the original maverick may have been just an opportunistic rancher.

The Phil O'Bannon Vote: Election 2008

My brother Matt sent me this link to an Aspen Times editorial titled, "In election 2008, don't forget Angry White Man," and though it kind of reminds me of an article a few years back in Vanderbilt University's satirical weekly, The Slant, it is nonetheless humorous and relatively insightful.

The author, Gary Hubbell, decries the lack of attention being paid to one key demographic: Angry White Men, of course. These gun-toting, illegal-immigrant-hating, American badasses would never vote for Hillary Clinton, voted in droves for George W. Bush, and sound suspiciously like Dick Cheney clones.

Hubbell claims that these Angry White Men may represent any cultural background, but you've got to wonder what those Angry White Men in the Catholic Church think of Republican nominee John McCain's recent acceptance of Texas pastor John Hagee's significant endorsement. What's the big deal? Not much, except that Hagee has referred to the Catholic Church as "the Great Whore," and cites Hitler's Catholic grade school education as the foundation for his anti-semitic views. Ouch. As a white man who was raised Catholic, that kind of makes me angry.