Part One Notes
The following is notes from my reading of the Preface and Part One.
Preface Notes:
Presidency is still ‘just a job’. Federal governement is a human enterprise.
Basic FACTS are taken for granted.
Do we CARE to match the REALITY of America to it’s IDEALS?
Equity for ALL or just a privileged FEW.
We will learn to recognize the dignity of others or we will PERISH.
Can we live up to our CREED?
Part One Notes:
The President is a TEA DRINKER!
His story about the Gardener was beautiful. READ IT!
The MOM – Personal was POLITICAL. (Astounding WISDOM)
Mixed Race- From everywhere and nowhere ALL AT ONCE.
Refuge in BOOKS!! (yay)
“Their views were rooted in actual communities, actual struggles.” EXAMPLE: ‘Here is what these budget cuts mean in my neighborhood. Let me tell you about my school, BEFORE you complain about affirmative action….”
CHICAGO! The city that changed the arc of Barak’s life. (MY LOVE – Chicago)
It is okay to doubt and questioning still reach for something beyond the here and now.
Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago. A political campaign on racial redress CREATES/ED FEAR, BACKLASH, LIMITS ON PROGRESS.
** (My opinion of what happened and why Trump after Obama happened)
HOPE was Harold Washington, the seed of the HOPE he accomplished in his FIVE YEARS, planted a seed in President Obama.
Enthusiasm makes up for a host of deficiencies.
Michelle (to Barak) “If there is a hard of easy way you choose hard every time.”
NINETY PERCENT OF THE TIME VOTERS BACK HOME WERE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!!!
(PREACH)
Barak’s speech in 2002! At the protest! I remember this so clearly and from then on I paid attention to him, and when the early rumbling of him running was one of the most HOPE filled I have ever felt in politics.
ALSO- Regarding the speech in 2002 to find out that “Right away they KNEW the WAR was a MISTAKE.” The sheer arrogance of it all. To think that we JUST left Afghanistan…….no words.
LISTEN- The focus was listening.
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
How many YEARS in chamber to ACTUALLY make a difference.
(Astounding)
Harry Reid, “JUST RUN, Schumer thinks so too.”
NEW VOICE.
Teddy Kennedy, “You don’t choose the time, the time chooses you.”
The America President Obama BELIEVED possible to pass on to his kids. That Democracy was within reach.
The lyrical prose of the writing is wonderful. To be back in this time again is so very soothing. On to Part Two.
