The Fifteenth Amendment and Senator Obama

Back in 1870 our Constitution was amended to allow all men the opportunity to vote, regardless of race or previous servitude. I understand that women were upset at being left out of the mix.

Will the story be the same this year? Are we willing to elect an African-American man before we are willing to elect a woman?

It is probably unfair to reduce the complexity of each candidates positions down to race vs. sex, but it does cause me to wonder how far we have grown as a culture since 1870....

"Down the Rabbit Hole" by Peter Abrahams

I have just finished Peter Abrahams' Down the Rabbit Hole and I have to give this book very high marks. I was pulled in by Ingrid, the thirteen year protagonist of this novel, in the first paragraph as she sits in the waiting room of her orthodontist. Ingrid is musing about how all of a sudden one seems to move from cute, cute, cute baby and the next minute you are an adolescent who is getting teeth straightened, skin treated, and the bloom seems to be off the rose. Mr. Abrahams had my attention and as I followed Ingrid through soccer practices, play rehearsals, and visiting relatives. I found the story engaging and entertaining.

I am also impressed with the adults in this novel. Often in teen literature (and more often in movies) most of the adults are idiots, charactures of real people. I found the sheriff and Ingrid's grandfather particularly charming characters who added much to the story.

My only real complaint with this story was the introduction of the idea of "Down the Rabbit Hole", but in the big picture that is a minor complaint.

I give this bad boy four paws up, on the cat scale of rating books.

Brother Mo visits Green Bay...

It is 5:25 p.m. Central Time. The Giants are just about to play the Packers in zero degree weather at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Of all the teams going into the playoffs, the Giants scare me the most. The "All-Joe" concept, their wins on the road, week after week. They seem to have Big Mo on their side.

The talking heads on television say that cold weather usually means a lower scoring game, which favors the underdog. That would be the Giants.

Earlier this week I read an article in the NYTimes about the honorary captains for the Giants this week. Harry Carson, linebacker in the Giants heyday with Bill Parcels, and U. S. Army Colonel Greg Gadson. Colonel Gadsen played linebacker at West Point during the same time as the receiver's coach, Mike Sullivan. Last May Colonel Gadson lost both of his legs from the knee down to a IED in Iraq. Coach Sullivan visited Colonel Gadson at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC during week three of the season. Gadson ended up speaking to the Giants who were so moved by his words that he was given a standing ovation after his talk. Colonel Gadson has been with the Giants in Tampa and tonight in Green Bay.

I want the Packers to win, but Colonel Gadson and company scare me. Go Pack!

Iowa Caucuses and Week Two of the NFL Season......

As I was pounding out the miles (or tenths of a mile) this evening on the treadmill (it's 6° outside) and it dawned on me that Week Two of the NFL season has a lot in common with the Iowa primaries. Obama won in Iowa and it looked like he was off to the races. In Week Two of the NFL season the New England Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants. So what do these early victories mean now?

Senator Obama was brought back to earth five days after his Iowa victroy when Senator Clinton posted a come-from-behind win in New Hampshire. Now the two are out in Nevada fighting over Dr. King's legacy and it looks like the race could go down to the wire. Senator Obama proved that his message of vision and optimism connected with people here in the Heartland, but that was early in the race.

In the second week of the football season the Patriots were hunkering down after being accused of cheating in the first game of the season against the New York Jets. What happened in Week Two? The Patriots blasted the Chargers (38-14) and the next several teams, as they sought to show everyone that they weren't the cheaters we made them out to be on talk radio and television.

Also in Week Two the Packers traveled to New York with no running game and took advantage of a New York defense that was still learning a new defensive system with a 35-13 win. Now the Packers have a running game thanks to Ryan Grant (picked up from the Giants of all teams) and Brandon Jackson and the Giants have a defense that has found their rhythm.

So what does the early victory mean for anyone? Not a whole lot at this point. Senator Obama will continue to take the high road, the Patriots look to stay unbeaten, the Giants are happy they are on the road (where they are 8-1 this year), Packer fans can't believe they are in the Championship game with a 38 year old quarterback who hasn't missed a game since 1993, and the Chargers look to run their way to the Super Bowl.

There is a lesson or a metaphor in there some where, but for me, it's time to go hit the water and continue trying to make some sense of all of this.

The Race Card in New Hampshire?

On Tuesday night Hillary Clinton pulled off a surprise and beat Barack Obama, 39% to 36% in the Democratic side of the New Hampshire Primary. I was surprised by this and today I heard an explanation about what might account for the difference between expectations of Tuesday morning and the reality of Tuesday night. This theory is that the fine people of New Hampshire were unwilling to tell pollsters that they were reluctant to vote for a black man. Hmmm. Is this the race card, which I have worried about, raising up to bite us all...

Somehow this theory doesn't quite fit with me. If a pollster called, why would you say Obama if you really wanted someone white. Pollsters just ask who you support, they don't cross examine your rationale for deep-seated feelings of racial issues.

At this point I can't say that I am on board with the "people lied to pollsters and then voted white" theory.

Wonksville

So the suits on television this morning think the nominees for the national political conventions will be Obama and McCain. Who would have thought that a year ago? I am starting to think that we ought to get rid of the Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008) where twenty states have primaries or caucuses. Right now the whole primary season is going to be a month long. I would like to have a longer opportunity to have the candidates share their visions. That said, I also think that campaigning ought to be limited to the year before the election. I know that you can't limit how people campaign, I can hear my son mentioning the constitutional right to free speech.

The Morning After Iowa...

Gravity seems to be cranked up a notch or two this morning, and NPR is screaming an endless flow of Iowa blather. So Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator Barack Obama fly out of Iowa having come out on top. Here are a couple of thoughts.

Sigh. The winning Republican candidate in the Iowa caucuses is a former Baptist minister. I suppose that in the friendly confines of the corn fields of Iowa, Mike Huckabee is a fine choice. He has executive experience, being the former governor of Arkansas, which is a plus (although that experience didn't seem to help Jimmy Carter very much). Now, Governor Huckabee heads to New Hampshire where there is a lot less corn and Senator John McCain and Governor Mitt Romney are waiting. I guess this is where we see if Governor Huckabee's campaign has legs.

My beef isn't with Governor Huckabee, it is with the 2008 version of the Republican Party. I wish the Republican party were a little more "big tent" and not controlled by people for whom abortion and religion are so important. We almost have a three party system these days. We have the Democrats, the evangelical Republicans, and we have old-school (Goldwater?) Republicans like McCain, and Gulianni. You would think that there would be a large group of people who would want to get behind a party that is fiscally conservative and moderate on social issues.

On the Democratic side, I see three good choices. John Edwards impresses me with his optimism and energy. Senator Obama seems to have demonstrated that his message has weight with his showing in Iowa. If he can do that well in a conservative state, I would expect that his campaign may continue to have voters jump on the bandwagon. And then there is Hillary. If Hillary were a man, would she be a non-Mormon version of Mitt Romney? She seems unflappable as a candidate. I am excited about having candidates other than rich white men. I can't figure out how much of the resistance to Hilary is anti-female versus people who bristle at Hillary's personality (which is she were a man, I don't think her lack of warmth would be an issue). It will be interesting to see how Senator Clinton rebounds from Iowa and how her message plays in New Hampshire.

So now we have five days of New Hampshire news. Can the Romney and Senator Clinton camps afford another below-expectation finish? How will Governor Huckabee play in the Northeast?

The Red Kayak

Early this morning I finished Priscilla Cummings' Red Kayak in my attempt to read the Division Two nominees for this year's Maud Hart Lovelace Book Awards (http://www.maudhartlovelace.org/nominees.htm). This is my third title from this year's nominees (Goose Girl and The Schwa was Here are the other two) and I would rate Red Kayak as the third best read.

The Red Kayak is about three eighth-grade boys and their families that leave near the Chesapeake Bay region in Maryland. The boys begin the book as friends but gradually drift apart as the story unfolds. The main central themes in this story have to do with how families deal with the loss of young child, and how young men learn how to navigate the tension between keeping friends and doing "the right thing".

This story is less about unexpected plot twists and more about how will the main character, Brady, will resolve the dilemma of trying to please his neighborhood friends when he knows that those same boys have crossed a serious line.

I was disappointed when I first learned that the main characters were eighth graders. I guess I was hoping for a bit more mature character to follow though the backwaters of Maryland. My initial response was that eighth graders don't act this way, but as I consider some of the young men I see in eighth grade I am less sure about that analysis. At times Brady and his friends act much younger, and at times they seem like high school students, but that is very characteristic of eighth graders. I am going to continue to ruminate about this....More to follow.

I would give Red Kayak and eight out of ten.