Sustainable Community Solutions

I’ve made my choice among the presidential candidates. I was 99% behind Barack Obama before yesterday (with 1% still considering support for Hillary Clinton, who I would also be thrilled to see in the White House). After attending the Obama rally yesterday at the Target Center in Minneapolis, the 1% of remaining indecision evaporated.

As important as Obama’s moving, eloquent, funny, genuine 54-minute stump speech was in completely winning me over, the energy, diversity and hopefulness of the 20,000-person-strong crowd was perhaps even more impressive. As I waited to enter the building before the rally with my wife Anne and son Jakob in a line that stretched out of sight, I saw eager, excited faces. They were black, white, brown, old, young, affluent and not-so-affluent. In short, they were the faces of America. I happened to be standing behind what appeared to be two generations of a Somali-American family (mother, father, and three younger adults). I talked with the mother, and she said that the Minnesota Somali community is excited about the Obama candidacy, and will turn out in large numbers to vote this Tuesday.

The diversity, energy and size of the crowd in the Target Center made it clear that this excitement is broad and strong. The crowd was surprisingly young for a political event, and (for Minnesota), surprisingly diverse. A candidate such as Obama who has the ability to energize and motivate Americans, especially the young and disenfranchised, stands a chance of building the support for the radical changes we need in this country to build a sustainable society. Obama quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. in speaking of “the fierce urgency of now” on issues of critical importance (the war in Iraq, America’s standing in the world community, health care, education, energy policy and more). His message of “Change we can believe in” is more than rhetoric. It is backed by realistic, thoughtful policy positions that he skillfully wove into his stump speech.

As we streamed out of the Target Center with the still-fired-up crowd after the event and made our way to the Hiawatha Line light rail terminal for the ride to our car parked at Fort Snelling, I felt hope that my 16-year-old son Jakob had seen history in the making. (An aside: if you haven’t ridden the light rail yet, DO IT the next time you’re going to a Twins game, the Guthrie, or any other downtown Minneapolis destination. You’ll enjoy it, and you won’t have to hassle with parking and traffic downtown.) I hope he saw the next president of the United States. I hope you’ll join me at the DFL caucus Tuesday night at the Northfield Middle School (or wherever your local caucus might be elsewhere in Minnesota) in supporting Barack Obama. If you’re looking for a leader, look no farther. Can we make history? Yes we can!