This one is for all of us, but especially for some people that I remember from my 59+ years of life:
It's for the very elderly and frail black man who was the first voter I ever registered, as part of a college political science class non-partisan voter registration project in a public housing project in Bloomington, Illinois. He had recently arrived from Mississippi, and he literally had tears in his eyes as he thanked me, and told me that this was the first time in his life that he had been able to register to vote, and the first time in his life that he felt like a real citizen -- and I've literally got tears in my eyes as I sit here thinking about him, 41 years later. I'm sure he's been dead for many years now, but I have a feeling that somewhere, he's smiling today at this day that I'm sure he thought would never happen.
It's for the elderly black lady who, when we were doing some early canvassing for Obama in Annapolis, Maryland last summer, donated $5 to Obama, apologized for the fact that she couldn't give more, and said, "I just hope I live long enough to see that young man become President." The person who canvassed her house (it wasn't me) tried to convince her that perhaps she should keep the money, but she insisted that she WANTED to contribute it! I hope she does, too.
It's for the little black elementary school girl to whom I gave my Obama rally sign at an Obama appearance in Prince George's County, Maryland last fall, who got him to autograph the sign, and who came up to me afterward and said, "Thank you, Mister! He actually SIGNED it and he TOUCHED me! I'm going to keep this sign forever!"
It's for the Obama field staff all over the country, who are without exception the most selfless and dedicated group of young people I've ever seen. As I told at least two of them, never have I made such a productive investment of my money as I did when I contributed to this campaign, at least if it had been spent as wisely as it was on their meager salaries. I want to call those two out personally, because they so impressed me as exactly the kind of young people this country needs as we move into this still-new century:
This one's for YOU, Elizabeth Wilkins and Annick Febrey! You have made me very confident of the future of this country.
It's for the white Iowans who bonded with black Obama field organizers, and the black South Carolinians who bonded with white Obama field organizers, despite the fact that the "experts" said such a thing was impossible, and for the countless Americans who have realized during the course of this campaign that there's a lot more that unites us than there is that divides us.
It's for the countless Obama supporters who sent Christmas cards and letters thanking those of us who were volunteering or working at offices in Iowa over the holidays, who told us how much they appreciated our willingness to be away from our families to work in a cause for which we all believed. We had planned to write thank you letters, but in the confusion of leaving Iowa and moving on to the next states, I suspect that may have fallen through the cracks. Those of you who sent those letters will never know how much energy they gave us during those critical days before the Iowa caucuses.
It's for whoever in the Obama organization came up with the idea of having supporters send those letters. You're a first rate human being, and a genius at motivation!
It's for all the precinct captains in Iowa, which in the county where I spent most of my time ranged from an octogenarian retiree to a 17 year old farm kid who got virtually the entire senior class at his high school to caucus for Barack, and who were willing to put in countless hours for a candidate who didn't look like them, didn't have a name that resembled theirs, but who reminded them of our shared hopes as Americans.
It's for the 203 high school seniors that a team of three of us registered to vote for the first time at two Baltimore City High Schools on the last day of registration for the Maryland primary. I TOLD some of you that your first election was going to be a historic one!
It's for the guy I registered to vote at a filling station in Harrisburg, PA, who didn't know that Pennsylvania law had changed such that his old felony conviction no longer prohibited him from voting.
It's for the new citizen, born and raised in West Africa, that I registered to vote for the first time, and who I was honored to welcome to REALLY being an American citizen.
It's for the young African-American guy that I met on the street in West Philadelphia the week before the primary, who simply assumed that I was working for Hillary because "you kind of look like her." I responded that since I wasn't a woman and she wasn't fat, I assumed that he was referring to the color of my skin. Since my arthritic knees were begging for a short break from going up and down the steps on West Philly rowhouses (which I now know have a LOT more steps than Baltimore rowhouses), we proceeded to have 5 or 10 minutes of one of the most interesting and frank discussions I've ever had on race relations.
It's for the elderly rural Iowa woman that I overheard telling a friend, as she left a Michelle Obama appearance in which she described her parents and how they raised her, "You know, it's really amazing -- her father sounds SO much like my father."
It's for all the sons (and especially daughters) who dragged their mothers and grandmothers to an Obama appearance, and for all the mothers and grandmothers who left those appearances having changed their minds and signed up as supporters of Barack Obama.
It's for my cousin and his wife (who had never before attended a caucus), who took in an Obama speech, bought some Obama buttons, put up a sign in their yard, and caucused for Barack in Iowa. And it's for their father and my uncle, a committed Democrat for many years and a Biden supporter in this election who was a veteran of the Normandy landings and who (I think) has attended every Iowa caucus, who was persuaded by a neighbor to go with Hillary once it was clear that Biden wasn't viable, and explained this to me the next day by saying, "We're all going to have to come together in November, or none of this means anything." I was disappointed in his decision last January, but impressed by its wisdom this June.
And finally, THIS ONE'S FOR ALL OF YOU WHO BELIEVE THAT WHAT UNITES US IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT DIVIDES US!