Obama Supporter Attends Camp Hope in Chicago
by Lily Liberty | January 2, 2009
Yesterday I attended Camp Hope on the Southside of Chicago as both a supporter of President Elect Obama and as an activist and member of CodePINK, Women for Peace, who wants to see the progressive ideas of the campaign become reality. I posted a letter to the President Elect on Chicago Area Code Pink's "Wall of Hope." Here's an excerpt:
"Since you are the same age as my younger brother, I feel emboldened to give you some sisterly advice and to make demands on you that may seem presumptuous at first, but on reflection, are rooted in a year long relationship between us. Last winter, I was one of those dedicated souls who made the trek to your campaign office in Chicago to call hundreds of my fellow citizens across the country asking them to have faith in you. When the spring came, I held meetings in my house in Indiana to train folks newly energized by your words to go door to door on your behalf. I wore your buttons as a badge of honor, and always kept a few in my pocket to give out to the waitresses, flight attendants, police and yes, the homeless hawkers of Streetwise in Chicago who wanted to believe, “yes we can.” As a volunteer in Indiana, I watched you treat a steelworkers daughter in tears over her father’s pension with the same respect you would have given a Senate colleague. During the summer, I distributed yard signs (and paid for them to be made a couple of times), leaflets, and went to Denver to cheer for you. This fall, I saw you early in the morning in a lobby in Columbia, Missouri, already in mourning for your grandmother who was on her final journey, but you still took the time to speak to a small group including some little children who brought a smile to your face. On November 4th, I was in the Grant Park crowd with my 25 year daughter who said, “Mom, you know, I feel like Michelle, I’m finally really proud of my country.” It has been an amazing journey, Mr. President, and I have been with you every step of the way, so today, on the first day of this New Year, I am making a resolution for you:
Be it resolved that this is the year we will end the war in Iraq, use diplomacy in Afghanistan. spend more American tax dollars on jobs, education and the environment than on war and destruction, and restore America’s role as a peacemaker instead of as a war maker in the world.
Standing in the cold, down the street from Operation Push and near Martin Luther King Boulevard, I hoped that the President Elect would take a moment enroute from Hawaii to DC to visit the peace camp in his neighborhood, but knew that it was a dream unlikely to come true. Hopefully, the dreams of those who gathered will become a reality this year. After all, isn't our motto, "yes we can?"
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