Catch Up Musings

I just found the draft of the post below which apparently never got posted at the time.  It would have been sometime in the spring of 2008.  Since then, Barack Obama was elected twice and has been our President for eight years.  In only 21 days, he will be succeeded by Donald Trump.  Unbelievable.

Time has flown. It has been ten days since I last posted. During that time, I was privileged to meet Caroline Kennedy, have a brief handshake and conversation with Senator Barack Obama, turn 61, endure a somewhat disappointing Texas primary, preside over a Texas Two-Step precinct convention (non-Texans refer to them as caucuses), and prepare mentally and emotionally for the balance of the Democratic Party nomination process.

During her visit to my city, my wife was even more privileged than me and had the opportunity to join Caroline Kennedy for a casual lunch at a local restaurant with a small group of women. You have to keep in mind that John Kennedy (and to a lesser degree, his younger brothers Bobby and Teddy) are revered by the older Hispanic community along the Texas/Mexico border. To this day, it is not uncommon to find a small shrine, or nicho, on the walls of many homes with the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a photo of JFK side by side. At lunchtime, Pepe's Mexican restaurant is crowded with locals at lunch including more than a few older Mexican women. My wife (who is Mexican but certainly not older) described her lunch with Caroline as fun, intimate, interesting, awesome and incredible. As they were leaving Pepe's and some of the older women patrons began to realize who Caroline Kennedy was (they apparently have followed her life and career since she was a small girl and recognized her), they began to cry. After almost 45 years, they were apparently thinking of their fallen icon and seeing that young girl standing next to her mother and her even younger and saluting brother (now dead himself) in that famous photo at JFK's memorial service.

It was hard not to at least think there might be a seed of a similar admiration growing in the young high school and college students who clamored to meet Barack Obama in Brownsville in a series of impromptu events a couple of days later -- quite a contrast to the carefully planned and closed event earlier that same afternoon.

At that event, my wife and I helped clear the local press and media into an invitation only roundtable discussion at the University of Texas at Brownsville. Obama met with ministers, priests, and leaders of religious groups from all over South Texas and other parts of the state. The purpose of the event, I suppose, was to introduce Obama to these folks as a genuine church-going Christian and to allow the representatives of the faithful to interrogate him and test the authenticity of his faith and beliefs. To be perfectly blunt, it was probably also intended to counter the massive and none too subtle or underground campaign to convince voters that Obama is a Muslim (code in some small decidedly non-Christian minds for "foreigner" or "un-American" or "unpatriotic" or even "terrorist"). I have to say that I was impressed that Obama was candid and steadfast in his statements and answers with no pandering or sucking up. He described his non-religious upbringing and his introduction to organized church-going religion as an adult community organizer. In his mind, there seemed to be a logical link between his Christian faith and the social justice aspects of his work.