When Heartland Pigs Fly
November 7, 2008
Community | Social Action
(5 comments)
By Dr. Magda Peck
(First posted on the RACblog)
 Dr. Magda Peck is a member of the URJ Commission on Social Action and chairs its Task Force on Economic Justice, Women and Families. She is a member of Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska where she is a Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The views expressed below are, of course, her own.
When victory for Barack Obama was called just past 10 last Tuesday night, some remarkable things happened.
In the packed Omaha Hilton ballroom where usual Democrat diehards were outnumbered by fresh faces, shrieks of collective disbelief erupted. Deafening shouts of stunning joy filled room. Older Black women sunk into their seats, sobbing, palms raised high praising G-d. Gay couples openly embraced. Swarms of young folks locked arms and jumped up and down for a long, long time. My younger son David, a freshman at American in DC, called: "Ma! Barack Obama is MY President!" Sobbing and laughing, he kept shouting "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" From Omaha to the nation's capital and so many places in between: "shock and awe," redefined.
For the last 18 years, it has not been easy being a passionately progressive, fast-talking East Coast Jew on Election Day (or any other day) in consistently conservative Nebraska. "Go Big Red" is not just about football in this massive state of 77,000 square miles, 1.8 million mostly white people, and just 6,000 Jews. But this year, prairie winds have been shifting.
We knew something was happening last winter when nearly 10,000 people flooded the Civic Center to hear Barack Obama on less than 48 hours notice. A few days later, more than 1,700 people showed up at our polling place alone for the first Democratic caucus in 40 years. The line outside to register persisted for three hours in blustery 14-degree weather. In the end, I cradled a makeshift ballot box for Obama as hundreds and hundreds of people filed by, placing their blue slips of paper in the bulk toilet paper box we had requisitioned from the middle school janitor's closet. "Keep it safe!" they pleaded. "Do you think it will really count this time?" asked an older black man with tears in his eyes.
When the Obama campaign established an office in Omaha and put paid staff on site, we scratched our heads. Then three more offices opened, with more staff and a growing army of volunteers to blanket the district. Back when it was neck and neck, the "Omaha scenario" had some national play. Like Maine, Nebraska splits its electoral votes by congressional district. If Obama took CD2 - Omaha - it could be the one-vote tiebreaker.
Going door-to-door last weekend in 75-degree weather, hope oozed. When doors opened to us in the last hours of daylight on the 4th, most folks were positively beaming: Yes, ma'am, we've voted. There was a swelling pride, a palpable sense of real possibility. And then it happened.
But it was more than just Barack Obama. Within the Black Jewish Dialogue I have convened about once a month for the last 10 years, all five folks running for offices - State Legislature, County Commission, School Board, Learning Community - were elected. All women. Four African-Americans. In all, I counted more than a dozen remarkable friends and colleagues who won their races across the state. Good people grounded in social justice, tired of being discounted, who long to serve and want to assure a reasoned, progressive voice, right here in the Heartland.
It will not be easy service. Our celebration of an American President-Elect who is African-American was deeply sobered this week by the chilling outcome of a widely approved constitutional Amendment 424: a statewide ban on affirmative action in Nebraska's public institutions. Scattered angry voices in letters to the editor and racist talk in high school corridors stoke embers of hatred, fear and retribution.
Given resounding election results elsewhere, the national media have lost interest in an Omaha scenario. But pay attention: As of this morning, that one electoral vote for President from Nebraska's second congressional district is still up for grabs. Ten thousand early and absentee votes are yet to be counted, and today's Omaha World Herald reports that it is looking very good for Barack Obama. It would be a small but significant first in American history to have a state split its Electoral College votes. And for this Nebraska mile marker to coincide with the election of Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama, we must ask ourselves and each other: What is now possible that was not possible before?
Who ever said that pigs can't fly in the Heartland?
Comments
Post a comment
|
Print
Email
Comment
Discrimination against innocent citizens in the name of affirmative action is unfair. Our nation benefits from the concept that the merit of each individual should be the determinative factor in hiring and selection. Two wrongs don't make a right. What we want is an equal playing field. People need to know that if they study, work hard, stay out of trouble and outperform the competition, they will not be handicapped by their race, religion or national origin.