[Dialogue] Caroline Kennedy's Endorsement

[AWOODEWM at aol.com]

Thank you Caroline! 

(Also, I would recommend an article in the January 28th New Yorker ...Page 28 
"The Choice.")

Anne Wood


By CAROLINE KENNEDY

Over the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they
wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did
when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That
is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries,
Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are 
intertwined. 
All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that 
they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the 
generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet 
young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask 
me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to 
get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and 
imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such 
a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we 
know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn't that the other
candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not
be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we
did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences.
However, the candidates' goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed 
plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early 
childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a 
larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two
decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in 
Illinois, where   around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was 
an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the 
same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of 
politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young 
people — known for a
willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in 
the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools
and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of
age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many
of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a
responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their 
power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents' 
grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken
eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his
character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack
Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by
opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate
a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those
around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of
those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world
who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and
make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my
father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man
who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of
Americans






**************
Start the year off right.  Easy ways to stay in shape.
     
http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080127/78b0d8bf/attachment.html