Hello Everyone:

We are finally back home and into a somewhat normal routine for the family.  It has truly been a once in a lifetime summer.  The blessing of being able to attend the Democratic National Convention as a family is one that we will always cherish.  Gary Jr. and Cameron’s blogs have been a big hit locally and a school project they will tell their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren about for generations to come. And then to come home and a week later go to Urbanworld Film Festival with our movie project, Sister’s Keeper, it has just been more that we can digest.

We have followed up our convention attendance with ACTION! We have been making phone calls, talking to people everywhere we go, going canvassing, and preparing for voter registration deadlines to make sure we get all voters registered to turn NC Blue.  Please join us in our efforts.  Contact the Obama campaign office in your area or contact us directly to join us in our efforts. 

Here are just a few photos from the convention we wanted to share with you:

Okay..it’s off to the Obama office to volunteer.  See you there!

Hi Bugg Students:

We have had the best time in Denver.  We wish you all could have come with us.  Here is our final report on the Democratic National Convention.

Hello Bugg Students and Teacher:

We finally made it inside the Pepsi Center today for the Democratic National Convention. Check out the speeches and people we saw! 

We can’t wait to see Barack Obama tonight!

Hi Mrs. Page and Bugg Students:

We are having lots of fun and learning all about our country and Barack Obama.  We went to a youth participation meeting today and learned about the voting process.

If you saw the television coverage of the convention, I can tell you it does NO justice to the event. Words cannot even begin to describe the emotion and sense of history felt by participating in an event of this magnitude.

The highlights of the first day were to many to describe. There is media everywhere. The number of delegates is about 4,000 and the media in attendance is over 15,000. You literally bump shoulders or step on someone’s foot, go to apologize, and realize you stepped on the guy from CNN! Go figure. I did a shout out on the Michael Baisden show, an interview on Sirius talk radio show with Mark Thompson, and interviews with local Raleigh television stations WRAL and WTVD.

After the initial excitement goes from a boil to a strong simmer, the purpose of the convention takes hold. The speeches by everyone, from citizen common Joe, to Senator Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama, remind us of the seriousness of the occasion and the importance of the decisions we are making on a daily basis. For every decision there is a consequence, and our children will reap the rewards or repercussions of the judgments we make. It is a responsibility we all should be taking to heart.

I will update you on more details later, including the networking and the parties!

Hi Mrs. Page and Bugg Elementary Teacher and Students:

Today was a great day!  We were interviewed by David Crabtree from WRAL-TV and Larry Stogner from WTVD-TV.  Did you see us on the news? 

Here are other highlights from our day in Denver, including an interview with State Representative Dan Blue.  Tomorrow, we will bring your our Nickelodeon interview, so stay tuned for details on that.

Hi Bugg Students:

Gary and Cameron have arrived in Denver!  They will bring you updates as the convention begins on Monday evening.  Here is their travel video.  Feel free to respond and ask and questions.

HELLO ALL!!

What a way to countdown to Denver and the DNC!!  This NC Democratic Delegate honor is NO JOKE!  The emails…mailers…letters, you name it…it just keeps coming and coming and coming.  Gary and I are going to kill ourselves trying to DECIDE what to do.   There are so many activities going on and for such great causes, that we hate we can’t participate in them all.  However, we will keep you "posted" and will blog every day, so you can enjoy this along with us.

With even more excitement leading to Denver, Barack Obama made another appearance in Raleigh today.  The event was a town hall meeting forum that dealt specifically with economics.  He opened the meeting with a speech outlining his economic plan.  He dealt with energy, education, and many other topics.  Then, the floor was opened for audience questions.  The questions from our great NC citizens were thought provoking.  Questions ranged from his adminstration’s stance to remove labeling for disabled children in conjunction with health care reform to his plans to increase spending in the scientific research fields.  He also covered questions pertaining to veteran’s benefits and what can be done about the disproportiate number of African-American men in the penal system.

Gary, Sr. and I watched in awe of his charisma with the audience.  He even kept Gary Jr.’s attention!  Gary Jr. was taking photos of him the whole time.  Mr. Obama made Gary Jr.’s day by shaking his hand as he was leaving.  I am glad we can experience these things as a family.  He will remember all of this for many years to come.

Mr. Obama’s insight, truthfulness and interaction was a thing of beauty to behold.  (Especially after eight years of George Bush’s "great moments in presidential speeches").  Here is a sampling for your enlightenment.

What an exciting day!  We are continuing on our path as Delegates to the Democratic National Convention. We held our Listening to America Platform Meeting today in our home. The experience literally brought some of us to tears.

The purpose of the Listening to America Platform Meeting is to set the platform that will be presented at the Democratic National Convention.  Usually, political parties write the platform and present it to the American people. This year, the Obama campaign is effecting change.  The party is opening its platform process to all of us to participate in.  Our meeting had local political representation by Dan Blue, Democratic member of the North Carolina House of Representatives.  Mr. Blue is also a member of the Democratic Platform Committee that will assist in drafting the statements from all the Listening to America Platform Meetings that will be held.  We had a moderator from the Obama campaign to assist us in keeping our meeting productive, as well as, local Obama campaign field organizers Joshua Vincent and Jeff Mallare.

The meeting was opened by my husband, Gary Hooker with a warm welcome and remarks. Mr. Blue, as well as the Obama campaign staff, gave us an update on the importance of the State of North Carolina in the general election and the progress being made to turn NC Blue..(no pun intended, Mr. Blue).

We proceeded to take a consensus of the policies and issues we wanted to address as a group.  Among the top concerns, were the economy, energy, education and healthcare.  No surprises there.  What was surprising was the impromptu discussion and comments on the process of the Listening to America Platform Meeting.  We ended up having a conversation on race, as Barack Obama encourages us to do. Appreciation was vocalized and expressed for the diversity of races, cultures and ethnicities that  attended.  It speaks to the movement that is spreading across our county of inclusion, education, and empowerment.  We all spoke to the need to respect each other and that the respect must be at the foundation of all we do in order turn ideas into action that will benefit all Americans. All participants were vocal, energized and optimistic about the work to be done. 

We then broke into smaller groups to formulate policy statements that will be forwarded to the platform committee. Afterwards, statements for policy were reviewed and sent to the Barack Obama policy committee.

In closing, I just want to say that it’s time to get involved.  No matter where you are, you can host or attend a Listening to America Platform Meeting.  Take action now….as Nike says.."Just do it".

Hello Everyone:

As promised, we wanted to keep you posted on the what has been happening since being elected as a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Denver, CO.

Have you ever wanted to ask someone a question, but were afraid to? Well, in one of the replies to the congratulatory email Gary sent out someone, overcame that fear and asked me a question that prompted a "conversation on race".  I believe it is the type of dialogue Barack Obama envisioned Americans having when he gave his speech on race. I hope you find it interesting and will post a reply. The conversation is outlined below:

Lisa, Gary and Gary, Jr.

WOW!

first please do keep me posted. This is exciting news. And I’m just an outsider watching. So I can’t imagine how exciting this is for you guys. Being a white guy, in a country that has always elected males to the top office, and all those males being white guys too, we’ve never faced this decision.

So Lisa, let me ask you–I am sure that you have selected Obama to support because he is your choice as best candidate. But I am curious–did the choice between supporting a woman or a black man cause you any curiosity? I commend your choice, by the way. Maybe me being neither black nor female created no outside influences that might have shadowed my choice. But when writing that, I wonder how you dealt with that–the choice of two unique selections?

Here was my reply:

Thanks for the congratulations! We have been so moved by the outpouring of support that we have received from people. We think this election is truly historic and pivotal in our nations future. So much so, that it actually motivated us to get up and do something!

Thank you for your question. It is a great complement that you feel comfortable enough to ask me that, so I will be totally honest with you. If Barack Obama had not come along, we would gladly have been Clinton supporters. Actually, until we actually started to listen to his message, we were still Clinton supporters.

Gary actually asked me the same question. As a black women, where did I identify most? Here is what I told him:

In this county, I am black first and a women second. I have to overcome the subconscious thoughts people have when they first meet, see, or encounter me. The first thing they see is Black. How do I know this? Because it is not commented that I am a woman. It is that I am a black woman. The issue of race is still on the front burner, even if people don’t choose to acknowledge it. Things have improved in a major way, but there is so much more work to be done.

My decision to support Barack is not because he is half-black. It is because he is half-white. He has the ability to reach in an bring about a healing, that if complete, can move us all to another level. A level that I don’t think has even been acknowledged as being there or being attainable, by most of us. We need more than just a economy boost, although that is basic. I think we need an awakening to the fact that we are all inter-dependent and need to work together to accomplish what is in everyone’s best interests. I think he can lead the movement in that direction, but we all must participate.

I could go on regarding foreign policy, taxes, honesty, etc, but I won’t. I hope this answers your question. Feel free to engage us at any time.

And his reply follows:

My first reaction, Lisa, to what you’ve written–changed almost as soon as I thought it. Your comment about being black first; woman second hit me at first as incorrect.

But then, I stopped to remove me and my own feelings from my reaction, and instead looked at it as you describe it–and know that you are right.

Example–a month ago, I was with some friends at a restaurant lounge when one of the wait staff walked by. And someone commented that she was an "awfully cute young black woman." I chastised him for his comment. He and the others got all hung up on my fussing at him, thinking that I was referring to sexist connotations, as in don’t compliment females, etc.

I explained that no, my comments were not directed at the "cute", the "woman" or even the "young" part, but rather the descriptive use of race, when he said "black."

Took me a few minutes to get everyone to see my point but I think that I finally did–that a. there was only one person at that time walking by us, so there was no need to qualify the statement with either black or young; we knew who he meant. and b. if the woman had been white, would he have said, "cute young white woman"? or would he simply have said, "cute young woman?" and if he would not have used the race designation to describe the white woman, then why would he feel the need to use the race designation of black to describe this particular woman?

And that by doing so, I felt that he was displaying his inherent racism–not malicious, not intended, not even directed–but the fact that he felt the need to add that designation to his description just points out that in his mind, he sees a distinction.

I remember once telling a college professor that I felt that I was not prejudiced by race; he answered me by saying, "then, you are truly an amazing white man." I accept his point. I think that our need to distinguish person A from person B takes the lazy way out, the "old fashioned" way out, and falls back on the obvious–color of skin, build of body (fat man, skinny woman), gender–rather than working to find the true heart of the person and know him/her for that. In my half-century plus of living on this earth, I believe that I’ve made tremendous strides for a good old southern boy–but even I fall back on those lazy ways sometimes, sorry to say.

I wanted to post this to encourage the dialogue to continue. We are all in this together and we feel that conversation that leads to understanding can only improve the situation for everyone. Wouldn’t it have been great if Jesse Helms had been able to engage in dialog like this.

Please post your thoughts to keep the dialogue going.