Reflecting on a President

At a Glance

Who: Barack Obama
What: Elected President of the US
When: One year ago today
Why: Multi-faceted choices
How: Democratic election process

One year ago today, we elected a president who said he had hopes, dreams, and plans for his country--our country.

Today, after a year of listening to him, and watching him with his fellow citizens, I recall "Election 2008" and ponder. Suddenly, a thought crosses my mind:

I wonder how it'd feel to be president
To be hated by many a resident
Who wished you would die
And when you asked why
They'd groan and say with a sigh--
"I just don't like how you look."

Like stanzas in a sonnet the words repeat with a different ending:
"I still think you're just a crook."
"Your decisions are from the wrong book."
"I think he's involved with the cook."
"Your mandate, Sir, you mistook."
"Your numbers are better on Facebook."

Until at last, it ends and the last verse is exactly the same as the first:
"I really just don't like how you look."

One year ago today, people voted for the candidate who became president for many reasons. For some it was because he was from their party, and therefore, he was--their choice.

Others voted for him because they couldn't stand anyone else in their party.

Some people just liked him, and therefore, he was--their choice.

There were those voted for him because their party selected people they could not ever bear to see in the White House, so they chose the candidate of the other party. While others voted because "it was time for someone from another race" to fill the position.

And then, there were those who refused to vote at all because of any one of, or all of, the above reasons, and therefore, this candidate was their choice.

Whatever the reason he received the votes, on November 5, 2008, Barack Obama became the 44^th president and the headlines across the United States proclaimed "Obama elected as racial barriers fall" or something similar.

But, I wonder if he agreed that headline.

I wonder what it really felt like to him to be multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-racial in a country that is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-racial and the headlines don't just read "Obama Wins!"

Because, according to researchers, the truth of the matter is this: Barack Obama is multi-racial just like several US presidents before him--at least that is what researchers say.

I guess whether people believe it or not depends on whether or not they trust the research of others.

Researchers say Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, Harding, Coolidge, Jefferson, Eisenhower (just to name a few) were multi-racial. If so, then "where's the beef"?

Sadly, I think "the beef" often lies in two areas. First, many don't read. Second, many don't research so they don't know about the "one-drop rule" that made people "Negro" no matter how light the brownness of their skin.

People too often accept as true what is seen on the surface.

So, decades ago people were "Negro" whether they looked like it or not. But if the skin were very light brown, who knew the person was a "Negro", if they didn't know?

However, it wasn't always a crime to be multi-ethnic and multi-cultural and/or multi-racial in the United States. One was a person and one was judged by the content of his or her character.

There was a time, in this country, when most people who arrived on ships from the East, were free. They interacted freely with each other. They married and bore children without condemnation or fear.

I wonder if, in his times of reflection, Barak Obama might ever wish for that long-ago time.

I wonder if he ever thinks "I wish they would like me or hate me because of what I do, what I say, what I accomplish or fail to accomplish."

One year ago today we elected a president. If he succeeds, may it be because he led correctly. If he fails, may it be because he led incorrectly.

Not because he was the first president with skin brown enough for us to notice.

Cookie Crumbs Along the Trail

At a Glance

Who: June Curry, "The Cookie Lady"
What: Adventure Cycling Association's Trail Angel Award given her name
Why: Over 30 years of service to bicyclists from around the world
E-book: http://majka.us/cookielady/default.htm


For 53 years June Curry, a self-described "plain old country girl", lived by the side of the road on Afton Mountain. She never did anything to gain recognition, never went anywhere she wasn't taken, until the day a lone cyclist asked for a drink of water.

That one act of goodwill ultimately lead to cycling-world recognition when Adventure Cycling Association honored the Afton, Virgina resident who has become known to bikers as "The Cookie Lady."

In 2003, their Trail Angel Award, which honors a person or group for an act of goodwill toward a cyclist, was named The June Curry Trail Angel Award.

It all began in the humid heat of a Virginia afternoon as a lone cyclist pedaled hard to reach the top of Afton Mountain. His map indicated there was a grocery store in the town, and he needed to find it.

When he saw an old man in a garage by the side of the road, he stopped to ask for a drink of water.

He was told, "Sure, hook up the hose and help yourself!"

That's how June Curry and her family learned that when planning a biking celebration of America's 200th birthday, one group had plotted its course through Virginia, up the steep grade of Afton Mountain, with a stop at the Afton grocery store.

"If they had asked us or if we had known what they were doing, we could have told them that store had closed!"

By mid July, as more and more tired, thirsty bicyclists stopped to ask for water, June's uncle suggested that a sign be put up to tell bikers cold water was available.

"It was just a hose draped over an old piece of scrap wood with the words, "WATER FOR BIKERS' painted on it, but they knew they were welcome."

Nearly 1000 bicyclists stopped that year, and June, who says she doesn't like to cook, started baking cookies, making lemonade and later entire meals for them.

Then 55 years old, June still lived up the hill from her uncle's house where she was born on February 8, 1921.

"I always wanted to travel, but never did," she says--almost wistfully. (During her brief marriage, she'd only been to Illinois and Vallejo, California.)

She never learned to drive or ride a bike, either.

However, through the postcards sent to her from bikers she hosted over the years, she has been around the world.

"The cards are hung on ribbons all over the house." she says. "It's nothing fancy--just memories."

When her uncle died in 1977, he left his house to his brother who honored him by making it The Bike House, a hostel for the bikers he enjoyed so much. It includes a stocked pantry, a cold-water shower, couches with plenty of bedding--and rules: No drinking allowed ever, and smoking only outside.

In 1990 the bikers learned of the death of June's father and established a memorial fund in his name, which still provides part of the money that helps keep the hostel operating.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it alone," she says.

When June was 79, Mary Alissa Wilson, a rural neighbor who had heard of her, blogged: "Sometimes the very best adventures are those in your own neighborhood. ...I'd heard of the Cookie Lady, but never took her seriously enough."

An injured biker with a sore need needed a ride up Afton Mountain and they met his group at June's house.

"[She was] amazing. The Cookie Lady is delightful, full of energy, happy to chat... Her hospitality was an inspiration. We need more people like her."

After 33 years and serving over 40,000 cyclists (some have estimated), June still lives in the house by the side of the road, befriending those who ride the Trans-America and other bike trails that take them up -- and down -- Afton Mountain.

When Beverly Haven, June's cousin's wife, met her a few years ago, she listened to the stories as June told them and heard some of them firsthand from bikers who stopped to visit.

"She had so many stories, I knew they had to be saved," Beverly said.

"You need to write a book!"

"I can't write," June responded, "but I can talk. So you write, and I will tell you the stories."

The stories were compiled in the book "The Cookie Lady of Afton, Virginia" and was made available online so everyone could have access and remember.

And they do remember.

Some still write or call her. Others blog about her, recalling the food, the conversations and most of all -- the cookies. Since she has had a stroke, there are times now when she says she has had to tell some of them that she cannot remember their visit (sometimes over 20 years ago).

She laughs about it as she says, "I don't remember what I did yesterday, but I do remember the stories, and maybe that's because I want to."

June Curry never asked for "a house by the side of the road" but it's what she was given. Without ever intending to, she has lived the words of the poem, and bicyclists have dropped crumbs from her cookies all along the tail.

NOTE:
Pictures from the book "The Cookie Lady of Afton, Virginia", are used with the author's written permission.

1. June Curry
2. The houses and garage on the side of Afton Mountain.
3. June with her postcards from around the world.

I'm Not Gonna be Able to do It!

Who: Me
What: Critiquing a blog post
When: Each week
Where: Online Blogs
Why: An attempt to help--but I cannot do it.


BLOG IN PROGESS 11/5/09
Who decided it would be a good idea to read/comment on/critique other student's blogs?

I cannot do it; I am a mother. I cannot hurt children.

As a rookie, I thought it would be helpful to have someone read 'over my shoulder', give me helpful criticism.

After reading a few blogs, I decided that I will have to write two blogs a week. WHY?

I cannot tell a young

writer the wrong version of a word was used "to"; there should be a comma here, lowercase "s" on the word student, etc. I feel like I'm back in the classroom with a red pen!

If they are like me, they are so focused on getting the "At a Glance", headline, nut graf, and conclusion -- the mechanics of it, that they forget the basics.

The Danger of a Single Story

At a Glance

Who: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What: Speech: The Danger of a Single Story
When: July 2009
Where: Oxford, England
About the speaker: Chimamanda Adichie is a Nigerian novelist.


"Stories matter," says Chimamanda Adichie. "Many stories matter."

In her July 2009 speech in Oxford, England, Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie warns of the danger of a single story, the story that defines a person or a people, a nation or a world.

As a young child in her native country, Adichie read literature that shaped her picture of the world with no concept that English and American literature did not match her life or her own country.

Therefore, what she read eventually became her story--she craved what she read about.

She was later to learn that while those stories stirred her imagination "the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature."

However, it wasn't until she was a college student that she fully realized that just as she had learned one story about the world, others had learned a single story about themselves, their world and the people in it.

Adichie later defined an Igbo word as "power--to be greater than another", and says, "How they are told, who tells them, when they are told and how many stories are told are really dependent on power.

The power is the ability to tell a story that defines a people."

If you repeatedly tell a single story that characterizes someone in a particular way, they eventually become what you have created.

Therefore, a single story should never be the only story that is told.

Adichie says "The consequence of the single story is that it robs people of dignity." It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar and warns against hearing and accepting one story as the only story.

In doing so, she says, "we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Things I'm working on...

Quit til you Wilt
Profile on LBCC retiring president

Impact of plant closing on Jefferson residents.... MAYBE

LBCC RETIRING PRESIDENT

LBCCs Retiring President--interview scheduled for 11/4

Seth Godin on Standing Out

At a Glance

Who: Seth Godin, Writer, speaker, "change agent".
What: Standing Out Speech
When: 2003
Where: Monterrey, California
About the speaker: Godin is an entrepreneur and speaker who speaks about the end of the "TV-Industrial complex", getting ideas spread by "Sneezers", and calls the ideas spread by the sneezers an "Ideavirus." He says today's marketing strategy is reversed.
Web info: http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html

The marketing paradigm has shifted.

According to marketing specialist and entrepreneur, Seth Godin, not only has there been a paradigm shift; the marketing strategy he calls the "TV- industrial complex" has been destroyed.

In a 2003 speech delivered in Monterrey, California, Godin indicates that the successful marketing strategies developed and controlled by media giants in the past are ineffective today because "we are living in a century of idea diffusion".

According to Godin, "People who can spread ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, win."

Marketing strategies of the past generation focused on saturating the market--interrupt the consumer to sell a product.

That strategy fails today, Godin says, because consumer time is not spent on media portrayal of the newest thing.

New things are ignored because "there are way too many choices" regardless of who the consumer is or what the product is.

There is a new "me" focus on what is going to work for me where I am at this moment.

Godin says you notice what is new for a moment but "the thing that is going to decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed, what gets purchased, what gets built is is it remarkable".

"'Remarkable' means it is worth making a remark about."

Godin says the success of this strategy is: "Find a group that really, desperately cares about what it is you have to say; talk to them and make it easy for them to talk to their friends."

It is the force behind the Japanese concept of "Otaku". The obsessed tell their friends, and word spreads.

Godin's key to marketing success today: "...Figure out who does care, who is going to raise a hand and say I want to hear what you are doing next, and sell something to them."