message from Katha

-----Forwarded Message-----

Sent: Mar 1, 2008 2:37 PM


I am compelled.

To my Texas friends:
This is scary to write...as I fear rejection from you, however this is very important to me.

As you know I live in North Carolina now and our primary is not till MAY!!! I feel futile. My vote may have little value by that time.

If you have DECIDED to vote Republican. You need not read this.
If you have DECIDED to vote for Hillary. You need not read this.
(I will honor that you have good reasons for your decisions.)
HOWEVER if you have NOT decided FOR SURE!
Please Read

...you may be still wavering who to vote for. You may have yet to decided to vote at all on Tuesday...
There may be a part of you not completly Republican or not completely convinced Hillery is your gal.
Please read ....

I would love to give you a personal view of how Obama has already changed my life and lives around me.

I teach high school students in the foothills of Appalachia...the foothills of poverty. I have primarily white poor as well as black and Hispanic and mixed race in my classes. 50% live in poverty.

Obama has offered my students inspiration to be something more than they thought they could be. And they are eating it up!!!!

It’s the first time many have ever cared about politics and I have had a dozen students tell me that their parents have never voted and have always been angry at politicians. But they are voting this time.

I am not saying I completely agree with the man’s politics… But to have 2 whole class periods (my class periods are 90 minuets long) where the students are asking questions faster than I could answer…because they do not understand the system….and NOW they want to know.

What does it mean to be a Democrat or a Republican? What is a caucus and a primary? When does North Carolina get to vote? Do we get a caucus or primary? Who was JFK? What happened to John Edwards? (as you know Edwards is from North Carolina but you may not know how much folks here truly love the guy…including myself) The questions went on and on…and on. Do you think a black man can REALLY become President? My Grandma says they will NEVER let him be President…if he makes it some white guy will shoot him for sure. Mrs. Underwood do YOU think someone will shoot him?

Honestly, I had a lot of fast soul searching to do. Should I spend my class time teaching civics or refocus the class and teach the curriculum that I am held accountable for at exam time??? (something called NCLB... how ironic)

I reminded them that they should have learned a lot of this in “Civics” class by now. The answer was…”It was not important then.” “I didn’t care then” “I never thought a person like me could ever be President.” “It had nothing to do with me”. One of the smarter kids said, sarcastically, ”Kerry or Bush…now THAT was something to getexcited about!” The class burst into laughter.

So I shelved my curriculum for a couple of days…

I have just taught the best civics lessons I could. We listed in columns general differences between Democrats and Republicans…and added a few other parties. We looked up the CNN web site and checked out the caucus and primary states. Even though I already knew we vote in May…I had them research when NC votes.

One black girl's grandma keeps telling her someone will shoot Obama… her family believes the white folks will never let a black man be President. The white kids re-acted to that assertion/accusation. I loved the discussion we had about that. It was testy at times and I even felt uncomfortable. But they laid it all out on the table and we talked it through. So many of the kids relate to Obama….it was like he was the common denominator that made the discussion work.

They relate to Obama because he is black and of mixed race…the white kids talked about him because his mother was a teen mom and his dad left him…like their dad left them. They talked about how his grandparents raise him most of his youth. Most all of them wanted to know how he got to this successful point in his life when he was just like them when he was younger. It was if to say...if he can do it ...so can I.

I truly wanted to offer them a non bias perspective. But only 5 of my students will actuality be old enough to vote in Nov…and only 2 will be old enough to vote in the primary. AND by May it will likely all be decided. So I felt safe if I unintentionally was not fair to all the candidates. I mostly wanted to support learning about their country and how they could all be a part of deciding their own futures. Not just jumping back into all the apathy we see day in and day out. I know Obama inspires these kids…and their families.

I asked them..."What do you think Obama means by "Change"? What Changes is he going to make? I was surprised by their answers and I started holding back my tears.

I will quote:

"He is Changing us."
"He is asking us to Change".
"He is expecting us...me, to do…be my best."
"Mrs. Underwood, he made us have this talk."
"He made me want to learn more about voting"
"He makes me feel like "I can"...I can do what I really want to"
"He made me understand everyone in this class more"

So my Texas friend, you can see....I am truly supporting Obama...with my meager financial donations, and I hope have inspired you to vote for Obama on my behalf. For my students, for their families. For the Change yet to come. So someday soon ...we can stop chanting "Yes We Can" ....and you, my students, and I can all look back and say "Yes We DID!" ...."We ALL did it together!"

Thanks for your time,
Katha