Two days ago, I was one in a roomful of people who sat mesmerized as the legendary author Toni Morrison started riffing. She's 77 years old now, but as full of youthful passion as ever. In fact, it would be hard to find any 27-year-old who could hold a candle to her flame.
Ms. Morrison, Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist, author and professor told the rest of us, who sit on the editorial board of The Nation with her, a simple little story.
It goes like this:
She said she has never before endorsed a political candidate. Earlier in this primary season, Sen. Barack Obama called her to ask for her support. She said, "Sorry, Senator, but I don't do that." But she kept watching the same debates and controversies all of us who are paying attention have seen.
Finally, she changed her mind.
She emailed Sen. Obama the letter republished below. He called back, asking her to sign it and mail it to him. When she asked for his campaign's address, he said "no, please send it to my home." So she did.
Here is what she wrote:
Dear Senator Obama,
This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.
May I describe to you my thoughts?
I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."
In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.
When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?
Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.
There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.
Good luck to you and to us.
Toni Morrison
-30-
Note: Even those of us on The Nation board did not know about this letter, although it did find its way onto the web, as everything does these days. I suspect Sen. Obama has this signed letter framed and on the wall of his home. But we cannot know that for sure, because unlike some candidates, he does not exploit those who support him.
1 comment:
Eloquently stated. Toni Morrison has an abiding and life-long passion coupled with a breathtaking talent for this odd language of ours. Some of what such gifted minds produce is not to be ignored.
What she has so energetically and enthusiastically sought to excite among those who would hear her is painted on a canvas which will not cure for many generations, if indeed, ever. Concepts she holds for her perceptions of a more perfect community of man, at their root, will resonate well with most good people, because concepts of fairness suggest harmony most good people long for. Her passion for correcting the human conduct she perceives to interfere with achieving the harmony she seeks excites a certain limiting frustration, however. We humans tend to make poor decisions when we are frustrated.
Elevated, our frustrations tempt us to dismiss reality to quell our irritations. When agitated, we often strike out at others, even while knowing that so doing will cause harm and aggravate that which we seek to ease. More insidiously, it often tempts us to alter reality to better suit what we fervently wish, even while sensing that something is amiss within that altering.
Alas, for all of her talent, she has arrived at a belief in an Obama who is not reality. Barack the candidate will not square with Barack the real person. This will only, in the end, exacerbate her frustrations.
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