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I – (that’s me, Nina Robinson) have asked two very knowledgable people to give their assessment of Barack Obama, 100 days into his presidency.
Joe Maggioncalde has worked at GM in Detroit nearly all his working life. He’s been a regular contributor to Your Story - see some of his work here.
Joe writes …
This is one of those “milestones” the media uses to kill time and trees.
But what really has been accomplished?
Here in Detroit, the situation continues to decay quickly and daily.
Now GM has basically closed the doors till mid-July.
Here in Detroit we’ve seen nothing. Nothing. If Obama can somehow stimulate the rest of the country to the point where they feel capable of buying cars, then they’ll probably build a statue of him, chisel down his nose and wash him with a hose.
Although we sang his name
we all went hungry just the same
Read Joe’s full post on his blog.
Cynthia Harrison’s husband Al, works at Chrysler in Detroit. Here’s her assessment, 100 days in.
Cynthia and husband, Al
Cynthia writes ..
We certainly got change, just not the sort we expected.
As a part-time college teacher, I expected to be working less after 20 years on the job, not more. But like many wives of auto workers, I have added hours where I can, to make up for the smaller paychecks my husband Al now receives.
Our factories no longer bustle with activity, and our dealerships are deserted, but our auto plants are open most days. Al, who has been an employee at Dodge Truck for 35 years, has worked 30 of the last 100 days. He’s been laid off a good part of Obama’s presidency, but he still believes the right man won the office.
“Obama’s personal involvement has helped Chrysler stay viable as a company so far,” Al says. “If McCain had won, he would have let us hit the wall.”
So while times are tough, they could be worse. It’s almost certain that they will become worse. But we have Obama to thank for the reprieve, and if we can trust him to guide us through this streamlining of the auto industry, we can trust him to stay behind us if and when the bankruptcies begin.
Every week, as new waves of lay-offs occur, we wives of auto workers hold our collective breath. In my book group, there are three auto wives. One has already seen her husband forced into early retirement.
Obama seems to be everywhere at once. He’s in Europe and Mexico and in the Oval Office, but he is also in Detroit, working with our governor and with the auto companies. He cares about us, and we know it. And that is some comfort in these distressing times.
How do you think Obama is doing 100 days in? Add your comments below.
I went to go and meet the 50 bloggers who have been brought to London to cover the G20 summit by Oxfam. See the last blog post about who they are and where they’re from.
Cheryl Contee who worked with Your Story for Obama’s Inauguration, has been writing about arriving in London here.
She writes..
I walked the wrong way to the hotel and saw the entrance to G20 ground zero – the ExCel Centre.
There are a lot of cops around dressed in bright yellow plastic vests and funny shaped round black hats, but they are all very nice and quite helpful. Though like Obama’s inauguration, they are perhaps not as well trained as they might be given the circumstances. One cop whom I asked for directions shrugged his shoulders and good-naturedly exclaimed: “I have no idea. They brought me in from Bristol!” Right…
The bloggers have been meeting up today and talking about the things they care about. I also went along and spoke to the Saudi Jeans guy, Jessica from Mexico – vivrmexico.com, Daudi Were from Kenya, his blog is mentalacrobatics.com and Michael Kleinham from humanitarianrelief.change.org.
I’ve recorded some of their thoughts on what they think the G20 should be talking about and that piece is going to be broadcast on the World Today programme tonight.
I bought the Diamonds and Pearls album by the (artist formerly known as) Prince when I was about 15 years old. The little guy really did have talent. His music was a “sign of the times” – and one of the things I’m working on right now, could also be seen as a sign – of Obama’s new America.
It’s a musical event happening tomorrow night that is bringing together the Historic Colored Musicians Club and a local symphony orchestra. Also sharing the stage are Old School B Boys and the American lounge singer Lance Diamond.
It all started when Sue contacted me because of a chance encounter she’d had with an American soldier stationed in Iraq. We got talking and I found out about this concert she was working on.
I’ve just come off the phone from Michael Billoni from the Food Bank of New York they are benefiting from the concert. He was saying how they are seeing a significant increase in the number of families who are working but coming to the food bank because their wages don’t stretch far enough.
He also says that they were glad that Michelle Obama went to a soup kitchen in Washington recently.
Michael told me that her message for people to donate their time and money has seen more people coming to volunteer at his organisation.
See the World Have Your Say debate on this.
This is what I’m talking about as a sign of Obama’s America. Do you think that there is a greater spirit of collaboration going on? Are you feeling any more charitable lately? I gave actually 50 quid to a blind charity last week (this is not my characteristic behaviour!)
Also listen out for interviews with musicians and food bank guy on the World Today programme tomorrow night (UK time).
Leonard Quarshie is a student at the University of Maryland. He wants to share his experience as an African immigrant to the US and his feelings as Obama took office. You can also send in your memories of your inauguration day, wherever in the world you are, or read more on Your Story and Obama’s Inauguration.
and more stories contributed by listeners on bbcworldservice.com/yourstory
This is Leonard’s story ….
I was among the close to two million people on the National Mall in Washington D.C. who witnessed Barack Obama’s Inauguration as president of the United States.
I want to share it with readers of this site. Thank you.
I was there on the Mall on January 20th. I came with my girlfriend and her family. We arrived by Metro from Bethesda station and got off at Farragut North. We made the journey on the train along with thousands of people from all over the country to the nation’s capital to witness history.
I woke up at 4:30 am to be there. What drew us there—away from the comfort and warmth of our beds in 17 degree weather—was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. It was not just the symbolism. It was what his election said about America in the 21st century: here in this country, you can rise as high as you allow yourself; notwithstanding the circumstances of your birth or the color of your skin.
This is not a cliché. It is real. But it is not a given. You have to assimilate into the larger society. You have to learn to read and write. Speak English. Speak properly; whatever that means. You have to sweat it out with odd jobs to pay the bills and make the payments. To get a foot at the door, you have to earn that single most valuable American possession: a college diploma.
All these will still not guarantee you a place at the top. If you are a black person or a person of color, you have to deal with discrimination at the workplace and elsewhere, albeit of a subtle kind. To succeed, you need that unquantifiable element to be present: the element of luck. And a network. Talent and ability is not enough.
The 25-minute ride from Bethesda Metro to Farragut North was eventful. Hundreds lined up along the rails anxiously awaiting their turn to board the train to D.C. Winter coats. Jackets. Headwear. The very look of warmth.
As we trekked from the Farragut North station to the Capitol, through Constitution Avenue, I could not help but reflect on what Obama’s election meant to me as an immigrant from Ghana.
You see, I came here two days before 9/11. Once here, I sweated it out like everybody else to make a living. I’m still sweating. Odd jobs. Retail. The normal route all immigrants take when they first arrive in this country.
But wait! Here I was, walking to the inauguration of a man, who half a century ago, would not have been allowed to sit at the front of a bus or allowed to eat at the same lunch counter with a white person. I thought about the things we black people take for granted today. Mundane, everyday things we do without thinking about it.
Sometimes, African immigrants like myself, don’t sufficiently appreciate the sacrifices our African-American brethren had to make for us to enjoy the things we do today. The fact is—a lot of things we take for granted today—we owe to their struggle for equal and civil rights: Integrated restrooms, drinking fountains, schools, buses, restaurants, apartments.
The fact that I as an African immigrant can apply for a job today in America —and at the very least, expect to be considered —the issue of discrimination notwithstanding—is because my African-American brothers and sisters made it possible. They paved the way for me. I can’t thank them enough.
As we walked passed Constitution Hall, I could not help but remember Marian Anderson, the iconic African-American singer, who was denied the opportunity to sing there in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) because she was black.
You know, Jim Crow was not an experience unique only to African-Americans. It affected all black and dark-skinned people who happened to find themselves in America in the 1960s.
On October 10, 1957, Ghana’s visiting Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, was denied service at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Dover, Delaware because he was black. The bar attendant didn’t care whether Gbedemah had an accent or whether he was a government official. All she saw was the color of his skin. As far as she was concerned, he was just another black man up to no good.
The poor man was shocked. The press reported it. And President Eisenhower had no choice but to apologize to Gbedemah at the White House. That is the history of America.
But these United States was now bestowing the highest office of the land on a man whose father was an African immigrant student; a man who the framers of the U.S. constitution designated as three-fifths of a human being in 1787.
But that is the thing about America that many people do not understand.
This is a country of contradictions. The founders of this nation—inspired by a higher calling—while still owning slaves—produced a blueprint for freedom and human dignity for everyman: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident,” they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
As the crowd roared and screamed as Obama murmured the words “so help me, God!;—I felt the hands of Obama’s ancestors on his shoulders—men and women who had paved the way for this moment—praying for him . Olaudah Equiano… Frederick Douglas… Sojourner Truth… Harriet Tubman… Martin Luther King Jr…
And I wondered what David Hume would have thought of this moment—the idea of a non white person—taking the helm of a majority white nation. “I am apt to suspect the Negroes,” he wrote in his 1748 essay, National Characters, “and in general all other species of men to be naturally inferior to the whites.”
“We remain a young nation. But in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” President Obama began, breaking my reverie.
The speech was short, about 18 minutes long and sobering. A call to arms. A thinking man’s speech. I expected to jump and shout like the almost two million other people on the Mall. But all I could do was think. Think about my own life. My shortcomings; the many ways, I had fallen short of fulfilling my potential. The many ways I had sold myself short; been irresponsible.
“Our challenges may be new,” the new president continued, “the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends—honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”
As I rode the train back home that afternoon, the words kept ringing in my ears: “there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit… than giving our all to a difficult task.” I resolved to work harder, to be more responsible, to be tolerant and fair to all in this nation; this place that had been generous enough to let me see this moment in history.
Now back in London I would just like to extend a huge thanks to all those citizen journalists, guests and friends who helped to make the radio and online material work so well over inauguration, in Detroit and Chicago.
I look forward to hearing from you all again and working with you on stories in the future. So please do keep in touch.
Wrting this blog post from Detroit where the snow is thick and heavy on the ground. Have just written the newsletter for BBC World Service Newshour programme - which is about the different views I have come across following on from my trip to Obama’s inauguration in Washington.
You can read the Newshour Newsletter here.
I have been driving around Detroit with Joe M. who is pictured here on his driveway with his family’s four cars. Joe works for GM motors as a forklift truck driver but has been laid off for the past six weeks, he is hoping to return to work next month but is uncertain about whether this will happen.
He drove me around the suburbs of Detroit, showed me the shops that stand empty and the hospital that has shut down and the local school which is also closing.
The loyalty that people have for their car industries is not surprising given the historical and financial domination the huge car companies – Ford, GM, Chrysler have here. This loyalty mixes with a sense of patriotism for American cars. They are a huge part of every day life, if you are not directly employed then you are indirectly.
I talked to young people about whether they thought they would be staying around here to live in the future one hoped to get an auto job but the others said they would go where the jobs were and if they were outside Detroit then so be it.
If they decide to leave, Detroit will get even more empty.
I am going this afternoon to interview a local band called the Hard Lessons to find out if good music comes out of hard times. There has to be some light that comes from a bleak economic outlook doesn’t there?
The day started at 4am as this is when the first metro train was scheduled to run to the national mall. The trains were full and the barriers had already shut with big signs saying that the area was full. Luckily I bypassed the fence and got to where I had to be – which was at the BBC media point.
The BBC’s Ros Atkins has just finished broadcasting a three hour special programme which included contributions from Your Story citizen journalists.
To see some photos of the day – have a look on the flickr site.
Your Story has been hearing from jackandjillpolitics.com bloggers Cheryl and Baratunde. they have been posting flipcam footage of their weekend on vimeo.
Richard Ivory and Tiffany Shorter from hiphoprepublican.com have been Your Story’s guest bloggers for inauguration weekend. see their previous blog posts here.
These are their personal views and do not represent the views of the BBC.
Supporting My President For A Better America : A Black Republican Perspective
By Tiffany Shorter
Barack Obama‘s inaugural speech inspired a united America . As a black Republican, I along with other blacks, whites, Latinos, liberals and conservatives, am ready to take the journey with the new president to fulfill our national aspirations.
Today Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States of America , and months ago I supported Senator John McCain for president. Today President Obama addressed the nation to clearly state his vision and goals that he can move our nation forward, and months ago I was skeptical of vague policy positions. Today President Barack Obama won my support because his work, determination and fortitude months ago, earned him the Oval Office.
I am an American before I am a Republican, so today I have put aside partisan differences to be proud of my nation and my president. He has earned my vote of confidence that America is on its journey to becoming an even better country. Tomorrow, I can continue my civil duties of promoting self – empowerment and limited government to contribute to America ‘s prosperity.
In the meanwhile, I am grateful to witness the dream of a Republican civil rights leader named Martin Luther King realized. God Bless America .
Change has come to America…For Now!
By Richard Ivory
The year was 1990 and “change” had come to the southern state of Virginia , a State steeped in a history of racial division. It had come in the form of a charismatic young black lawyer named Lawrence Douglas Wilder. I was a child at the time, but nevertheless understood the importance of the racial barrier that had just been broken. There was a deep sense of pride and amazement within the entire black community. Similarly as I saw President Obama speak at his historic inaugural, those feelings of overwhelming pride and joy came back to me.
Martin Luther King when speaking of change said, “it does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle”. The President correctly outlined the many struggles we as a nation face. He hinted to our economic woes and our problems internationally. He spoke of our shared destiny and wanting to protect Liberty for our children. He spoke of our nations great immigrant past and present diversity and how despite our past problems we always manage to do great things. He used language geared to bring unity over partisanship and practicality over dogma. In his speech it seemed to me as if he were saying that if change is to come, it must first come from the people.
Despite being Republican, I concede that many of the things mentioned in his speech were right and it is indeed a wonderful vision of where the new President wants to take this nation. The problem of course is whether or not the nation is ready to take such a journey. The French explorer Alexis de Tocqueville once observed that America ‘s greatness lie not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. If we are to change as a nation, then we must come together and seek ways to begin to fix many of our nations ailing problems.
Real change is only as good as it is going in the right direction. Real change will mean fixing the crisis in Social Security; a system that in only a few years time will began to pay more out in benefits than it actually collects in revenues. Real Change will mean finding consumer driven alternatives to health care not simply letting a federal bureaucracy run it. Real Change also means continuing the reforms of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and seeking ways to fix the system while empowering its recipients. Real Change will mean providing real and effective Immigration Reform that respects the dignity of undocumented workers while providing security at our boarders. And finally but not least change means confronting the failures in our educational systems. The school systems that Obama spoke of in his speech that fail our children should not be given annual bailouts for failing our kids but reform mechanism to show that they are learning and thriving. While seemingly insurmountable these things are not impossible the responsibility of all of us is to leave this nation better than we found it. Despite the ideological differences I have with the new President- and they are many- I wish him much success. In other words, I would love to be “wrong” about you Mr. President.
Good luck President Obama!
I am writing this blog post quickly before heading to Heathrow airport for my flight to Washington DC for the Your Story coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration.
To see a full line up of what we are doing please have a look at the Your Story Obama webpage.
To kick things off, here are some guest blog posts which come from the editor in chief and publisher of Hip Hop Republican.com.
Richard Ivory is the publisher who is reported to have said that his heart is with Obama but his brain is with Mccain.
If he defines himself as a lover of hip hop music then there is no one more on a similar wave length than obama – as this video interview of Obama illustrates.
But this is Richard’s blog post for Your Story (these are his own personal views and in no way reflect the views of the BBC)
Unforeseen Occurrences Befall Us All: even a President
By Richard Ivory
Life is often filled with conundrums and contradictions. Life is filled nevertheless, even more so, with the unexpected. When President George W. Bush won election in 2000, he ran on a campaign of change and reform. He rallied against the wastefulness of big government spending and scolded the previous administration’s “nation building” efforts. Despite all of this, in eight years, President Bush inevitably became a fierce defender of both causes; that is, excessive spending and full scale nation building. I only mention this to say that history has a strange way of playing tricks on new charismatic leaders. Far from changing the direction of a nation, it is they themselves who have been changed by their experiences. A president who inherited an eerily similar situation as today was Franklin Roosevelt who came into office seeking to reform the economic and banking systems only to be defined by the Second World War. And who can forget Richard Nixon’s successes in the area of foreign policy only to be defined years later by a domestic investigation.
The truth is, just as other Presidents have sought to bring change to America, the newly elected President will encounter unforeseen events that will challenge him. Managing international demands and national domestic needs will not be dealt with in eight years no matter how skilled President elect Obama may be. The enormous tasks we face as a nation and as a world are tumultuous indeed. They range from Education Reform to the Economic Recovery Plan. It reaches into the delicate policy debate concerning Global Warming and new solutions regarding alternative energy. The unforeseeable task of solving global hot spots like the Israeli and the Palestinian conflict can take a toll on any President no matter how young or how hard he tries.
Nevertheless, these are the issues. With that acknowledgement, we must realize that such turbulent matters can unexpectedly change the direction of history; may even define a president. These issues cause many Presidents sleepless nights; but the only productive measures they can truly take are to wait, prepare and respond. I pray that the new President can catch the curve balls that politics will toss him and will respond with the wisdom of Lincoln, the energy of Teddy Roosevelt and the humility of Dwight Eisenhower. As the new President takes the reign of power I say “good luck to the man, God knows he’ll need it.”
Two Warring Souls Reconciled: In the Age of Obama
By Richard Ivory
At the beginning of the 20th-century the Black Sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois in his classic work The Souls of Black Folk sought to summarize the state of affairs for people of color at the time. He captured the dual reality of the tainted loyalty and rage which many blacks felt towards a nation that embodied the land of dreams, but which treated them as less than human. Du bois wrote “One feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder”. As I wait in anticipation for this historic inauguration, I strongly believe Barack Obama’s ascendency to America’s highest office reconciles these two warring souls. In so many ways Barack Obama has shown black children in America and the world that never again will race pose as an obstacle to political ambition.
However, as a black Republican I do feel torn between my own political party and the historic nature of this election in seeing “Barack Obama do” what “Barack Obama has done”. I, like so many other black Republicans believe strongly in our beliefs of smaller, non-intrusive government and individual choice and liberty. Nevertheless, we would not be telling the truth were we to deny a sense of envy and shame that the “Party of Lincoln” did not bring forth the nation’s first Black President. Despite my emotions and ideological differences with the new President, I am extremely proud of him; but even more so, I am proud, proud to be an American.
The second guest blog post comes from Tiffany Shorter – editor at Hip Hop Republican.
These are her personal views and do not reflectthe views of the BBC
A Black Republican view on Obama as a World Example
Tiffany Shorter
Even as a black Republican, it is not surprising to find that many black Americans from both sides of the political spectrum are excited about January 20, 2009. On this day Barack Obama becomes the 44th president, the first black president, and the first American president whose father is of direct African ancestry. I may view the President-elect, as a likable politician whose strategies I disagree with, but people around the world see Obama as an inspiration because of his achievements despite his skin color.
As an American who has lived aboard, it is astonishing to find that Obama’s African heritage has become a source of personal victory for other minority groups abroad.
While many black Americans are confident that this nation has become a place of equality, black minority groups in Latin America and Europe are hoping that change will come to their communities. Race relations in other parts of the world unfortunately do not mirror American beliefs and practices of tolerance and empowerment. This is not to say that U.S. race relations are perfect with our wide salary and education disparities between blacks and whites; however, in the last ten years African Americans are successfully moving into higher political positions with greater authority. Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and David Patterson are some of the few black politicians that have broken the color barrier. Since November 4th, when Obama won the election, I have read British , French and Brazilian publications that question if their countries can too produce a black head of state. Race relations in America and the rest of the world greatly differs as racial politics fails to be on the political agenda abroad- at least until now. In Brazil, there are seven black political candidates claiming that they are the “Barack Obama” of their towns. I am sure that on January 20, all Americans and the global community will cheer for this historical moment, but after the celebrations are over I hope that blacks abroad will be encouraged to political action so they may accomplish the milestone we have reached. Meanwhile I am grateful to live in a country where I can have a sense of pride in my future president and disagree with him at the same time without fearing that I am pushing back race relations to the time of segregation.
Michelle Obama Black Family Role Model
Tiffany Shorter
I look forward to Michelle Obama becoming the new First Lady in only a few days because she and her family represents not only the ideal American family, but also the ideal black American family. Historically, African American families have been weaken due to slavery making it possible for families members to be sold separately to different plantations. Although slavery and segregation has ended, the African American community continues to struggle with building strong families ties. Over 40% of black men and women have never married and about 70 percent of children are born out of wedlock. Many black Republicans want to promote family values in Washington regardless that 2009 will bring a Democrat administration. Black Republicans and the black community at large can benefit from the constant example of Michelle Obama who has successful balanced the demands of politics with the needs of her husband and children. She can be the image that young black girls can aspire to other than becoming a teenage mom, which is a sad reality in our community. Although there are many successful black women such as Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Serena Williams and Mellody Hobson, none of them are married nor have children. Michelle Obama, regardless of partisanship, will be an exciting and motivating role model for black women and girls seeking to have stronger families.
I went to the US embassy this morning to sort out a visa. journalists have to get an i-visa at a cost of 131 dollars and then i had to pay five pounds to store my car keys because no electrical items are allowed in the embassy. It’s an amazing building I think. Others may disagree.
Anyway, it means that things are getting sorted out for the Your Story forthcoming trip to the USA to cover Obama’s inauguration. i am going to contact various bloggers and US citizen journalists to get their reports on the inauguration. I’ll also be coming to Chicago to liaise with young citizen journalists who live on the south side and also to Detroit to get CJ reports from people on the economy.
If you fit into any of those categories and want to get involved, then let me know.
I was contacted by a guy who lives in the US and has been there for two years, originally from Sierra Leone. he said he wanted to do something on the US visa lottery system which he said was unfair because they took money from people and didn’t get a visa.
I contacted him back because I though he might have a good perspective on the visa lottery, but I left messages but he never got back to me. If you see this blog post – then it’s not too late to get back in touch.
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