who is barak obama?

The candidates haven't been making the rounds nearby so I haven't seen any one recently. Guliani was in Iowa City last Wednesday evening but I had been asked to speak about my trip to the West Bank to a group called People for Justice in Palestine at the Iowa City Library. The Daily Iowan said there were around 40 people there but I thought it was closer to 60. Ben and Jerry of ice cream fame were also in Iowa City that evening and they were giving away ice cream. It is hard to compete with free ice cream. I thought my presentation went well. One guy thanked me afterwards and then added, "I didn't learn anything new, but I liked the way you told your story." He then said he had been to the West Bank 4 times. The program was taped and will appear occasionally on the public access channel in Iowa City.

Guiliani was also in town the week before but it would have cost $50 bucks a plate and I prefer to not pay to see any of these guys.

Now to the title of this post, "who is Barak Obama?" One of the other things I have been doing this fall is to interview some Amish folks in Iowa for some people in Goshen and Pennsylvania. It has been interesting to sit for an hour or two and ask them questions. Generally the interviews start out slow, then when I put away my notebook they start talking. The last guy I talked to liked to ask me questions as well. I'm not exactly sure how it came up but he asked me about interracial marriage and how the children of interracial marriages are treated. So I asked him if he him if he knew about Barak Obama. His response was, who? So I repeated the name, "Barak Obama." "Who is Barak Obama?" I told him Obama was one of the guys running for President and had been in Iowa quite a bit over the last month. He thought that was nice but didn't know who he was and he didn't particularly care. I can imagine him saying, "thats a concern for the world, not me."

It was sort of refreshing to talk with a man who didn't know who any of the candidates were after they have spent thousands of dollars in the state of Iowa trying to get their message to the people. It is one of the advantages of not having a television, a phone, or email all ways we are being bombarded by various candidates. This isn't to say this man was unconcerned or apathetic. He is a very bright guy, but for him, the main goal in life is to be faithful to God, scriptures and his church, and politics isn't going to help him with faithfulness.

mm