My Day with Senator Ted Kennedy – 2-16-2008
I have worked on a variety of campaigns – from City Council races to Presidential campaigns. Sometimes as a volunteer and sometimes as paid campaign staff. By the time the Democratic Presidential campaign was down to Hillary and Barack, I chose Obama. When that campaign finally came to Ohio in February of 2008, the surrogate campaign representatives came as well. And one of those was Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
I helped the Obama campaign set-up shop and get organized in Euclid. I generally attempted to assist whenever I could. When visiting VIPs came to NE Ohio, sometimes they would ask me to support the event one way or another.
One day, I was asked by the Cleveland-based Obama team if I wanted to be one of two drivers for the Kennedy entourage. Ummmm, I said yes. I said yes fast. Then I called my mother. She told me that the first Presidential candidate that she was able to vote for was Teddy’s older brother – JFK. Then I called Progressive and increased the amount of car insurance I was carrying (really).
Senator Kennedy was to fly into town and we were to drive him from the airport to an event in Cleveland Heights, then Youngstown, then Akron. Then back to the airport. A whirlwind day for a man a week before his own 76th birthday.
On Saturday, February 16, 2008, I watched from the wings. I heard the same speech in three locations and witnessed the same response to the words and the man. People crowded into every room and no one left feeling small. He spoke of the hopes and struggles of prior generations and the vision and promise of America’s future days. While Kennedy seemed slow – even fragile – in physical agility, he was always energetic on the microphone. He usually needed to rest after his remarks, but he never gave a flat performance. People applauded his entrance and crowded around him as he departed.
I did not interact much with the Senator. I was able to snap a few photos but I just tried to be helpful. I was simply there to serve him and the Obama campaign. I had but one request for him. I told him that my mother’s first vote for his brother. That she was the first person to tell me what a Democrat was – and that it was her birthday.
My favorite gift to my mother that year was a card that I had carried all day. A card that contained a happy birthday greeting – which included his personal thanks for her support of his brother – a card penned in his own hand and signed by Senator Ted Kennedy. Hand written history from America’s Camelot family – crossing generations and dreams – to a house of Midwest educators was a pretty cool ending to a very cool day.
RIP Senator. And thanks for the many ways you and your family touched Amerians. The smallest of gestures, when coupled with grandest of ideals, create lasting impacts. — Kent Smith 8/28/2009
The book also gave me an opportunity to be a part of a program in commemoration of the Kent State shootings. On May 4, 2009, I was asked to speak at the 5th Annual Peace and MusicFest at the Kent Stage in Kent, Ohio. My remarks from that night are copied below. — Kent 8/16/2009
“Why Kent State Matters”
Because it was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.
When unarmed protesters and innocent (just on their way to class) students were killed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, it broadly undercut support for the war in Vietnam. On Monday May 4th (39 years ago) Kent State students gathered to protest their government’s escalation of a war and 4 paid for it with their lives and this nation began to question its principals and its priorities.
One of the critical dynamics of America at that time was that war protesters were despised. Think about it. America — the nation — had a past of military heroics. Just 25 years earlier, we stopped Hitler and had saved the world. Our US military had only fought “noble” battles. And now they were questioning our nation. Who are these damn kids? After May 4th, student protesters became sympathetic figures who were acting patriotic instead of class-cutting babies who needed a haircut and a shower.
What young America had realized was that this battle based on political ideologies on a peninsula in Southeast Asia was not worth their lives. Remember the military draft had been reestablished just 5 months earlier (a draft that never sent Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld across the Pacific Ocean). And just 5 days earlier (4/30/1970), President Nixon had gone on national television to announce that the US military had begun operations in Cambodia. The war was spreading. The war that Nixon said he would end was growing. A war that now had a draft and a war that Kent State students knew might demand their service.
So they gathered, their voices grew, they questioned their government as their constitution allowed them to do. Then rifles fired and the bullets flew. And Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer and William Schroeder – the oldest of which was only 20 years of age — were shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard. Nine other students were also shot but survived.
Public support for the Vietnam War began to collapse as news of Kent State shootings spread. 5 days later over 100,000 gathered in Washington DC to protest the Kent State shootings. And 39 years later, we at “Please God Save Us” are happy to join the 5thAnnual Peace and MusicFest tonight in Kent, Ohio to remember that wars should be questioned, dissent is patriotic and 20 is too young to die.
The book, “Please God Save Us” opened more than a few doors and led to more than a few new friendships. One of those was with the staff at JosephBeth Booksellers at Legacy Village. As America prepared to celebrate its 44th President, JosephBeth wanted to host an event. So they had a “Ball at the Bookstore” and they asked me to provide the keynote address for the evening. My remarks are copied below — Kent Smith 8/16/2009
Joseph Beth Inauguration Ball Remarks
January 20, 2009
Thank you very much Sharon for allowing me to be a part of the Inaugural Ball at the Bookstore. I must say I think a bookstore is a wonderful place to celebrate Democracy. And it may be even more fitting tonight and today as we have an incoming President who has authored two best selling books that helped provide him the national standing that made his run for President possible. And we have an outgoing President who once said “One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.” Really he said that – US News and World Report – Jan 3, 2000.
Eight years after George Bush gave that insight into his qualifications for the White House, I had a standing room only view of history in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Because one year and seventeen days ago I stood inside the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. It was packed inside the church and I watched the 13th Precinct of Cedar Rapids gather and caucus but what I witnessed was history. I saw Barack Obama win the Iowa Caucus and take the first step to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Because remember before tomorrows headline could be written – this headline had to be written. [Kent holds up Chicago Tribune paper from January 4, 2008 which reads, “Obama, Huckabee strike first with Iowa victories”]
In the spirit of full disclosure I must tell you that I did not rejoice the night of January 3, 2008 because I was working for another candidate. I was in John Edwards camp. I actually posted daily blogs about it on Cleveland.com. Anyway, I was an Edwards supporter because since JFK, the only Democrats who had won the White House were southern candidates. And unless the Democratic Party could find a nominee who could again inspire like JFK, than I was convinced that Edwards was my Party’s best bet to win the White House.
And let me take you inside the strategy of the Edwards campaign – because the night before the Caucus we thought we had it won. As you may remember there were three strong candidates in Iowa – Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. We believed that 50,000 votes would win us the Caucus. The average Iowa Democratic Caucus turn out was about 150,000. So if we could capture one third of the votes – we should do OK. Well, we hit our mark. In fact, John Edwards got the second most votes in Iowa Caucus history. But we were not even close. Barack Obama outpaced everybody.
What I witnessed in Gloria Dei Lutheran Church was occurring across Iowa – record voter turnout. And in that church, I took a photo of the Obama supporters that I still have on my cell phone. Again what we were expecting was 150,000 Democratic Caucus voters. But 231,000 people showed up across Iowa. Barack Obama had blown the statistical models out of the water. He had produced a turnout increase of more than 50% of what the experts said would happen. Iowa 2008 was not a blip, it was not a numerical miss-adjustment. Something happened in Iowa that political history could not have foretold.
Barack Obama. - A Presidential candidate with a name so bad no political image consultant or focus group could have invented it. Perhaps his message of Hope could take hold. Perhaps when he said “Change” it was seen as a credible promise and not a plagiarized sound bite. Perhaps this Junior Senator was something special. Perhaps this Illinois author was this Party’s next JFK. Perhaps Barack Obama could help our nation see and believe and achieve the daring scope of our dreams.
Barack Obama himself said that “America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes. It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of a nuclear crisis. And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous and more admired than before.”
And again America has become admired.
And the election of Barack Obama has impressed leaders across the globe. Listen to what Margaret Beckett, Britain’s Housing Minister said; “Obama’s victory will have a massive effect on the world. I think no other country but America could do this. Obama has come from such a distant place to get here. When you think of his name, his middle name, this happened in America first. It absolutely shakes people’s perceptions of the American they loved to hate.”
What’s interesting is Minister Beckett made those remarks in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Let me read to you what another world leader said. Quote “I applaud the American people for their great decision and I hope that this new administration in the United States of America, and the fact of the massive show of concern for human beings and lack of interest in race and color while electing the President, will go a long way in bringing the same values to the rest of the world sooner or later.” Unquote.
Those were the words of Hamid Karzai – the Afghan President.
As Barack Obama once said, “This country is not as polarized as our politics would suggest.” But he also said, “What Washington needs is adult supervision.”
January 20th is not just a day to celebrate Barack Obama it is also a day to celebrate America. This is like New Years Eve for Democracy. This is a celebration of our union. This imperfect country has an uninterrupted history of peaceful transitions of government that are the envy of the rest of the world. This afternoon the reigns of power went from an oil tycoon from a political dynasty to the child of a single mother raised half a world away and toughened on the Southside streets of Chicago. Even in America today’s is a stunning story.
One of Americas finest characteristics is its evolution. We do not languish forever in our sin. We are better now than where we were and the best is yet to come.
So to you here tonight I say take pride in your President but also take pride in your country. I believe that this is not just a historic day but a historic beginning. I believe that great times lay ahead not just for this nation but for this world. I believe that a time marked by the daring scope of our dreams is at hand. And I am honored to be able to share this historic start with you here tonight. Thank you very much.
