Iowa08: Archives

"I know the one thing we did right,
Was the day we started to fight.
Keep your Eyes on the Prize
Oh Lord, oh Lord."
—African-American Spiritual

Theme from the PBS Documentary "Eyes on the Prize" (0:23)

JENNIFER T. LACEY writes:
I tend to feel history blinds people from making informed decisions. History can create a collective bond that can serve a higher purpose or continue to hand down outdated behaviors.

At 19, I discovered the PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize" when it first aired, by accident. Profoundly moved, disturbed, grateful, and astounded are simple words I can use to express my feelings about this show. What a collective group of people did with courage and fortitude more than 50 years ago, to make it possible for me to have the freedom to make an informed choice, makes my decision to go to the Iowa caucus one that's not taken lightly.

I must admit I am going into this experience jaded about the electoral process, and look forward to talking with Iowans who are engaged and bearers of the responsibility of making a decision that has an impact on our nation. From them, I hope to gain a sense of understanding of politics. I want to glimpse the essence and hearts of people who are working for a higher purpose, and listen to stories of those who have seen the past and have promise for the future.

I want to know there is still possibility for leaders who inspire and who remember their service is for a greater good. The same possibility Martin Luther King and others envisioned when they endured opposition, so I might have the right to vote.

The last election I witnessed was in 2004 in Taiwan. That process was manipulative and lacking in freedom. December 27 marks a year back in the States for me. Preparing for and going to the caucuses, I am looking forward to appreciating what it really means to have freedom. Freedom to choose different from what history has dictated in the past, and freedom to make history.

I am filled with gratitude toward those who are making this experience possible, so that I can keep my own "eyes on the prize."

Jennifer T. Lacey is a graduate student in journalism from Chicago, Illinois.

JENNIFER T. LACEY writes:

"Oh but ain't that America for you and me/
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby/
Ain't that America home of the free/"

—John Cougar Mellencamp, Pink Houses

The buzzwords "freedom," "choice," "hope," and "core values" were being tossed around by presidential candidates like parade confetti. Yet in talking with Iowans, they wanted this Chicagoan to know America still had hope, choice, values, and freedom. And they were willing to brave the cold for this "brave new world" founded more than 200 years ago.

They talked about their candidates as if they were family. College students regurgitated political ideals, middle-age men recalled easier economic times, and older folk reminisced about Reagan and other presidents whose politics reflected the values they had been raised with.

"Well there's people and more people/
What do they know know know"

After attending a Fred Thompson rally Wednesday in Davenport, Iowa, I realized that I had "culture shock." I looked around the rally, comprising mostly white males with a few kids who would have rather been home playing their XBox 360s, and thought how did these voters have the wisdom and insight to know what a child from the Ickies projects, struggling with reading and math, would need? How did they know a seasonal worker in Galveston, Texas, wasn't "invading" America rather contributing to its development? How did they know what a 35-year-old woman, who cashed out her IRA for education, will have available for her by age 65?

By late Thursday night, I knew they knew something. I knew they were willing to continue a 30-year-plus tradition, so their and others' families could have stability, whether the policies the candidates pushed were for the highest good.

Forty-five years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and said something idealistic yet prophetic.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Barack Obama won the Iowan Democratic caucuses and my "culture shock" conceded to awe.

I knew Iowans had just taught me history.

Jennifer T. Lacey is a graduate student in journalism from Chicago.

JENNIFER T. LACEY writes:

Only in America . . . do we use the word "politics" to describe the process so well: "poli" in Latin meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "bloodsucking creatures."
—Comic unknown.

"People want change."
"I have the most experience creating change out of all the candidates here."
"I know that change can come if I'm elected president."

Four Democratic candidates used the word "change" so much during the CNN debates, I could have sworn that somehow the panhandlers from State Street found a way into the election.

Change. Yep, everyone wants it, and no one is willing to make it. It takes effort. It takes concessions. It takes compromises. It takes, to paraphrase John Edwards, moving away from the "status quo." So, if we want it so bad, why is it so hard to have? I guess it's like common sense; it's just not so common.

Some words just need to have an expiration date on them. How strange it would be if we still used "courting" to discuss dating. Or "thou" and "thee." Thou going to the store, honey, would thee like anything? Sounds funny when you say it out loud, right? Why? Perhaps "thou", "thee," and "courting" are words that insinuate an amount of distance. Or authority not needed when relating. They have run their course, and now humans are finding quicker ways to express themselves. LOL. AFAIK. NSFW

I stopped using the word "resolution" years ago because I realized the word has lost impact. So I began using "committed." That's certainly a word you can't ease out of too easily, with others and your own conscience. In using the word, I found myself actually staying on course to reaching my goals.

Perhaps the candidates, with their education and vast vocabularies, could find a new word to use in the coming debates.

How about "transformation" as a start?

Jennifer T. Lacey is a graduate student in journalism from Chicago.