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Warren Roseborough |
The Democratic National Convention unfolds in Denver Aug. 25-28. The convention is being hailed as “historic” with the expected nomination of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, whose bi-racial ancestry has him poised to break new ground as the party’s standard-bearer. And while there is much speculation that Obama’s former rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, will be the object of an attempt to derail Obama, either way it goes history will be made.
The Tri-State Defender will be there represented by me – photojournalist Warren Roseborough. I’ll be filing periodically at TSD Blog at the newspaper’s Web site: www.tri-statedefender.com. A number of other Memphis-area folks will be there also and I’ll be helping them share their birds-eye views of the occasion.
Lexie Carter, an Obama delegate, will be among them. I met her earlier this week.
Here is an introduction to her and her response to some of my let’s-get-acquainted questions:
Carter is a veteran from the Vietnam era. She is originally from California and is married to a retired U.S. Navy man, who also did a tour in Vietnam and served on the USS Enterprise.
A delegate to the 2004 delegate, Carter has served on the executive committee for the Shelby County Democratic Party. She was also the editor and chief for the Democratic paper. And while Carter now serves as the Public relations chairman for the PR committee for the Shelby County Democratic Party, she also wears an additional hat – she teaches music from her home
Defender: How did you become involved with politics?
Carter: I have always paid attention to the things that affected my life and my children’s just from the exposure from the military and the jobs that I have had. I worked on a lot of jobs. I applied for a lot of grants, which eventually set the stage for the relationship that led to me getting involved with politics. But I have always paid attention to politics. In 2002 when the Democratic Party became less relevant, and it seemed to be a smear to be a liberal, I became very concerned and wanted to do my part to change that. So I became very active with my local party.
Defender: What are you going to be doing at the Convention?
Carter: There will be a lot activities going on – workshops and other various activities. But one of the things I have a particular interest in is that there is going to be a workshop on foreign policy for the next administration and I am trying to get confirmation that I can get credentialed and be able to attend. I have received lots of invitations for lots of events and workshops. There will be a schedule for everything that will be going on for the whole week.
I just want to be able to participate as a whole and be given more specific information about the direction of the Democratic Party and Barack Obama and making sure we do our best to get him elected as president of the United States.
Defender: Do you think that it is still bad to be called a liberal?
Carter: No. I am really interested in some of the ideas and challenges that lie ahead for the Democratic Party. I think during the Bush administration the Democratic Party had to redefine itself because for such a long time the word liberal or to be a liberal wasn’t poplar. But I think that has changed and I feel that the party is much stronger than it was ever before. The Bush administration has really helped our party to come back because the economy is really bad and getting worse, lots of homes were lost, and of course the Iraq war.
I think the Obama administration can really make a change and a new direction for the country and I want to be part of that. One of things that are endearing to me is that there is not enough focus on military families. I raised my children in most part on a military base, and in most part, I never hear about the plight of the military family. I know about the 6-month to 9-month separation, but imagine 18-24 months of separation of the family, your husband or wife overseas.
These military families are really struggling and this is never talked about. There is a high rate of suicide and it is sad that these things are swept under the rug. For example, a young woman at home and her husband is overseas fighting the war, and she is really struggling with no relief in sight. These sad events occurring really drive me to try to be the best delegate I can be to help make this change and get Senator Obama elected.
Defender: Who are some of the known Memphis delegates going to Denver?
Carter: Janis Fullilove, but she has her own agenda. Hazel Longstreet is an Obama delegate and she is going. She and I have worked together on certain events in the community’ one of them was an abstinence forum. I also hosted a Delegate party at my home a few weeks ago with U.S. Senate candidate Bob Tute, who is a good friend of mine. Congressman Steve Cohen, and several other Shelby County Obama delegates.
Defender: Are you excited about going to the convention?
Carter: I am very excited.
Defender: What do you expect to get out of this?
Carter: First and foremost is to support my candidate Barrack Obama, and to participate in this extremely historical event. This is very special to me. I first met him in 2004, and I supported in helping him get selected to the U.S. Senate with a group named African-Americans for Democracy. We first were called African Americans for Dean, supporting Howard Dean, but when his presidential candidacy flopped, we got behind an African- American candidate whose name happened to be Barrack Obama, who was the keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC, and was outstanding. . .
I took a photo with Barrack Obama, who at the time was running for the U.S. Senate. When I came back from the convention in 2004, I had the photo of Senator Obama and people practically ignored it. When he became the Democratic Party nominee people were asking questions: When did you take that? Is that Obama?
