Silicon Valley for Obama

John JacobsWorking on this campaign is the culmination of a lifetime of experiences. JFK inspired me, and many of my contemporaries, to join the Peace Corps. I trained for Tanzania and learned Swahili, one of several languages spoken by some of Barack’s family in Kenya, but was eventually reassigned to Sierra Leone in West Africa, where I lived in a small up-country town of 4000, fell in love with teaching and developed a view of the world and the people in it that has everything to do with who I am today. Barack wants to expand Peace Corps, offering college tuition credit to those who are willing to perform national service. It’s a powerful idea, with the potential to do a great deal of good both here and abroad.

Upon returning to the U.S., I spent two years in a federally funded urban Teacher Corps program. Participants were roughly half black, half white and all returned Peace Corps Volunteers who had served in Africa. My wife, Pat (RPCV Burkina Faso) and I then headed for California where we continued to pursue our profession and our passion: teaching young people.

Having worked mostly with students of color in working class communities, I have learned how much the cards are stacked against kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Education can be a great equalizer, but we have to level the playing field in many different areas of society simultaneously, including education, so that all kids truly have equal opportunities to succeed in schools. Barack understands all of this, and much more. He understands what we have to do to improve health care, the economy, and our foreign policy. He understands what all girls and kids of color think and feel when they look at a chart of U.S. presidents and see 43 white men in succession. He understands why there is so much resentment of our country around the globe. He understands why the politics of the past just won’t work any more, if it ever did. He understands his unique ability to mobilize people to address the serious problems that are facing all of us. He understands our deep desire to live in a country where people feel that their leaders have their best interests at heart, and that if each person is willing to do his or her part, we can become the country that we want us to be.

For these reasons and many more, working on this campaign with all of you has truly been, and will continue to be a labor of love. I’m still teaching and learning, and hopefully assisting in creating a community which will endure beyond Nov. 4. Following Barack’s lead, we will continue with our phone banking conversations, staying on the high road and speaking honestly about the issues which we all face. We will continue to listen empathetically to those with differing viewpoints, with the immediate goal being Barack’s election, but the ultimate goal being the creation of a more humane world.

Onward,
John Jacobs

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