One of Us

In 2006, Deval Patrick ran for Governor and won , he was the second African American elected as governor in the United States, and what makes it a little stranger demographically, is that he was elected by a state with a relatively small African American population.

I'm not writing as an African American (I am not), but in the respect of seeing a person who transcended his caste to reach the highest executive position in the Commonwealth.

Deval Patrick is the American dream. Born in poverty on the Southside of Chicago, used an education as leverage to reach the highest levels of the legal profession, of the federal government's executive branch, boardrooms of two Fortune 500 companies, and finally to the corner office on Beacon Hill.

I had the privilege of hearing candidate Patrick speak in small and large groups on a number of occasions during the campaign and I was always struck by his intelligence, his wonkish knowledge of the issues and of course his backstory. I think this backstory resonated with Massachusetts voters as he took Muffy "footnote in history" Healey to the electoral woodshed.

I felt part of this success, an actual candidate that I didn't have to hold my nose and go vote for. He worked hard, he came from humble beginnings, he studied, went to school, did things the right way. It's often sickening to hear everyone try to make their life sound like a struggle. I guess in some ways the entire human condition is a struggle, but in this situation it truly was a man who did well, from the "hood" to the Corner Office. A politician who in the proverbial sense was not born on third base and thought he had hit a triple.

The idea that every child can grow up to be President is a popular one, albeit completely untrue. Bill Clinton in some ways was an aberration, (but he's even a Yalie) but most seem to be subject to if not part and parcel of the American aristocracy. Ain't no way I was ever going to be President. I don't think the trail to the White House goes through the 13th grade at CCCC. Clubba, great guy, ain't going to happen.

But somewhere, sometime someone told Deval Patrick that he could be President. They were lying too, but hell if that little boy from the Southside of Chicago isn't manning the office of James Michael Curley in the corner of the building that overlooks the City on a Hill.
Governor Patrick has hit some snags to begin with and has fallen into an early battle with a legislature that sees him as a political neophyte (true) making mistakes that doom him to a figurehead of the 200 on the hill.

But if he is truly one of us, those that dreamed of a day that a man like Governor Patrick would be at the helm of the ship of state, there is hope. Hope that he will see the Commonwealth as having the possibilities for excellence in education, economy, environment and standard of living that many of us do. Understanding that sometimes to open this door, it will mean to upset the status quo. And upset the legislature and come back to us to support him.

Write your legislator and tell them that the Governor is one of us. And it's the reason we elected him in a landslide.

Oh yeah and Elena, m'ija, who knows what you can do?