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This appeared in the Erie (PA) Times-News, written by an Erie native to his friends, family, and former neighbors back home.
A Letter Home About a Classmate: The Barack Obama We Know
-- Joseph Stanganelli, October 30, 2008 (Erie Times-News)
I grew up in Erie and was a classmate of Barack Obama's at Harvard Law School. Two other classmates, John Bu and Chris Goebel, grew up in Erie too, and the family of yet another, Joe Fernandez, moved to Erie from Williamsport twenty-five years ago. We are scattered now, but I contacted John, Chris and Joe this week to see if I could include their names here as I wanted to tell people back home, who are getting bombarded with different messages, what we know about the real Barack Obama.
It does not surprise me that I can report that all four of his classmates from Erie support Barack’s candidacy. (I knew Joe Fernandez did since he is a co-chair of the Obama campaign in Rhode Island.) The main reason I am writing though is because many people who want to influence the crucial decision Pennsylvanians will make in this election, are trying to defeat Barack by spreading false rumors and fear; by fooling voters into believing that Barack Obama is someone too different from you and me to be our President. Here are four guys from Erie who went to school with him who know differently, and want Erie County voters to know what we know.
John Bu worked closely with Barack on the Law Review, and passes along this message: "The entire campus was divided by political acrimony, which was most pronounced on the Law Review, where Barack was the first black President. As one of the editors, I witnessed Barack's incredible ability to bridge political differences so people could find a common ground and work together. That kind of open-minded, healing leadership is what this country desperately needs in these uncertain times."
Chris Goebel’s perspective sounds to me like that of Colin Powell last week: "Living and working overseas, and traveling widely from Europe to the east, I have seen that electing Barack Obama as president will give a needed boost to the image of our country and our moral authority in the world, and am convinced this improvement will have positive effects back home in Erie." (Chris was the 8th grade point guard for St. George's when I was the 8th man for Sacred Heart – I could not keep up with him then, I cannot keep up with him now!)
Joe Fernandez expands on the difference between reality with Barack and the false impression some are attempting to spread: “In the past couple of years, I’ve had a chance to sit down with Barack, and to get to know Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, who lived here in Rhode Island. They are both just like the Barack Obama I met twenty years ago in law school: down-to-earth, straight-talking, hard-working Americans.”
This is what we know. This is the real Barack Obama. He is a man of extraordinary capabilities, and in many important ways he is just like you and me. Far from the innuendo and worse you are getting in emails, ads and phone calls, Barack Obama shares the same American middle-class value system we grew up with in Erie: honesty, work, common sense and family. What I have been telling people for the last eighteen months is that he is “the real deal” – ignore the smears and be assured that what you see is in fact what we will get if we make this historic decision. As I saw him standout as the leader atop our large law school class, I believe Barack Obama is the best our generation of Americans has to offer.
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