Jeremy Levitt, a premier public intellectual on FAMU’s faculty, is preparing to take his wife and daughters to the nation’s capital next week for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s historic inauguration. In yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel, he reflected on his vote for the man who will become America’s first black commander-in-chief.
From Levitt’s op-ed:
I was an Obama supporter long before he was a national and international icon. However, I have not been a blind supporter.
As an independent, I disagree with certain aspects of several of his policy positions, including those on abortion, immigration, gun control and the preemptive use of force, and I seriously question his appointing so many Clintonians to his administration, which contradicts his campaign paradigm of change.
I voted for Obama because I was keenly aware that his victory would be the single greatest civil-rights achievement in American history, one spawned by a multiracial, multigenerational and multiclass American electorate.
Continue reading here.
From Levitt’s op-ed:
I was an Obama supporter long before he was a national and international icon. However, I have not been a blind supporter.
As an independent, I disagree with certain aspects of several of his policy positions, including those on abortion, immigration, gun control and the preemptive use of force, and I seriously question his appointing so many Clintonians to his administration, which contradicts his campaign paradigm of change.
I voted for Obama because I was keenly aware that his victory would be the single greatest civil-rights achievement in American history, one spawned by a multiracial, multigenerational and multiclass American electorate.
Continue reading here.
What is a "premier public intellectual"? Is it different, say, from a "public intellectual"?
ReplyDeleteWord order correction on my ^^ post:
ReplyDeleteWhat is a "premier public intellectual"? Is it different from, say, a "public intellectual"?
(My fingers were moving too fast in typin gthe first post.)
I don't have any problem with Obama selecting members of Clinton's administration. However, I do have concerns about him choosing "northerners" only for his administration. Don't get me wrong now, I do believe that he should choose the best talent out there. However, I don't think the best talent out there are native northerners. Southerners delivered Florida, NC, & Virginia for Obama. We do not expect to be locked out.
ReplyDeleteHey, 8:19, good point. I'd not really thought about regional appointees, but in view of the fact that Florida and other Southern states help deliver him to the WH, I'd certainly like to see some of us Southerners tapped for the big appointments. I think the old stereotype of Southerners not being intellectuals still rings true in many parts of the country.
ReplyDeletetense correction on my above post:
ReplyDelete"...helped deliver..."