I love an honest man, and Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is on the top of my list, after his appearance at a Manchester, NH high school. When asked about his high school days he openly admitted to being a “pot head,” who experimented with drugs and alcohol.
Obama attended high school in Hawaii, and he admitted to not applying himself and choosing to have a good time. He was trying to find some identity, and used drugs, to “push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.”as he said in his book, “Dreams From My Father,” It was after he began his college education that Obama recognized he’d wasted a lot of time.
“Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final fatal role of the young would be black man,” another quote from his book. He also admitted snorting cocaine when he could afford it, but mostly drank alcohol and smoked weed.
I dare any presidential candidate to be that candid and honest in this very contentious race for the Presidency. Will it hurt Obama? Probably not. It’s already a well-known fact, regardless; I’m sure it’ll be used against him. Politicians can be a vicious sort, but we already knew that.
My concern is about the students he addressed, and how they will relate to Obama. It has been my personal experience that hearing someone talk about how they cleaned up their act while I was still doing mine, sounded great. It gave me the false confidence that someday, I too, could clean up mine. The fact is there may not be another chance. All it would take is one more time “out there” and death will come before freedom. I was among the lucky ones, and with the Grace of God can talk about it today.
The insidious nature of drugs is simply this, some folks never clean up, young people die everyday thinking that someday, soon, they will turn their lives around. I’ve personally seen it happen on several occasions. I sincerely hope Obama’s message to the young people was positive, that those who are involved with drugs and alcohol understand it is a one-way street, and decide now to walk away and get serious about their lives.
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Max Lindberg
My home state is Illinois, and my hometown a little railroad/farming community named Galesburg.We lived on a small farm during my high school years and I became very aware of nature and it's wonders. I loved the out of doors, working with animals, plowing fields and harvesting crops. Those were very good years.After a stint in the Army during the Korean war my broadcasting career took off at the local radio station, a 250 watt "teapot" as it was called in those days. My first job was as an engineer, then the ham came out and I became an announcer/newsman, graduating after several years to a larger market and a stint as a TV journalist/photographer. Cold, wet weather led me to the southwest where I've lived for most of the last 40 years, with a couple of years out to have fun working as a private investigator in San Francisco, and a few years working in Las Vegas hotels and casinos. In all, its been a real ride.After retiring a few years back I became fascinated with the efforts being made to find alternative energy sources. I've watched our environment deteriorate during my lifetime, and now it's my chance to join the chorus of intelligent and caring individuals making a difference one day at a time.
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