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Barack's the Cool Art Teacher, Hillary's the Mean Science Teacher When I think about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, I think about two distinct personalities of my grammar school days. There was Mrs. Austin, my 8th grade Science teacher, a white woman, who had this nice pearly white smile, but wouldn't hesitate to give you a referral, send you to the office or call your parents. Then there was Mr. Gonzalez, AKA Mr. G. He was my 11 th grade Graphics teacher, a half Mexican, half Filipino older man that would tell us stories about the old school, would make us laugh, and would even have students talk to him on a one on one level about problems. To me, Hillary is Mrs. Austin, and Obama is Mr. G.
Mr. Gonzalez, on the other hand, taught Graphics so all the graffiti kids took his elective class. There was a bond of camaraderie in the classroom. Mr. G would talk to us and everyone would listen, he had gained our respect. He wasn't ashamed to talk about his Catholic faith, and it's not that we cared that he was Catholic, it's that we all understood that teachers are not suppose talk about religion in school. So in a sense, he had a rebel spirit to him. And it's not that he was preaching to us, the faith aspect was part of his near death life experience that he would share with us. He kept it real and spoke from the heart. He constantly reminded us that because his parents where migrant field workers from Stockton, California, there is no excuse why we couldn't be successful. It's not that he wouldn't give us referrals or call our parents, it's that he set an environment that he didn't have to. Mrs. Austin follows the tradition of the good ol' American way, the same one that Hillary will follow if she were to win the presidential campaign. It's the one where as long we're doing good, everything else gets swept underneath the rug. In the same sense that George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. have taken over the political framework of this country by having a family legacy of politicians, the Clintons will do the same. There is not much of a change in politics if the first woman president is the same woman who is married to the man who is responsible for creating NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreements) which eliminated all tariffs on products traded among Canada, USA and Mexico in 1994, creating a devastating situation for the Mexican agriculture worker, and married to the same man that bombed Kosovo in 1999. Mr. G created his own scholarship fund and I remember him receiving an inspirational award from a local non-profit organization. The main difference between him and Mrs. Austin is that, while Mrs. Austin may have had a genuine interest in teaching, Mr. G had a natural passion for young people, putting them in two separate categories. One might inspire people to be scientist, the other one will inspire people to be better human beings. Obama is not just a political thinker, in his short run he has delivered speeches considered to be some of the best this country has ever witnessed, he is behind what CNN analysts are calling a movement, what think tanks are addressing as the most charismatic candidate since JFK. He is someone who is not addressing a political idea, but is in a very realistic way, challenging us to be better people. That, hands down is what the American public has been missing all along, because yes we've had presidents, but unfortunately not to many leaders. More De-Bug Election Coverage: Camp Obama Vote for Barack! Barack Obama is the New OJ
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Mrs. Austin gave me an institutional perspective of a character that I would run into again and again through out my life, from school teachers, to counselors, to principals, to cops, probation officers, District Attorneys, public defenders to judges, all the way to the president of the USA himself. They all are a part of the same lineage of the people who have challenged my framework since I was a little boy. When I think of these people, I get cold chills, a sense of frustration, because they are all a part of the current establishment that made me walk home from school with referrals for my father to sign or had me suspended from school. They are same people that had me in a cold white room in county jail with people whose minds were slowly deteriorating. That same establishment is the one that bombs Iraq, establishes a poor health system, industrializes the military complex, and has exploited poor people through out the world for years. 
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