Obama's Legacy

     With a Republican Congress promising to abuse power, and a new president poised to disgrace the office, I'm among the many who watch President Obama's departure with deep regret.
     History will see matters this way:
     Race was a consequential factor in the unprecedented opposition Obama faced. This was well known by political foes -- people at high levels in American government.  Yet they were willing to be complicit and even to abet.  Throughout his term, the president received criticism that was unprincipled, vicious and personal.
     Bigotry neared open display with the Republican presidential candidates of 2016. It broke through in the campaign of Donald Trump. To the last minute he clung to the lie that President Obama was African by birth. (Don't forget, he's bla-a-a-a-ck.) And Trump's white supremacist libel of Mexicans and Muslims will echo in American life long after the victory he was willing to seek at terrible cost to the integrity of our electoral process.
     With ceaseless and scurrilous attempts to undermine a duly elected president, the Republican Party of the early 21st Century posted a record of moral bankruptcy for which it will be forever known. This is the context that will make President Obama's legacy shine even more brightly. He met every adversity with dignity and courage and grace. He was matched in this by his wife Michelle, who has won widespread admiration through the sheer quality of her persona.
     His legacy of elevated leadership will dog the Lilliputians who've taken over. They may be able to compromise his policies, but they cannot erase his example.
     And the example will be alive yet awhile in both the Obamas. The President is a young man. He displays no inclination to fade away.  While former presidents have traditionally left the leadership field to their successors, leadership is highly unlikely to be the hallmark of the Trump administration. President Obama would do the nation further service by finding ways to remain vigorously engaged in public life. Michelle Obama is amply equipped to take an ongoing role in her own right, and to enlarge on the material contribution she has already made.
     For the time being, our government has passed to people who are capable of very low behavior. The dangers they pose are not limited to law and policy, which can in the longer term be corrected. The deeper danger will be temptation to lose faith in the possibility of integrity and higher purpose in our leaders.
     The legacy of the Obamas is to remind us that the possibility need not be lost.
   
 
   

Gritty Issues

     I've been thinking lately about our great cultural divides. These are the lines that separate dog people from cat people; morning people from night owls; punctual people from laggards.
     I've been thinking about one boundary marker in particular:  grits.
     I come at this from a certain perspective. By birth and early upbringing I am a southerner. But late in boyhood I became a nomad. I've lived or spent time in most of the regions east of the Mississippi, and I've made a few stops out west.
     In my life experience, four kinds of individuals are found along the grits spectrum:
     -- People who've never heard of grits.
     -- People who've heard of them but never tried them.
     -- People who've tried them but don't like them.
     -- People of discerning taste.
     Those in category one can be forgiven their ignorance. Outside Dixie, grits can be very hard to find. I remember once trying to order grits in a Detroit hotel. The server's expression said I might as well have asked for a serving of library paste.
     In category two, grits often have a bad reputation. The reasons have never been clear to me. It may be a manifestation of regional prejudice (we all have them). Or perhaps the explanation is simpler.  As the name of a victual, the word "grits" is not rich with appeal.  Purveyors of grits might take a useful cue from those who fob off green beans as haricots verts.
     In category three we must of course allow for the vagaries of personal preference. We must also be forgiving of untutored experience. I once saw a New Englander mistake grits for cream of wheat and flavor them accordingly.  The result was not agreeable.
     In my early upbringing we lived for a time with my grandparents on a small farm.  The food traditions there were strong. When pigs were killed in the fall, my grandmother made chitlins. My grandfather's favorite breakfast was fatback with molasses and buttermilk. Collard greens and boiled okra were regulars.
     Our family didn't make a big occasion of New Year's Eve but the folks down the road did. They always had Hoppin' John, and they always made it the authentic, old-time way -- with pig knuckles.
     For me all these are now staples in memory only. But grits remain a staple in fact. I am an ardent member of category four.
     We do not have a bed of roses there. We struggle  against temptation to condescend. We know we must not. The cultural deprivation of others is not necessarily their fault. Our proper role among them is ambassadorial, not missionary. We must hope that tact and patience will be effective in broadening their horizons.
     Although in Detroit it may be a tough sell.