Email From The Hustings

A reader writes:

So I spoke at a town hall meeting this morning at a high school in Manhattan as a representative for the Obama campaign.

When I was discussing Senator Obama's education policy, I brought up the $4,000 tuition credit for service and asked the crowd of about 300 students how many of them would be willing to do some sort of service in exchange for the ability to afford college - nearly every hand went up.  It was slightly overwhelming.

Then a few of the students read letters that they wrote to the candidates. There was a young, straight, African American man whose letter pleaded with Senator Obama to allow for gay marriage.

He talked about love, insisting that it shouldn't be confined/defined to only pertain to certain individuals. The rest of his classmates were extremely receptive. His response was so inspiring, I honestly got caught off guard and a little teary eyed. I thought you'd appreciate this story, especially since I sense a bit of skepticism on your part- perhaps the majority of African Americans are homophobic, I'm not, this young man is not, and we have an opportunity to begin to change this dynamic in the years to come.

Know hope.