Broken Dishes And Barack
By Roger Wright, Thu Dec 8th

Broken Dishes and the Voice of God

Barack Obama, alone, leaned against the wall in the kitchencorridor underneath the Hotel Allegro in Chicago and looked athis watch. Next to him, a bus cart jammed with dirty breakfastdishes waiting to be washed. In the dining room above, hisintroduction was winding down, and in 90 seconds, he'd get arunning start for the stairs and go bounding up two at a time tospring into the good sized room for one last stop on thiscampaign. As Barack Obama stood alone; the smoke filled, backroom, cigar chomping, nod and a wink echoes of generations ofChicago politicians, their chuckling, knowing spirits too rootedin the downtown loop to ever leave, despite the candidates thatcame and went, paused for one eternal moment and all took alook. Later that night, all these generations of dark and shadedpolitical men knew, Barack Obama would be up in front of a room10 times the size of the one in the Allegro. He would bethanking everyone. And owing no one. So they paused for onequick glance. Santiago Cruz, 52 years old and smiling like theColumbian sunshine even when he thought himself alone, carryinga grey, plastic tub of dirty coffee cups and saucers, didn'tnotice Barack Obama on the other side of the bus cart of dishes.Swinging his grey tub up over his head to plunk it down on thetop of the cart, Santiago looked to his right and saw the quietObama smiling. In the space of a second, Santiago wiped hishands on his pants and took Obama's outstretched hand. And asBarack leaned in towards the man to shake, he bumped hisshoulder hard into the cart, spilling all he dishes stacked onthe top on to the floor, shattering in a million pieces and atthe same time sending a jarring shooting pain all throughObama's shoulder,

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a pain so sharp he winced and bowed his head.And as he winced in pain without one real clear thought at all,Obama instinctively got to his knees to begin picking up theshattered dishes. Santiago Cruz, still stunned by the crash,stood for a moment and looked down at the man on his kneespicking up the dishes. Joining him then on the floor to do thesame, Santiago heard the applause from the dining room upstairsand the beep of the other man's cell phone going off at the verysame time. Santiago Cruz and Barack Obama, both kneeling on thefloor, their faces a foot apart, looked straight at each otherand another kind of recognition registered on Santiago's face.Where he had been smiling before, where Santiago ALWAYS smiled,the smile took on a deeper tone. Something changed in thatsmile---and there was a tone of sadness in that smile, then hopeflickered for just a moment and his eyes lit up to a newbrightness and he said "OBAMA! OBAMA OBAMA!" Barack Obama'ssmile reflected the other man's own and while the applause gotlouder upstairs and turned into a stomping of the feet thatdrummed into the very foundation of the old political rooms sohard that even the ghosts of all those old dealmakers keptwatching. And what they saw was Barack Obama and Santiago Cruzpicking up the pieces of the shattered breakfast dishes untilthe job was done. This Wednesday morning it looks as though theworld might be looking at those of us in the United States witha head shaking bafflement. Just WHAT were these American'sTHINKING! Or more precisely, just what were JUST under one halfof them thinking. The story that came first on the radio was ofthe Oklahoma senators who want to simply ban ALL abortions. Thenthey want to make sure that no one who is gay or an unwed motherbe allowed to teach in a public school. That compassion standsmissing from the national ethic is a given. The forecast callsfor a lot of broken dishes on the floor. But in the dark morningof such a demoralizing loss-here on Lincoln Avenue inChicago--praying not for easy lives: but instead for thestrength to meet what life brings: I found myself somehow inline for coffee and newspapers at the exact same time as Greg.Don't remember what we said. Really doesn't matter. What doesmatter is that there we both were, two guys from the same churchhome--matter of fact the same church home that was ALSO the SAMEdenomination of Barack Obama. . . . .there we were in the verysame line at the very same time. Both of us in that line readyto help pick up the broken dishes. Very same line at the verysame time. As if it was a message: that God is still speaking.Speaking. Speaking.

About the author:Roger Wright can be found on the salon.com blog CHURCH FOODCHICAGO