Sue Bell: Baby Boomer Takes to the Road
<p>It is said by an African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child.”</p> <p>My village grew up with the Kennedy and Cuomo family tradition of dinner table politics.<br />
Politics are our fabric and glue and we bleed for the Democratic Party. As all baby<br />
boomers our fathers are part of the” greatest generation”, who grew up during the<br />
depression and served in WWII. When they came home, they educated themselves,<br />
married our mothers and raised families. My father, John Finley Clough Jr, enlisted<br />
because it was his best option in order to control his military destiny. He selected the air<br />
force because he always wanted to be a pilot; however, Dad crashed on his first day in<br />
flight school on his maiden landing and broke several ribs. It was a failure that may have<br />
saved his life from missions in Europe as well as brought him a rewarding part-time<br />
career and hobby; he was made a radio operator. After the war, he went to college<br />
supported by the GI Bill since it was an opportunity that was not a financial possibility<br />
for him without it. The GI Bill paid for him to attend some of the finest schools in our<br />
country. He graduated from Johns Hopkins with a bachelor’s degree in political science,<br />
attended Duke Law School, and earned a master’s degree in political science at The<br />
University of Pennsylvania, and PhD studies at Penn as well. While at Hopkins, Dad<br />
impressed his political science professor, V.O. Key Jr, who served as his mentor in his<br />
subsequent career as a political science professor and college administrator<br />
V.O. Key Jr. was a well-respected political theorist known by most for his theory of<br />
critical elections. Dr. Key’s theories state that there are times when an election is held<br />
that change the course and direction of the nation directly based on the incumbent’s<br />
successes or failures which motivates and activates large groups of new voters to register<br />
and vote. Clearly, 2008 is such an election. It is due is large part to the failures of the<br />
Bush administration with the unpopular war in Iraq, the torturing of American held Iraqi<br />
prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the drowning of America’s citizens in New Orleans with an ill<br />
prepared and non responsive federal government all broadcast live on CNN, the fiscally<br />
irresponsible tax cuts and simultaneous escalation of federal spending, lack of regulation<br />
in the banking and credit industries which have resulted in a global economic crisis– Pick<br />
any failed Bush policy and you will find new horrified voters and volunteers</p> <p>Dad’s early lessons in politics were taught to him in the same patriarchal tradition of the<br />
Kennedys and Cuomos, by his father, John F Clough, Sr. Sr. told young John Jr. to count<br />
the number of signs in his Philadelphia neighborhood for each candidate and he would be<br />
able to predict the winners and losers on Election Day. Dad used his love of politics, his<br />
education, and radio operator experience to become a political commentator for the local<br />
CBS radio and television station in Philadelphia, however, Dad later used more<br />
sophisticated methodology in his predictions, such as random samplings and key precinct<br />
indicators to make his election night predictions</p> <p>Once he became a political analyst, his days as an activist ended. Having been raised in<br />
predominately Republican areas made his children willing warriors for any cause, we<br />
marched for peace, walked for the hungry, wore black arm bands in parades, cleaned<br />
parks and walked to school on Earth day, and arose early without complaint to witness<br />
the passing of Robert F Kennedy’s funeral train.</p> <p>The Clough Clan continues in their Democratic Party tradition with the addition of all<br />
fourth generation eligible voters to the party rolls. 2008 has revitalized our heritage and<br />
we once again have joined the activist role. The most visible family member on a<br />
mission would be John F Clough III, my brother</p> <p>John III left the east coast more than 25 years ago to seek his fame and fortune in the<br />
northern land of Alaska, where he became a successful attorney. Over the years his love<br />
of politics was confined to the dinner table and shouting at the television until Super<br />
Tuesday 2008, when he unsuccessfully caucused for Hillary in the Alaskan primary. He,<br />
like me, was a Hill supporter who became an Obama supporter at the end of the primary<br />
season.</p> <p>On Friday, August 29th ,a tsunami of sorts occurred in John’s life, when a press<br />
conference held by the McCain campaign shook John to his core, with their<br />
announcement of his Governor, Sarah Palin, being nominated to be the Vice Presidential<br />
running mate with John McCain. According to John, ” Sarah Palin being nominated and<br />
possibly becoming President, embarrassed me as an Alaskan and terrified me as an<br />
American.” As his sister, I can tell you he lost his sense of humor and was unable to<br />
speak for at least a week</p> <p>Then he decided to mobilize, his plan is what he refers to as; “The Obamamobile, The<br />
Alaska Talk Express!”</p> <p>Three weeks ago, with the supportive Alaskan family waiving goodbye, John, III traveled<br />
the 4000 miles to the birthplace of this nation and his own, Pennsylvania to go on his one<br />
man mission to “let people know not every Alaskan supports Sarah Palin”. John’s earlier<br />
political experiences included volunteering for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 as a high<br />
school sophomore and in 1976 as a recent college grad; he ran Jimmy Carter’s primary<br />
campaign in Lancaster, Pa.</p> <p>Now, at age 55, Clough decorated his Alaskan plated rat tat 1994 Dodge Colt Caravan<br />
and has been following the McCain/Palin political rallies across Pennsylvania and Ohio.<br />
He is not affiliated with any political group or field office; he is truly a one man show<br />
looking to engage in one on one conversation with anyone interested in talking. On his<br />
first day, altruistically and without a real travel plan, John attempted to enter a Palin<br />
event in Laconia, NH, but was turned away, no ticket = no entry. Lesson learned.<br />
John being a competitor journeyed on with stops across Pennsylvania and Ohio,<br />
including one temporary diversion to Laporte, Pa, where a local auction caught his eye.<br />
He proudly was the winning bidder of a Barbie Dream House that his lovely bride has<br />
always coveted.</p> <p>If in your travels you see the Obamamobile, please honk or stop to offer your support for<br />
this aging baby boomer. He is running on four hours of sleep a night and when asked<br />
about how is feels with a week to go John confidently proclaims,” Great!”<br />
As we spoke on the phone just a few minutes ago, I asked John where he was today. He<br />
had already attended the Obama rally this morning at Widener University near Philadelphia which was held outside in 39 degree weather with pounding rain and strong<br />
winds. According to John,” Sen. Obama also withstood the elements and appeared in just<br />
a jacket and offered a rousing empowering speech to us. I am so excited”. He was at<br />
that moment driving the Obamamobile through heavy snow just outside of Wilkes Barre<br />
on his way to the McCain /Palin rally scheduled for this evening at Penn State.<br />
Early on November 4th John will be to returning to Alaska on a flight from Boston. He<br />
hopes to sleep on the plane and wants to see the election results from his usual vantage<br />
point; his couch with his family watching their television. He will take away from this<br />
journey many things, a renewed “sense of his east coast family, support of friends and<br />
family, and the opportunity to meet remarkable people”.</p> <p>I am proud to have John as my brother, just as I am proud to have continued our Clough<br />
family tradition of shaping and inspiring the political views and values of our children<br />
and their friends at our kitchen tables. We have inspired them not with rhetoric and sound<br />
bites but with intelligent conversations and involvement in the campaigns. We are the<br />
proud members of a wonderfully intelligent lifelong democratic family, who are not<br />
famous like the Kennedys, Cuomos, and Bushs, but whose family’s patriarch used his life<br />
to teach and shape the values of his family, his friends, his students and his community.<br />
He did not live long enough to see this return of core democratic values, but his life’s<br />
work and promise lives on for new generations through our children and grandchildren.<br />
His annual pledges to the United Negro College fund paid off as well, with the<br />
emergence of one of the finest political candidates of my lifetime in Senator Barack<br />
Obama, educated in the same tradition as those WWII vets, for that I wish to say, thank<br />
you, John F Cloughs, my community Hero’s.</p>
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