If you haven't noticed -- we're living in the era of the hybrid.
My gas guzzling car is thankfully on its last legs -- and so I find myself test driving a Ford, a Honda, and a Toyota. All Hybrids that are counting on an electric motor to jump in when the gas engine isn't required. Part the future -- part the past.
But - there is more. My young son has been asking for -- well begging for really -- a dog. We live in the city, so the big dog with the hound-ish personality and the soulful eyes is out of the question. And the little dogs -- well, they're too little and frufru for our gang. So we were excited to find a dog that seemed just right. A Puggle. Never heard of them? It's a mix between a beagle and a pug. Breeders call them mutts. But owners call them hybrids. A bit of the big dog, a bit of the small. A mix that creates a uniquely new kind of dog -- one that we're pretty fond of.
Finally -- I went looking for a bike (part of the family green transportation initiative) and asked Felix at the shop to show me a bike that was part off road part racing bike... "ah you want a hybrid." Of course I do. A lightweight bike that I can ride on the street or the park, or on a bit of a journey. A Hybrid.
Changing times require new blends of old and new. Some tradition, some history, some new thinking.
So is Barack Obama a hybrid?
Lets take a look.
His father is Kenyan
His mother American (Wichita, Kansas)
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
At age six he moved to Jakarta
At 10 -- returned to Honolulu to to go prep school (Punahou School)
College, Occidental College -- transfer to Columbia University - then Harvard for Law.
An American born politician who spent four years in Indonesia... then returned to Hawaii -- and then was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
Sure, hybrid's are controversial. The purists want good old fashioned cars that burn gasoline. Hybrids are for sissies. And the hard core cyclists are going to look down their nose at my Hybrid bike. And dog breeders -- well, lets just say that the purists have little kind to say about the Labradoodle or our little Puggle. They're called mutts - or something worse.
But I think we're living in the era of the Hybrid. New mixes. New cultural combinations. And with this new era of Hybrid Politics -- an opportunity to see the word in a new way. Barack Obama is both genetically, socially, educationally, and politically a Hybrid. He's not obviously a black politician, having grown up outside the political dynamic that forged so many of the African American political leaders of our time. This has troubled some voters who questioned if Obama was 'black enough'. He's moved past these critics by in a sense agreeing with them, rather than pander -- and change his tone to sound more like an urban preacher when he speaks to black audiences, Obama has remained himself. He is well spoken, passionate, literate, and able to speak with his own voice. Compare this "Hybrid" Kenyan/American to Hillary Clinton's southern drawl and you see the natural conflict between the Hybrid make of Obama and the attempt to impersonate roots that she simply can't claim.
Welcome to America. A land of 'hybrids' -- all of us. A melting pot. A mix. And now, perhaps ready to elect a Hybrid Politician.
Obama drives a Ford Escape (The Escape Hybrid achieves 34 mpg in the city). And did we get a Puggle? Not yet, we're thinking about a Pugglehound now... a mix of a Basset and a Pug. Soulful yet small and spry. Seems like a good dog hybrid to us.