Fresh Loaf

Jacob: It might inspire me a little bit. A lot more people will respect him if he quits. No one respects somebody killing himself, and that’s all cigarettes are — cancer sticks. It would be good if we all quit, and I hope Obama makes it. It would make me respect him more and it might help me. Just seeing your friends quit helps. My idea of being president is that you’re still a human being — but you have a voice and your voice represents everybody. So if he quit smoking, it would be a big thing.

Erica: No. Everyone knows smoking is bad for you and in the end you quit for yourself. I actually kind of like that he’s a smoker. It’s very human to have some sort of flaw. I mean, I don’t want to see a picture of him holding a bottle of Jack Daniels with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, but you should quit for yourself and not for anyone else. I don’t care whether he quits but he should be careful about his PR. Actually, if I saw him smoking at a bar I’d probably think he’s hot stuff.

Tre: I won’t stop. If my mother couldn’t get me to stop, Obama can’t make me stop. In fact, Obama should get up, after his inauguration speech, and fire up a cigarette. Have a glass of ‘nac [Cognac] and a cigarette and keep it real for ‘09. That should be his motto. He shouldn’t quit, but he should legalize marijuana. As long as he doesn’t get a tan like George Hamilton, it’s cool with me. The cigarettes kind of do your skin in. But if he continues to smoke, he should try to lower the cigarette tax.

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Renee Glover, who has overseen the transformation of Atlanta’s public housing complexes into mixed-use communities, is on President-elect Barack Obama’s short list for a cabinet position.

Along with New York City’s housing commissioner and Miami’s mayor, among others, Atlanta Housing Authority Executive Director Glover is being considered for secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Glover has won nationwide acclaim — and some criticism — for using HUD’s HOPE VI program to tear down public housing and replace it with communities that reduce crime and improve neighborhoods. The improvements to the lives of the former residents, however, have been questioned.

Here are the contenders for HUD secretary:

• Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
• Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
• Renee Glover, head of Atlanta’s housing authority
• Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Shaun Donovan, commissioner of New York City’s housing department.

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It’s not a visit from Pres.-elect Barack Obama to help U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin, but it’s something. Below, listen to the ad that’ll brainwash every single Georgian over the age of 18 to visit the polls on Dec. 2 and vote for Martin in his runoff against incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss.

It might now be safe to say the Peach State won’t be getting a visit before the runoff. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza interviewed several anonymous Democratic operatives who say that a visit to Georgia may just not be worth the political risk.

I know, I know. I too am feeling a little…I don’t know…empty. But we’ll carry on, my fellow Atlantans. Be strong. Take comfort in this photo of a kitten.

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Former presidential candidate Fred Thompson has endorsed U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his runoff race against Democratic candidate Jim Martin. Big surprise there, eh?

But there was also this in the e-mail announcement, sent to reporters by Chambliss’ campaign, by Will Andrews of Thompson’s PAC:

The Georgia seat is key to all of these battles and many more. Barack Obama is going to Atlanta to drum up support for his Democrat candidate. The unions and ACORN and every other left-wing group is on the ground working night and day.

Night and day! Eating only Socialist food rations that we’ll all riot over on Jan. 21, 2009. Yo, Will! Let us know when Obama’s coming, please. Everyone here is saying it’s unlikely.

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It was hard to breathe last Tuesday night on the campus of Morehouse College. The election season often felt like someone was pushing our head into and out of water. But then the time came to sit back and watch the tide of electoral votes come in. This community of black men was confident that the right thing would happen. However, no matter how beautiful we saw the potential waves of change, we feared being yanked down by the undertow of history and deep-seated inequality.

Thankfully, the only threat of drowning that we faced that night was the inundation of tears by even the most manly of men — black men who are usually depicted as devoid of emotion.

We have a unique culture on our campus. No matter the individual’s socioeconomic background, we live with a reminder of how far we can fall if we slip on any side of the narrow path. We assume our cool and sometime violent posture to save face in a hostile world. We live embattled from all sides. Hope is not a campaign slogan. Hope has a more significant meaning for us who everyday look at the face of nihilism, sometimes in our peers, sometimes in the mirror. The tension broke when we saw the electoral count tip in Obama’s favor. I have never in my life seen such eruption of pure elation that broke out on the Atlanta University Center campuses. This was not just an election. For us, Obama’s win was a victory for the affirmation of human dignity. And for the first time we took off our “face” and our cool, and some of us cried.

November 4, 2008, 11:26 p.m, at Fredrick Douglass Hall, Morehouse College

(Photo and Text by Wendell Hassan Marsh)

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