Opinion: L.A. teen to dine with Obama
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Given who we work for, we were naturally interested when Barack Obama’s presidential camp today identified Brittany Washington, a college student from Los Angeles, as one of the lucky small donors picked to have dinner with the candidate she supports. The meal, to take place at a yet-to-be-named site in September, will be the second orchestrated by Obama’s campaign to, in its words, give him a chance to sit down ‘with four regular people from across the country’ and hear their views.
Washington, who has a particular interest in education issues, might serve another purpose: suggesting to Obama that his staff brush up on its grammar.
One of the releases we received announcing Washington’s selection referred to her as a ‘student from Los Angeles that attends Howard University in Washington.’ The word we italicized, of course, should be ‘who.’
We tracked the 19-year-old on her cellphone, and she was forgiving of the miscue. The political science major said she was ‘excited’ about the opportunity to break bread with Obama, and that among the topics she intended to talk about was his ‘vision for education in America and his vision for healthcare.’
The latter subject is especially meaningful for Washington -- her mother recently passed away, and the family’s experience with the healthcare system was hardly a positive one.
Washington said her mother, who was covered only by MediCal, California’s health insurance program for low-income residents, had difficulty obtaining a test for cancer when she detected a lump in one of her breasts. One of the healthcare providers her mother visited, Washington said, told her that she had a swollen gland and advised her to treat it with a warm compress.
Her mother was eventually diagnosed with breast cancer, but the insurance coverage limited the care she was able to receive during her final hospital stay.
Obama, in touting the dinners his campaign is putting together, has said that ‘turning the page on the great challenges facing our nation at home and around the world requires the input of everyday experts who confront hardships in their own lives.”
Washington sounds like she certainly can fill that bill.
A graduate of Palisades High School who is entering her junior year at Howard, Washington said that her donation to Obama amounted to either $5 or $10. She thinks it was the lower amount, saying (in the best tradition of college students), ‘I was kind of broke at the time.’
The first dinner that Obama convened with contributors of modest sums occurred last month in Washington. It attracted attention in part because one of those picked to attend had written the campaign about her conversion from pro-military conservative to antiwar liberal, but neglected to mention that she also had converted from a man to a woman. She offered to withdraw from the occasion after the sex change became public, but the invitation stayed in place.
To read more about the upcoming dinner and to see a video of the first one, go here.
-- Don Frederick