Obama-Biden Salad

The big buzz yesterday, and somewhat today, was about Senator Obama choosing Senator Biden as his running mate for the elections. The Obama campaign got me on their email list a long time ago and I have been receiving daily emails from his campaign. I do not always read them, but feel good that I am kept informed. Senator Biden and I are the same age and our lives crossed back in the 70’s when he was a newly elected Senator from Delaware and I was a community organizer in Wilmington, DE. Since food evolves from growing, I decided to create a garden salad last night, freshly picked, in honor of these two men, whom I feel I know from the net or past experience. There was lots of freshly picked arugula in the salad since Obama’s like of this salad green was used against him to call him an ‘elitist’. Actually arugula is one of the easiest, most affordable salad greens that grow in my garden and in the GP Box in the sunroom in the winter. It might be kept from our dinner tables by big agri-businesses but that does not make it elitist. Senator Biden has been accused of talking too much and being rough and tough in his words. So for him there was some roughage from the garden and lawn, like violet greens. My wife, as she was picking at her salad, made comments on its “rough” nature. She likes to know exactly what she is eating and I had so many herbs and greens in the salad that it made it tough to tell. All the ingredients were from the garden and even some of the herb spices were home grown. Only the olive, lemon and balsamic vinegar and a few spices were not created here. Now for my encounter with Senator Biden.

It was 1974 and I was a 31-year-old community organizer in Wilmington, De. My wife, two sons and I had moved there for my first real job as a community organizer. Senator Biden was also 31, having been in office as Senator for a little over a year. His wife and young daughter had died in a tragic accident after his election. The issue in the neighborhoods I was organizing was FHA (Federal Housing Authority) vacant foreclosed houses that populated the neighborhood. In those days Alinsky-style community organizing was much more confrontational than it is today. We had set up a community meeting with Senator Biden at a church to get some answers on this housing blight in the neighborhood and what was going to be done about it. On the night of the meeting his aide showed up saying Senator Biden had been kept on the floor of the Senate and could not make it. He was ready to answer our questions and maybe today that would have been satisfactory. However, we insisted on a meeting with the Senator himself. To our surprise the Senator said yes, and group of community members went to his office to meet with him. We were taken aback by his openness and willingness to answer our questions and to discuss the issue. In those days most politicians we confronted would have had a “how dare you question me” attitude, which made it great for organizers like myself. My wife was there, and she remembers Senator Biden talking a lot, a stereotype that he, like me, still lives with. As a community organizer I prepared the leaders but did not speak at actions, believe it or not. Senator Biden knew how to handle us. I am not sure how the FHA vacant housing was resolved but it was resolved. I would like to think the neighborhood group had something to do with it. Maybe one of the lots where the FHA vacant house was not rehabbed and sold again is now a vacant lot with a community garden. And maybe the ingredients for Obama-Biden salad are growing on it.

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