From a Friend Who Grew Up With Him: "Obama has the stuff to back up his hope and inspiration"

In the 1970-71 school year I was a student at Walker Middle School at Fort Knox. In the next year my dad was transferred to Hawaii. By the 1975-76 school year, I found myself one of four African-American young men attending Punahou Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Though we each had our own personal friends, three of us -- Rik Smith, "Barry" Barack Obama, and I had a standing date roughly once a week to talk.

In those weekly conversations we discussed the social climate on our cosmopolitan campus (whether any of the non-black girls would date us black guys). We talked about sports and religion (I was a Christian; Rik and Barry were agnostics). We talked about our classes and the charges that a black person with a book was "acting white." We talked about the social issues of the day and whether we would see a black U.S. president in our lifetime.

We discussed our vocational choices. I was going to be a lawyer (I'm not one). Fourteen-year-old Barry wanted to be a basketball player. He even jokingly wrote in my yearbook that when I'm a bigshot lawyer and he's a basketball star, I could negotiate his NBA contracts.

We held these discussions sometime before the adolescent angst that Obama records in his memoir, Dreams From My Father.

I went off to college the next year so I never heard the agony and never knew the regrettable choices he reveals in that text, but I believe him. The seeds of the agony were in our conversations. The forces of puberty and the depth of Barack's mind surely drove the issues deeper. But neither am I surprised by Barack's subsequent ability to rise above the agony and poor choices. It is no surprise that he graduated from an Ivy League university, that he went on to devote his life to service, that at Harvard Law School he was the popular editor of Harvard Law Review and that he moved on to teach constitutional law and to serve in elective office for these 11 years.

I, like most of the country, was taken aback by the soaring rhetoric first displayed nationally at the 2004 Democratic Convention. I have been unpleasantly surprised by the suggestion that because he gives a good speech, he is somehow shallow -- as if the gifts of speaking and leading are mutually exclusive. His leadership record and his policies are readily available from his Web site and from his campaign headquarters. His "Blueprint for Change" is comprehensive, well thought out, and available for perusal and discussion.

What impresses me most about Barack is not simply that he has the stuff to back up his hope and inspiration. His approach to the presidency is one of deep thoughtfulness. He exhibits quick judgment when necessary; and when issues require deeper thought, he reflects and finds the way to solve problems.

Punahou is an incredible school that taught us to think, to pursue excellence in all areas, and to serve the world. His Illinois state record and his U.S. Senate record reflect this same thoughtfulness, excellence and service.

TONY PETERSON

Nashville, Tenn