Thanks for the link - you were right, that was a GREAT ad! I hope to see it nationwide!
Also from the same website you linked to:
Los Angeles blogger Juliette Ochieng has a lot in common with the man who might be the next president, Barack Obama. A lot.
Both were born to Kenyan fathers of the same tribe (the Luo) from the same province (Nyanza), and both of their fathers came as boys to America aboard the same airplane. Growing up, neither Ochieng nor Obama knew their fathers, who both abandoned their American mothers and left their American-born children behind. Both of their fathers returned to Africa in the early 1960s and became friends, bonding at Kenyan bars over their favorite drink — Scotch. Both Ochieng’s and Obama’s mothers contracted ovarian cancer. (Hers survived it; his did not). Both Ochieng and Obama were born in the U.S. in August 1961 — only weeks apart.
But for someone with parallel beginnings, Juliette Akinyi Ochieng is quite different: Evangelical Christian. Working class. Military veteran. Pro-life. Conservative Republican.
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In August 2006, Senator Obama toured Kenya, his first trip to his father’s nation. Thousands of Kenyans welcomed him, international media followed wherever he went, and glowing stories flowed forth.
One spot he visited was the recently renamed Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School in Nyang’oma-Kogelo, a village in equatorial western Kenya where Obama’s roots go deep: His father, Barack Sr., was born there. His 86-year-old step-grandmother, Sarah, still lives there in a brick shanty with a tin roof and no running water.
Almost exactly two years ago, Barack Obama visited the school built upon land that, decades ago, Obama’s grandfather donated. In anticipation of Obama’s visit, the school changed its name to honor the village’s most famous progeny, Barack Jr.
The school had only four classrooms. It lacked water, functioning bathrooms and even electricity. A third of its students were orphans. Its extreme need made Senator Obama’s speech there all the more riveting for the village residents.
“Hopefully, I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be,” Obama said. Looking directly at the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and her teachers, he added, “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school, and I will do so.”
In the two years since, Obama has experienced a meteoric political rise, becoming the Democratic flag-bearer, authoring a best-seller and last year, with his wife, Michelle, earning $4.2 million. He bought a luxury home. Last year, he gave $240,000 to charities.
But apparently not to the Senator Obama Kogelo School. “Senator Obama has not honored the promises he gave me when we met in 2006 and in his earlier letter to the school,” Principal Obiero has told the London-based, conservative tabloid EveningStandard. “He has not given us even one shilling. But we still have hope.”
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But she was embarrassed by her fellow Luo-American, Barack Obama. She rushed to fill the financial void, forming a California nonprofit to funnel money to the African school. With a flair for drama, she named it “Save Senator Obama Kogelo School” and held a mini fund-raiser. She’s raised $3,500, so she’s a long way from the $750,000 she wants to raise within two years.
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IT’S NOT ABOVE HER PAY-GRADE, BHO!