We're Gonna Do It For Studs

Just four days before the possibility of one of the most significant moments in American history, we've lost Studs Terkel. The great oral historian and personality, the Bronx-born but Chicago-reared Yid, didn't so much say it all about America but had America say it all for itself. He was a true progressive, a lover of folk, Jazz, and blues, a patriot (the good kind), and a blue-collar intellectual. The would-be Secretary of Labor in a faux-Jack Tanner administration, Studs was all about capturing the American Experience in all its imperfections and pockmarks and still coming away with a sense of goodness about the whole damn thing.

The Times Obit and NPR can do him more historical justice than I can, but I'll say this: Let's do it on Tuesday for Studs. For all his naturally cynical worries about any candidate of Obama's stature, the identity of the Obama campaign can be wrapped up in the passion and soul of Studs Terkel. His whole working life, Studs championed the causes and ideas that have led to this moment. And to see a fellow immigrant to Chicago be the one to possibly bring it all home (albeit without Studs' confrontational and relentless political style), that's what it is all about. Furthermore, it is one big step in the chapter of American history and it has been done in great part to the mobilization of, and effort by, a coalition of the People (capital P) - the very thing Studs was about and sought to capture from the voices of the participants.

Let's Do It For Studs.