Pulitzer-Winning Author Alice Walker on Obama’s First White House Visit as President-Elect

One day after Barack Obama’s first visit to the White House as President-elect, we speak to the Pulitzer-winning novelist Alice Walker. In a recent open letter to Obama, Walker writes, “Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.”

AMY GOODMAN: President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visited the White House yesterday in a symbolic moment in the transition of power. Bush and Obama sat in the Oval Office with no aides or note-takers and discussed the economic crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other challenges facing the incoming administration. It was Obama’s first time inside the storied office that has come to symbolize American power around the world. Meanwhile, First Lady Laura Bush led Michelle Obama inside the White House residence for a tour of what will soon be her family’s new home.

The visit marked yet another first for the nation, as an African American came to tour the White House as president-elect. Last week, we spoke with the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, one of the most celebrated writers from Latin America. This is what he had to say of Obama entering the White House.

       EDUARDO GALEANO: I would like that Obama, who has now tremendous, historic opportunity, that he never forgets that he’s now going inside the White House. The White House will be his house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I’d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Eduardo Galeano. We turn now to Alice Walker, the celebrated author, poet and activist. She is perhaps best known for her book The Color Purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983, the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction. The novel was adapted into an Oscar-nominated feature-length film and has been made into a Broadway musical. She’s written many other bestselling books, including In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens and Possessing the Secret of Joy. Her most recent is We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. She recently wrote an open letter to Barack Obama posted TheRoot.com. Alice Walker joins us now from the University of California in Berkeley.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Alice Walker.

ALICE WALKER: Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us. Alice, what is your message to Barack Obama? Tell us about your open letter.

ALICE WALKER: Well, I wanted to express that even though—well, first of all, that it’s incredibly wonderful that he is going to live there, and partly because it was built by our ancestors, it will be his home. And one way of thinking about that is that even when they were building it, you know, in chains or in desperation and in sadness, they were building it for him, that ancestors take a very long view of life, and they see what is coming. And so, he should know that they were actually building it for him. They knew he was coming. And now he is there. He will soon be living there. And this is a great victory of the spirit and for people who have had to live basically by faith.

So I was reminding him that the personal life is so important as the support for the public life, and to model success for all of the people on the planet means that he will have to cultivate happiness in his life, no matter how dire our situation is, because it is from our own equanimity and happiness that we can influence the lives of people in a very positive way. And what has often happened is that people in the White House become very tired and grey, because they are trying to do everything at once, and you cannot do that. You can’t fix it all by yourself. And so, you might as well relax and let other people help you.

AMY GOODMAN: You begin your letter by saying you have no idea, really, how profound this moment is for us.

ALICE WALKER: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you take it from there?

ALICE WALKER: Do you want me to read it?

AMY GOODMAN: Sure.

ALICE WALKER: Oh, OK. I’ll just read that part.

It starts with: "Dear Brother President-elect,

“You have no idea, really, how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you delivering the torch so many others carried, only to be brought down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, this is a different America. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, that was previously only sung about.

“I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. Not to mention your brave and precious grandmother, who, of course, as we know, went on. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is only what so many people in the world want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not clear to them yet that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of everyone.

“I would further advise you not to take on other people’s enemies. Most damage that others do us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are the commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely.” That is, he will soon be the commander in chief. “However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, ‘hate the sin, but love the sinner.’ There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people’s spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

“A good model of how to ‘work with the enemy’ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

“We are the ones—we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

AMY GOODMAN: Alice Walker, reading her open letter to the President-elect, to the first African American president in US history. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. We’ll go to break and then come back to Alice. Stay with us.