15 seconds

Stephanie and I were briefly excited Monday when Stephanie's principal told her that her daughter and I both showed up (me even in a picture) in a Monday "Washington Post" article whose set-up I described earlier in "Turnout": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/09/AR2009080902428.html At least one D.C. friend of ours also noticed, since he e-mailed me about it. I wasn't sure it was a good idea that both Bruce and I were not from Indiana, and I wasn't sure how helpful to the cause my quotes were. I also had mixed feelings about sticking out as a pro-Obama Asian American - even though I once went to a Baron Hill event up in Seymour (IN) - just after the Virginia Tech shootings - in part because I was Asian American (although in the picture you can only see the back of my head - lots of gray hair!). However, I was proud to have gotten - even in the flooding aftermath- in to talk with all the New Albany folks we talked with that night, and I thought that the woman whose comments - and face - the journalist featured - even though or perhaps because she wavered - illustrated some health care reform conundrums in Southern Indiana and beyond. The principal's daugther, Abby, was even more on message (and some of our comments paralleled each other), and so that was probably good for her and for the cause.

An e-mail I got soon after hearing about this, however, alerted me to another down side. For years I have tried to keep any activism off radar screens - and off the Web - both because my job involves convincing people that our survey research is fair and balanced and because I still have research I'm trying to conduct and write up and hope to get more back to that - my old kind of research - and would not want material in the public eye that would discredit my objectivity. I even turned down a chance to be on the board of a journal - even though I do some of the board work - because the journal is identified with one side. I give my opinions in the blog, because not that many people read it. But my Facebook comments - which more people read - I keep more enigmatic.

The e-mail came from a Presbyterian - I think in Missouri - who had read the article and had convinced herself that I was doing the door-to-door canvassing during the day on the clock and I was presenting myself by saying: Hi! I'm Perry, and I'm from the Presbyterian Church and President Obama's campaign - none of which was the case. We're explicitly banned from electioneering as church staff and on the clock (although you may recall I held up signs at Fourth Street Live for Senator Clinton during lunch hour a little more than a year ago - but that didn't violate the rule). In general, I would avoid this sort of publicity in part to avoid this kind of controversy - but typically making phone calls and going door-to-door in Southern Indiana involves flying pretty much under the radar - even if it can catch the notice - positively so - of some of Stephanie's colleagues. I quickly e-mailed the Presbyterian back and hope I allayed some of her concerns - it probably also annoyed that any Presbyterian Center staffer was supporting the Obama administration at all - although she didn't say that explicitly. I see that when you Google my name this article comes up on the second page of references. I'll have to hope that gradually sinks down. Way back in 1995 I had trouble getting access to the important Schenectady County (NY) Right to Life records in part because someone got on the Internet - at its early phases - and found that the sponsors of a conference at which I had made a presentation a year before had signed onto some statement that she thought was controversial. This helped to lead to that famous quote: "The New School - isn't that a Communist think tank?" I'd rather not confront that in the future. We'll if my 15 seconds of fame - however briefly enjoyable - has compromised that or my job.

(Already an anti-reform doctor quoted in the article had complained Monday that the article misquoted him.)


-- Perry