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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Vestal: In word & deed, President Obama set a unifying example

Shawn Vestal. (SR photo) (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Shawn Vestal. (SR photo) (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

He helped stave off a depression. He opened the doctor’s office to millions of Americans, changing the country’s fundamental expectations about health care. He got Osama bin Laden.

As the country’s first black president – the first African-American elected to lead a country whose history is tightly interwoven with slavery – he presided over an era of expanding civil rights for LGBT people, as well as a time of contentious and necessary debates about the police and people of color. He used power to help people at the bottom, and asked more of those at the top.

And he did it against a headwind of unyielding opposition that was often disgraceful (“You lie!”), dishonest (“Bette from Spokane”), unprecedented (stonewalling Merrick Garland), and clouded by racist dog-whistles (birtherism and the “war on whites.”)/Shawn Vestal, SR. More here.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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