Sunday, August 31, 2008
A Regular Joe found in Biden
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Larson, of Rockbridge Baths, is a first-year law student and 2008 graduate of Washington and Lee. He was on the steering committee for the 2008 Mock Convention.
Sen. Joseph Biden is a Regular Joe. Thirty-five years as senator have prepared Biden to be vice president and familiarized him with Washington, but Biden has never forgotten the people back home. The Obama campaign will tell, and the media will repeat, the story that Biden returns home every night from Washington and that he knows the names of the conductors and ticket takers on the Amtrak trains.
To really understand Biden's Regular Joe nature, you have to go to Delaware and look at the senator's roots and his experience with his high school, Archmere Academy.
After growing up in Scranton, Pa., Biden moved to Claymont, Del., a working-class town. Archmere Academy, a small Norbertine Catholic school, is located in Claymont and quickly interested Biden. The Biden family could not afford to send him to Archmere. Determined to attend the school, Biden worked out a deal with the school. He would spend the summer doing manual labor around the school, so his family would not have to pay the full tuition. Biden worked for his education and he has not forgotten Archmere or its community.
In fall 2000, tensions grew at Archmere between the school's Norbertine administration staff and their superiors in the Norbertine order. Father Mullen, then the headmaster, turned to a few friends of Archmere for help. Mullen wanted to protect the school and its students. Biden was one of the individuals whom Mullen sought, and Biden became a member of a small group that later became known as the Friends of Archmere.
This group worked with Mullen to compile a list of grievances and articulate a vision for Archmere to the abbot general of the order in Rome. They worked hard behind the scenes to preserve Archmere, so it could continue to educate Delaware's youth.
On April 23, 2001, the order's local superiors fired the school's administration and took over. Later that morning, students and faculty walked out of class in protest. Biden quickly received word in Washington of the events and worked to figure out how he could help.
The following morning, parents were invited to the auditorium for a town hall meeting with the new administration. Alumnus and parent of three graduates, Biden entered the meeting accompanied by the students' thunderous applause. Supporting the students' protest, Biden said, "You should keep this up. You should expose what is happening here. I am prepared, along with a lot of other people, to let everyone in the community know that this institution -- this institution, is not, subject to the capricious will of a group of priests who have not taught here, who do not teach here, who are not part of the education of our children." Biden expressed the students' views.
Biden stood up for the students of Archmere. He took action honoring Archmere and the Catholic education he received there. Through the hard work of many individuals, the abbot general in Rome came to Claymont and reinstated the administration.
Biden has always taken time out of his busy days to help Archmere. He cheered on Archmere sports teams when his children were students and he continues to raise money for the school. In 2004, when Mullen passed away, Biden attended the funeral, paying his respects as a Regular Joe.
The news media will tell countless stories about Biden in the coming months. They will give pros and cons, but it is this story and the many others like it that show the real Joe Biden.
His resume is long, but it is Biden, the person, who makes for a great vice president. Biden comes from a working-class family and he has not forgotten it or the people who helped him on his way to the Senate and hopefully to the vice presidency.
America needs an experienced Regular Joe to help lead this country. Biden is that man.
