OXFORD,
Miss. – The year’s first presidential debate brought countless
opportunities for learning and life-changing experiences to University
of Mississippi students, but not all the beneficiaries were students.
Some of the personnel working the event got in on the act, too.
In
the weeks leading up to the presidential debate, Ashley Walker was
working two temporary part-time jobs, including one as a Cobra Security
officer assigned to check credentials outside the Ford Center for the
Performing Arts. It was there that the 23-year-old single mother from
Batesville got some surprising news.
“The Secret Service wanted one of us to work with them to credential the media,” Walker explained. “I guess I was the lucky one.”
Walker assisted the Secret Service most of the week, working with them and the Commission on Presidential Debates throughout the week. While she sometimes had to deal with impatient people who looked down on her, Walker said the opportunity was rewarding and exciting.
“It made me feel important for a little bit,” she said. “I got to meet hundreds of people from across the world. It was fun.”
One of her most intriguing experiences was being interviewed by Maina Kiai, the former chairman of the Kenyan Commission on Human Rights who is following Barack Obama on the campaign trail as a correspondent for the Nairobi Star and KISS-FM.
“He was wearing his traditional garb, spoke with a British accent and had the most beautiful teeth,” Walker recalled. “He was very educated, and he valued my opinion.
“He told me he was friends with Barack, and that was just fascinating.”
Kiai and Obama attended Harvard Law School together in the late 1980s.
The journalist asked Walker a variety of questions, ranging from her thoughts on how Mississippi has progressed since the Civil Rights era to her opinions on both presidential candidates.
“I just told him that things are better here today,” Walker said. “Blacks and whites stand side-by-side at the grocery store, go to school together, drink from the same water fountains and no one even blinks. It’s normal, everyday life.”
Granddaughter of the late Mississippi Gov. Cliff Finch, Walker said her working the presidential debate would have pleased her grandfather: “I know he’d be proud of me.”
During Friday night’s debate, moderator Jim Leher asked both Obama and John McCain if America is safer today that it was following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Both candidates agreed that the country is safer, but “there’s a long way to go” yet. Walker said she shares that assessment.
“I guess we are safer,” Walker said. “There’s the airport security checks, but they are definitely right, there’s a lot more that we need to do.”
A former UM graduate student in education, Walker said she was forced to suspend her studies this fall because of financial hardships. But she remains positive, even as the country faces difficult economic times.
“I will go back and finish school,” Walker said. “Without a doubt.”