A new face in Washington, DC: Hansen Clarke

As the United States Congress meets for the first session of the 112th Congress, there is a new face in the House: Hansen Clarke, Democrat, representing Michigan's 13th District, which includes much of inner-city Detroit.

Mr. Clarke is part African-American, part Bangladeshi, born Muslim, converted to Catholicism, and even tried unsuccessfully to become a priest. He grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods on Detroit's east side and dropped out of high school, but was saved by his talent for painting. He attended Cornell on an art scholarship, once defeated Ann Coulter in a campus election, and eventually became class president.

In the Democratic primary, Mr. Clarke knocked off long-time incumbent Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the mother of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who ran Motown like his personal fiefdom, hosted sex and drug orgies in the mayor's mansion, and is doing some jail time for obstruction of justice. Of course the 13th District is Democrat to the hilt, so Mr. Clarke didn't face much of a challenge winning the seat in the general election last November.

At Amma's public program in Dearborn, MI on Nov. 27, Mr. Clarke received Amma's darshan. Speaking on the occasion, he said “Amma is an extraordinary leader…in the political sense, in the global sense, in terms of worldwide influence. But what makes her so extraordinary, is that she is a leader who is also a personal friend to all of us individually. Let us pray that those of us, who were hired by you to serve, focus on love and peace…because that’s how we can have an extraordinary world to live in. And to me, that is what Amma is all about. ”

He is only a rookie Congressperson, joining several other Congressional frosh going to Washington for their first term, but with Amma's blessings this guy is going to rock the House!

Rep. Hansen Clarke and Detroit's new Renaissance - Newsweek.

Become a friend of Hansen Clarke on Facebook.

[Disclaimer: the above post is not an endorsement of any kind. Patria will occasionally profile lawmakers of macro-national legislatures.]