New York Times

March 18, 2007
by Liz Robbins

Always a Solid Citizen, Foyle Is Now an American One

Adonal Foyle used the word "we" last week to talk about the United States and, for the first time, he could be accurate as well as proud.

Born on the island of Canouan in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Foyle, who turns 32 tomorrow, became a United States citizen last Tuesday in San Francisco.

"When I say we, it's with a sense of history and where this country has been and the potential of where it can go," Foyle said, citing the influences of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. "I say we with a full sense of the weight of the word, and a sense of the burden and hope that it carries now."

Foyle is a shot-blocking center who barely gets off the bench for the Golden State Warriors in his 10th season, but he is far more productive off the court. In 2001, he formed a voting reform movement, Democracy Matters, to encourage college students to focus on campaign finance reform.

Today, there are 85 college chapters of Democracy Matters, including the first, at Foyle's alma mater, Colgate, where his guardians, Jay and Joan Mandle, are professors.

Foyle said he lectured to student groups, telling them: "This is your country; you have to take it back. You have to make sure your voices are being heard."

"They would ask me, 'Are you going to vote?'" Foyle said. "I'd have to tell them, 'Oh, sorry, I can't.'"

Foyle left the Caribbean when he was 15 and never had a chance to vote. The day he pulls the lever for the first time, Foyle said, "it's going to be huge."

Even though he leans toward being independent, and favors the campaign finance-reform legislation of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, Foyle plans to register as a Democrat, in part so he can vote in a primary.

"It's about good governance rather than being a Democrat or Republican," Foyle said. "You look at the race with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it's beyond belief that we have to raise so much money and yet how could we have kids not being able to graduate from college."

He added, "I think we need to bring back a sense of integrity and trust" to Americans.

Of whom he is one.

Copyright © 2007, New York Times

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