Yesterday (Saturday) I was visiting Washington D.C. I'm up here a few times a year for business and try to see a different museum or monument with each visit. Yesterday I went to the Newseum - the museum about news (mostly the history of journalism) on Pennsylvania Av across from the National Gallery. It's a great experience and I highly recommend it - especially if you are a news junkie. You know you are if you can identify Linda Wertheimer's voice in 10 seconds or less.
On the granite face of the museum - 6 stories tall - is carved the first amendment and the theme of the exhibits is a discussion of that document. After spending an afternoon surrounded by a review of the freedoms given to us by the first amendment (speech, religion, press, petition and assembly) I felt proud, humbled and empowered all at the same time.
Then I walked up Pennsylvania Ave to the White House. I'd never seen the White House from that side before. There wasn't much of a crowd at the time, and there was constant coming and going of people. Standing, watching, and listening for a while there were people from all over the country and all around the world posing for pictures. They came from all over the world because this is an important place.
I just love visiting D.C.
I want our house back.
So anyway, I live in Dallas which is an island of blue in red Texas. My neighborhood is in the one state house district that went blue two years ago. But, when a very nice man named Jeff delivered by 4' x 4' Obama/Biden sign a couple weeks ago I was afraid of backlash from some neighbors.
In Texas, we are now doing "National Night Out" in October (August weather just being prohibitive). So, it was a pleasant surprise to have neighbors tell me that they just love my sign - and the floodlights!
I'm not too excited about the new point system on the myBO page. I've been doing VR stuff every weekend since August, have been to debate watching parties, done canvassing, etc. But, since it is managed through the local Obama office and not through the web page, it doesn't contribute to points. I can't travel to a battleground state, but have used frequent flyer miles to send three other people. And I've been buying Obama stuff and passing it out. I've even got a big sign in my yard (flood-lit at night!).
Unfortunately, my grade-grubbing type A personality just won't let it go.... Arrrrrrgh.
It occurs to me that the McCain/Palin ticket inspires hatred while the Obama/Biden ticket just inspires.
-A
I've been doing a lot of voter registration. Some of it is managed/organized as Obama events and some of it on my own. I've discovered that the bus stop outside the county hospital (and across the street from a Salvation Army shelter) is a great location. I'm working on a 50 registration challenge and am down to 17 to go!
And the county election office is just down the road, so it's easy to do registration and then drop off the forms.
I just sent this to the Dallas Morning News:
The Third OptionWhether Gov Palin’s illegitimate future grandchild is a legitimate target for criticism has gotten a lot of play since it was announced. Of particular vehemence are the two sides of the abortion rights argument. Whether or not any particular course of action was wise or mature or stupid or knee-jerk is grist for another mill. But the decision presented to a pregnant teenager is not binary. The one thing that has not been said in any coverage – mainstream or otherwise – is that young Ms. Palin did not have just two options.What would be the personal and political ramifications of offering the child for adoption? Certainly it is not just a political situation, but think of how much more the Palin family, the future child and the Republican party could have gained by such an action. It would benefit everyone in the long run.Gov. Palin and her husband could have said that they counseled their daughter toward adoption. The teenager had already shown poor judgment with regard to management of her own body and her future. It was up to her parents to step in and, well, parent. They would say that this action was in the best interest of their child. Bristol and the father would be able to finish school, perhaps continue to college and then approach sexuality and family from a mature point of view. They would say that their daughter would not be directed into a teenage marriage with a high risk of failure and forced to be a parent when she was not ready for such a responsibility. They are parents. They know how hard it is and that it is a larger burden than their daughter should have at this time. They know that their daughter is unhappy about all of this, but that challenges and disappointments are part of growing up and they will help her through that.Also, Gov. Palin and her husband would say that they recognized that a child raised by teenage parents with insufficient education and income is not in the best possible situation. Therefore, though it is hard, they have decided that they will not be selfish – nor will they allow their daughter to be selfish. They would be putting the grandchild first and believe in their hearts that he or she should be raised by a couple with the social and financial stability to give him or her everything possible. The family will be offering the child for adoption.Oh, and then there’s the other conservative spin. They could direct the adoption agency to choose a couple who were adopting rather than pursuing in vitro fertilization. Gov. Palin, her husband and the right wing could say that this would support a couple who had chosen not to produce embryos who would just sit in a freezer somewhere or be destroyed by the infertility clinic.If they had done this, they would have made a parental decision about their daughter, serving as an example of how tough love really works. They would demonstrate an altruistic decision about the baby, demonstrating what Solomon knew – that the true parent thinks first of the child. They would have supported adoption over abortion. And would have been able to hand a big win to the notion that embryos are worthy of full rights as human beings.If this were the scenario, the lurid teenage pregnancy story would have been an across-the-board social and political positive. In the long run it would have been the best thing for everyone involved. The Palin family could have served as an example to everyone in the country, not just to the conservative wing of the Republican party. It’s too bad that the story didn’t work this way: it might even have provided a small first step toward bridging the big moral divide over abortion rights. As long as the decision is seen as binary, everyone will have to be on a side. Angela Scheuerle, M.D.
Hi,
It strikes me that the party which has Dick Cheney as VP doesn't get to make the argument that the experience and history of the VP pick is less important than that of the Presidental candidate.
I'm just sayin'...
On Friday, when Sen McCain introduced Gov Palin as the running mate, I couldn't help thinking that she should have appeared by jumping out of a cake.
My husband and I watched the Thursday night speeches at a local theater - the gathering of the Dallas County Democrats. We kept exchanging glances as it became obvious that the gloves are off. It's a fun time to be a Democrat.
But it wasn't the speech that was the most heart-wrenching. It was just after, when everyone in the theater was standing and clapping along with the song that was playing. All 350 of us. And the bunch in Pasadena, California. And the crowd in Time Square. And 85,000 people in Denver. And who knows how many in so many other places.
Nothing can stand in the way of the power of mmillions of voices calling for change.
It seems to me that the perfect come back to McCain's having 7 (or 8 or 10) houses is:
HE HAS ENOUGH HOUSES ALREADY: DON'T LET HIM HAVE THE WHITE HOUSE, TOO!
I've become very frustrated with people - including Obama supporters (Obamanoids?) who talk about wanting this, that, or the other to happen, but who don't understand that they can play a role. So, I'd like to offer my suggestions about things we can each do to further our own goals:
Want less expensive and more available health care?
- Be an organ donor
- Give blood
- Get some exercise
- Make out a living will
Want affordable energy?
- Put up a clothes line and use it (and change our neighborhood assn bylaws to allow them)
- Turn stuff off when you aren't using it
- Ride mass transit once a week (or more) instead of driving
- Don't pretend that ordering things through the mail saves gas - somebody still has to deliver it
Want lower taxes (or better use of government money)?
- Don't glorify your finding a loophole that lets you get money from the government
- Don't assume that being on Medicare, Medicaid or Chip means "someone else will pay for it"
Well, I have to share this because I'm disappointed.
I went to one of the platform discussion meetings this weekend. There was quite a nice turnout of a diverse group of people. Many people were passionate about their topic of choice and there was good back-and-forth. On the other hand, even those who really wanted to discuss something were ill-informed about it. They had learned the data that supported their point (or had pulled off bad info off the internet) and really didn't know anything except that they wanted something to happen. There was no solving a problem in a reasoned way. There was no useful debate. There were just a bunch of people who started to sound like kids at Christmas: wanting everything without rationale. Even the member of the platform committee who was present had something to discuss, but all he seemed to know is that someone he didn't like was promoting an action and he wanted to fight it because of the spokesman. He hadn't learned enough about the topic to understand that what his nemesis wanted actually is not a bad idea.
It was disappointing.
Remember,
It is just 185 days, 16 hours, 26 minutes and 53 seconds until Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 12:00:00 Noon (Washington DC time)
Just remember:
It is 192 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes and 17 seconds until Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 12:00:00 Noon (Washington DC time)
It is
209 days, 14 hours, 33 minutes
Until Noon, January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C.
The new word is great, and the story of the person who coined it is even better! 'Globamaisation' - both an idea and a process. As an idea, it refers to a set of principles that in a developed and deepened democracy, like the United States, the lines between politics, culture, colour, creed and history are happily collapsing. As a process, 'Globamaisation' is the beginning of a new dawn whereby techno-democratic forces will drive silent revolutions across the globe. [Credit Tunde Oseni, Oxford, June 19, 2008 The Economist: Letters] Google says that Tunde Oseni is currently studying for an MSC at Oxford University with the thesis of Political Godfathers in South-West Nigeria. He is a 2006 graduate of the Faculty of the Social Sciences at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was a MacArthur Scholarship awardee.
