This next four and hopefully eight years will be one that even eight years ago we would never have been able to envision
The fact that it has made history not in just our country but see how the world has involved itself in our hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow,and the ability to transfer power from one ideology to another is what makes other countries envy us and want to emulate us.
Technology has played a huge part in President Elect Obama`s campaign and I honestly feel that it will continue to play a huge part in the way that he will alllow us in some ways to govern ourselves.
Of course we have Congress,and the people we have elected to serve us,but most of them are not in tune with what President Elect Obama has not just tapped into but has embraced completely.
He has built the foundation of his campaign from the bottom up and I feel that he knows this is not only the way to success but it will allow him to keep a pulse on what we think, feel and hope for,not just for ourselves but the world in general. No other President has ever thought of, or let alone had the ability to do this.
While we do live in a world of You Tube and FaceBook, My Space and Twitter.com(my personal favorite),there is now the opportunity to be at one with the world at once.
What an opportunity for not just this new administration,but for all of us to be able to feed our ideas and have them not just listened to,but possibly implemented in some way by those who will serve with him.
Not for a moment have I have thought I would see the coming together of a country the way we have in this election, and even at my age, I use the internet to keep in touch with the relatives I cannot see all the time,but the news media as well. I feel that Obama has had people reading the blogs and knows what so many of us feel, hope and think of what our tomorrows should look like.
Let us all gather as one, and be that beacon of light, hope and understanding in which we finally have the ability to make our government our own and to help him with our ideas and thoughts.
This is not to say we should take over, but be a not so silent a partner in what we feel the country needs and how the world see us as we wish to see ourselves.
When I first came onto this site and filled out my bio,I was asked about my personal favorite comment, I wrote down,"The Power Of One!" While I hoped and dreamed and worked harder than I have ever worked for a candidate,never did I dare to dream that that phrase could become the consensus for a world to follow and to join in on. We are the Power,and all we have to do is learn to be able to communicate it to those who have the ability to make our hopes and dreams for a better world and nation to come to fruition.
On January 20th, I hope to see the President and his Vice President take us on the journey of a lifetime and they know how to harness the energy that we all feel and continue to feel to feed the greater good of this country. Once again I thank you for allowing me to be but a small part of it.
Isn`t technology a really wonderful thing not just to bring us together but to be able to communicate with one another in ways we never would have ever hoped to be able to do so.?
Yesterday, after witnessing a moment in time that I will never forget,I somehow made it out of bed and headed over to Physical Therapy which is the only thing that has kept me going the last few weeks.
I came home and drove by the local Gilbertsville Pa, office that had been my home away from home for many days,and saw that a couple of the cars from the field office were there. I called Jack Byers on his cell phone and asked if they needed any help in cleaning up what we had set up as well as putting back together what originaly was a mess and a huge empty space. He said of course they did,so I took over cleaning supplies and a fellow volunteer and friend Robert Misko who had gone up and down more hills than I believe he ever knew existed over the weekend knocking on doors called me and I told him they needed help cleaning up. He did not hesitate for a moment and he too came over with his bucket and cleaning supplies.
We were so fortunate, because after mopping and cleaning bathrooms and putting away campaign stuff,Jack mentioned that there was to be a conference call from President Elect Obama and Vice President Elect Biden. We stood there in awe and amazement as we heard that wonderful voice come over the speaker and thank all the field managers and volunteers as did Sen Biden. He went on to say that how a grass roots effort can and does make a difference and we have witnessed it first hand here in Pa. People have come from everywhere, I met people from every walk of life and people who took people in to stay in their homes spoke of the opportunity to speak to those of other countries and color and thank us for the opportunity to be able to do so. It has been the most amazing journey I have ever been on or been able to bear witness to.
I saw the cloak of apathy thrown off the youth of our country and young and old, black, white,and brown like me come together to be able to have the opportunity to have a chance for a new beginning. I believe from the bottom of my heart that this man was born to lead us, and with the Sen Biden and the team he will surround himself with and our hopes and prayers and good wishes, we will be that beacon of hope that we have once been and will be again.
To see my great grandson`s face and hear his voice when he called me and said Barack Obama won and to hear the delight in his voice. Oh, there are no words! He is bi racial and I raised his mother my granddaughter. I sat with sadness as I heard his grandmother did not live to see the day her grandson will take the oath of office but know in my heart she will be watching over him. To watch the tears on Donna Brazille`s face, and Jesse Jackson and all of the commentators,who are of all persuasion look at one another with the awe that I feel is the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed.
However, to hear that voice come over that little speaker from a conference call made every bone that ached,every hour that I put in making calls knocking on doors and just talking to people who were willing to listen made everything I have stood for and believe in since I first heard him speak at the 2004 convention worth while. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of history that I did not know if I would live to see. To paraphrase a KennyChesney song, "You Had Me From Hello"
To his campaign manager go home and enjoy your new child and know that because of you and people like you there will indeed be a better tomorrow for all of us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Tuesday,November 4th will be a day that will be always known as the beginning of a Better Tomorow. What a country!!
Today was the 4th Annual Boyertown Area Unity Coalition Unity Walk.
First I must give you a history of this organization and the road we have traveled to get to where we are and have yet to go.
Back in 1994 there were some incidents that had plagued our community for many years. When my family first moved to the Boyertown Area,I had no idea of what we would find. As a Hispanic woman with a husband and children I was soon to find out we were called ""'The Outsiders'. Sounds like a book title does it not?
We moved up here from Lower Bucks County Pa because ground was a lot cheaper and we wanted acreage and to build our dream home, I had a daughter that was 12,a son who was nine and a preschooler.
We bought and built our home,but due to circumstances and weather we had to move in before a permanent phone line could be put in. My husband was in Philly at the settlement of our old home and it was the first day of school for my two children, My daughter got home fairly well although she was called racial slurs,but my son was dropped off more than three miles from our bus stop and thankfully a kind farmers wife finally persuaded him t o let her bring him home as she knew where a new house was being built. This was on December 6,1976.
I went to his school the next day with a friend who had driven up to help me out,and to complain about my son being let off the bus in the dark three miles from our home only to be told by the school principal at that time, "''Well,it would not be a problem if people like you did not move into the area"". I could not believe what I was hearing.
Many years later after my daughter gotten out of school and I had become involved with the PTA,and worked my way through the ranks to be President of the PTA through two of my other children`s education in elementary school did I see what was at the underbelly of the community.Bigotry!
I had become involved in politics and had been elected a Committee Person. I had seen for many years the bigotry, but really had no idea of how imbedded it was.
I became involved with a group that was involved in promoting diversity and understanding in our school district,and had started going to all school board meetings In 1994 an incident occurred that scared me to death, at a school board meeting the son of the acting principal came running in to get his father. It seemed that a young black man was about to be lynched by a group of young men from the KKK and other groups. I had become aware that the local KKK recruited st the center of town young people to the KKK and other groups of white power. The then acting principal found it necessary to form what has become the Boyertown Area Unity Coalition. He called in a group of us who he knew and invited others from the community such as business leaders(not many of those showed up, ministers,and parents.
Around this time the school board president appointed or tried to appoint a man named Tom Blair to a committee on the board. I knew from other investigations that this man was in the higher echelon of the Arayn Nation along with a man named Mark Thomas who lived in the area. I called every media outlet from Philly to Allentown and Reading.
Hundreds of people came out but a lot were fearful of people of the area. Needless to say this man was never appointed. Not long after that came the Oklahoma City bombing.
It was later proven that Mark Thomas played a part in financing the bank robberies in the Midwest that had funded the Oklahoma City bombing. He was tried and convicted and served time for this. He went to jail,but to this day Tom Blair still lives in the area.
We of the BAUC tried getting the Boyertown Council to declare a denouncement of these activities but to this day they never have. The KKK still recruited and the Boyertown Unity Coalition formed Project Lemonade. This was a project that for every minute the KKK was at the center of town we would take pledges of people and collect money from them for every minute the Klan was there. Over a span of about four years we raised over $15,000 for groups such as the NAACP, the ADL, The Southern Poverty Law Group and other groups. It took the Klan a few years to realize the groups they hated they were raising money for. Not a really bright group ,non the less dangerous.
They went underground,but at the same time when we would talk to shop owners along the main street they would say that we, the Boyertown Unity Coalition was worse for the town than the Klan. We had people of color on Saturdays while this was going on that had to be hidden in the public library and taken out the back door.
As I said for a lot of years we were vigilant but at various times slurs were painted on public buildings and in the schools. Flyers of hatred would be put in the driveways of new developments.
Then four years ago as a direct result in a new development there was an actual cross burning of a black family who had recently moved into the area. His neighbor was able to warn the family and the man was eventually tried and convicted and died of natural causes in prison.
As a result of that incident we held a Unity Walk in December of 2004 and drew about 200 people.Not many you say,but a seed was planted,and from that today I attended the walk and sat at our BAUC table and watched as close to 3000 people walked in Unity. A large part of this is because the schools took a stand and all ten of the Boyertown Area Schools became a "'No Place For Hate School District' ".
Today I watched as people of common ground and same mind set walk together and while we still have not a large percentage of people of color we are willing to be proactive.
In 23 days the most important election of my lifetime will take place,and this is still Pa,and when James Carville talked about the T area of Pa we are right in the middle of it. He said that you have Philly to the east and Pittsburgh in the west and Alabama in between. That is still not too far from the truth.
I have been active as I have said in Western Montgomery County politics for many years as a committee person,and a former Area Leader trying to foster better relations with the lower part of the county. During the Clinton years things became better but I spent hours with other committee people and leaders trying to get MontCo not to look at this part of the county as stepchildren. Montgomery County has registered a ton of new Democrats and the area that I live in has become a bedroom community as opposed to a manufacturing one which caused a lot of the resentment. Hpwever this is the area that has drawn the rise in registered voters.
The problem is that it is still lying there in the underbelly of a lot of the people that have lived here for all of their lives.
I moved to an area which I had to become a committee person at a new polling place,and even with a watchers certificate I had to call the Board of Elections and the police to get me in for the count of the voting machines,and this for a school board election! Can you imagine what it will be like on November 4th?
Luckily the Obama campaign has arranged for lawyers to be at all polling places and the Neighbor to Neighbor site on the Obama-Biden site has been wonderful.
We have young people coming from far and wide to help and even at this stage willing to set up new offices because they realize the importance of the Philly suburbs and we have actually gone from a somewhat rural area to just that,the suburbs.We are now connected very closely to the lower area of the county as well as Berks and Lehigh county.
I see these young people charging in and tossing in their cloaks of hope and inspiration and willing to take up the fight that I have fought since the sixties. I marched then and am so grateful there is finally a new generation not born of apathy but realizing they are in charge of all of our futures
] I hear the music of Springsteen`s The Rising,and in my heart listen to my heart songs of John Lennon`s Imagine,and hopefully in 23 days all of us can join in the songs of what our future should and hopefully will become.
However we cannot let our guard down, and we need to be watchful that fear,apathy,and lies do not let Sen Obams`s destiny along with Senator Biden, and I do feel it is Senator Obama`s destiny to lead us out of the desert of greed,fear, and apathy we have lulled ourselves with for so many years.
Be vigilant with me,and know that although the days are winding down,we still have paths to travel even though the road we have fought on for so long is still there awaiting us to succeed. New paths can always be forged.
Do not let down the spirit of hope and change. BE VIGILANT. Let us all together imagine what a better future change and hope can bring us all. YES WE CAN!!
Let me see if we can shake things up a bit more by causing some new headlines for the week?
McCain cannot possibly let Palin debate Joe Biden on Thursday,so will she be a good mommy and do what is best for her children, her country, and her personal airspace by Wednesday.
After seeing that Rudy and his trophy wife get on the plane with the "Maverick" and his trophy wife to go to Ole Miss, I could not hep but wonder if all the action was getting done on the plane.
Palin was here in Philly doing what she does best..nada..and today wearing shorts on Boathouse Row, running or something,good leg shots though! Now that we know she likes Pat`s Steaks best it will put Gino`s out of business..there goes another part of our economy!
The economy is in crisis and I still believe Obama should vote no to the bailout. It is finally coming out in mainstream news about McCain`s involvement with the Keating Five and his son`s involvement with the failure of the Silver City Bank in Nevada. Do some things seem familiar to you folks?
Maybe the fact that I am older,not wiser but do see a great similarity between the Savings and Loan bailout albeit with the RTC overseeing it, that I wonder if our system would really go to hell in a handbag.
All we would really lose is service jobs since we manufacture nothing here anymore anyway.
I honestly think people could and would sacrifice to see if anything happens if nothing more than to see McCain look like what he really is a sham..I mean really the guy who has been head of WaMu for a few days,I think 18 days is getting millions..I am willing to roll the dice..
Chris Rock said it best on Larry King the other night, "Folks, it just makes plain sense to vote for the guy who has but one house."
Headlines have done nothing but divert attention from really showing her to be what she is, A small town hockey mom, and Joe Biden would have to pull so far back from who he is it would be almost condescending. If he is himself, he could eat her up for that Bear Earmark that McCain keeps talking about.I guess that genetics would be that answer to that question after listening to her parents interview.
Rudy, where are you lad when it is time to really screw things up? Are you up for the challenge?
After all after the original WTC bombing,you were told to put security in Brooklyn. Where was it when the planes destroyed the towers? In the towers of course. That is leadership of a man that equals McCain. Heaven help us all. Hmm.. Maybe we should all have that preacher that got rid of her witches help us all..Why is there not a huge cry about that as there was on the other side. Media bias perhaps.
Come on Rudy...where are you when we really need you?
I watch the talking heads...both liberal and conservative,and listen to the people around me in the markets,the streets,senior centers and find myself wondering why are not more people outraged ?
We are going through a time we have never been through before,only one candidate has a plan for even remotely addressing the issues of the day, I am no ones Friend and if I hear the phrase"My Friends",one time time I may find a place to throw myself off a bridge.
Instead I hear,Oh she dresses so nice, she is so pretty and on and on.... Where is the anger,the Outrage that this administration has bankrupted us because of a war that should not have been fought,allowed soldiers to come home and sleep on the streets of our nation,the overseerers of Wall Street take away our 401`s and foreclose on so many people and most of the jobs be sent overseas. We have a man who has the gall to run for President of these United States,and was part of the Keating 5 who totally screwed the goverment of the Savings and Loan Industry along with another of the Bush boys,and somehow people seem to think he is fit to run a nation? Where is the Outrage.
We have a woman running for VP who charged victims of rape for their rape kits, did not let sex ed be taught in Alaska schools,even embraced her daughter`s teenaged pregnancy while the rate for the first time in years has gone up in this country. Where is the Outrage?
This same, I hate to term her as a woman lies constantly to our faces, lies and deceives her own state,refuses to allow the state of Alaska to depose either she or her huband in Troopergate. Again Where is the Outrage? Hell, The FIrst Dude wanted to secede from these United States.
Are any of you out there talking to your families about our futures,our children`a futures,hell, the future of our planet?. Yet because of of global warming,now she can see Russia and that makes her an expert on Foreign Relations?
Are you willing to take a chance on what will happen four years hence,if they indeed continue the path of this administation,will there be anything left to ponder. Will there be anything left of us in four years if there is NO OUTAGE. It is up to You and those who YOU know to make sure this does not happen. BE ANGRY DAMMIT! I AM As Should We All!!!
Oh, how far we American women have come...NOT!! Is this the best this country has to offer? A strident insulting so called barracuda,gun toting,former beauty queen,creationism who does not believe our planet is in peril. This woman lives in Alaska and she doesn`t see the devatation of global warming?
We had a woman wo garnered 18 million votes yet did not win,but was gracious enough to put her country first and for her husband to put aside his differences to come together with Sen Obama and Biden to show us and tell us the issues that must address the common good of us all. They set them out in plain view,give us and show us the means to try and fix them,and not cloak them in pandering,insulting personality attacks.
Senator Clinton and the Former President need to show their unity now and their vast knowlege of world and domestic affairs to be able to explain to that poor woman sitting somewhere in her living room yelling,Yea! There is a woman on the ticket! This country does not need THIS sort of woman who could be but a heartbeat away from,that god forbid 3:00am phone call. We need someone of Sen Biden`s vast experience with world issues,people and policies. Gov. Palin has none of the above. Hmmm... Maybe she could look across the Bering Straits and see what is the matter with Russia. Now there is talk about Russia doing the same thing they did in Georgia in the Ukraine. How would she handle that? Perhaps like McCain did with a song...bomb,bomb,bomb Iran? This is and will be a serious issue folks.
This country does not need a woman,no matter how her face plays to the camera and right wing audience,who believes in banning books, creationism,not evolution,does not believe in global warming. She,however does believe in taking 187 million dollars in pork bellied funds for good old little Wasilla to help build that entertainment center,while library funds were cut.
Maybe if her daughter had been able to get a book out of that library and read about reproduction and how to avoid pregnany she would not be one of the rising numer of teenaged mothers in the spike of such we see today. Whatt kind of mother subjects their daughter to such media scutiny for her own political gain? Now maybe she will hide her away in the land of darkness and avoid the entire issue. Her husband who says he was a member of the steel workers union,while the union disavows any knowlege of him. No Wait..he has to get himself ready of that next big snow machine race.
The state of Alaska coninues its investigation of her,emails have come out showing shady business..it goes on and on.
John McCain came out and they dragged out the same old film of his POW days,nothing new came from his speech except for the word Change,wonder where he got that one from.He no l onger can even call himself a maverick. Cindy McCxin came out in one of her designer suits,and spoke lovingly of her husband which I would expect her to. I found it intresting that when they met each other and started their relaionship while he was married to his first wife,it started all with lies about ages etc. That is not my idea of a foundation of what a good marriage is. I doubt it is the ideal of most American women`s foundation of what a marriage should be.
On the other side, we have the Class act of Michelle Obama and her family and the family of Joe Biden. I l ive in Pa. and remember all too well what he went through when his wife and daughter were killed and the sacrifices he made to be at home with those boys at night. Some of us are fortunate enough to have a second chance at love and obviously he did..I think most women would l ove to hear after years of marriage that they leave their husband,both breathless and speechless. With Senator Biden that is indeed something. He is seldom speechless. However when he speaks it is with both wisdom and substance,not insults and platitides. I also watched him come back from his brain injury and we in Pa love him. My husbands family is from Scranton and he is indeed the rock of our family. Must be something in the water up there.
Michelle Obama has more class in her little finger than Govenor Palin could ever hope to have. Her sense of self,her example she has set to her daughters and her willingness to leave a high powered law firm and go out and be a community advocate show me the type of first lady she will lmake. Remember folks all politics is grass roots politics and what we start in our neighborhoods can go forth and become a time for True Change.
Gov. Palin made that seem worthless when you are willing to put aside the big bucks and help the community. When you do that, people you have taught go forth and continue to play it forward and so it goes. What has Gov Plain done to show she has had the experience to even do that much,greed and avarice on her part have given her small town 187 million dollars they did not come by honestly but did lower the property tax on residents...we should all have that good fortune.
WOMEN... I do not care if you are soccer moms dance moms, hockey moms or what you do to help your children,trust enough in yourselves that this is not the example of two people that can lead our country into not just the future but back into the same old ways of Bush and Cheneyand good old Karl Rove.
We as women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to let this happen,let me hear from what you are willing to do to make sure our country moves not just forward but gives our planet a chance for renewal and our children a chance for the future they so rightly deserve. Are you willing to work for the AudacityOf Hope? I Sure Am!!
I was planning on writing this after the conclusion of the speech Senator Obama made Thursday night,but I got sidetracked by McCains`s irrational choice of his running mate. I instead had to post a blog about that.
However, I could not let Thursday night`s moment of history go by without some comment.
I sat there and bawled like a baby,my husband who in the past has not been involved like me also had tears in his eyes.
When I think of the past and what has transpired in my lifetime,I am truly proud to be an American
I can say I never thought this would happen in my lifetime,even though as I have said before I was hooked since the 04 convention. Even after he announced his plans 18 months ago,while I had faith knew it would take an army,and so has an army come forth to bring change.
His dignity,his sense of who he is as a man,husband and father really not just inspire me,but make me believe that we can be better than we believe we can. This man, while he will have to ask us to make sacrifices if he becomes President is Presidential.He is a world leader,a statesman,and obviously a good judge of character by choosing Joe Biden. I remember when Joe Biden went through both the tragedies in his life and saw him grow into the leader he is today. To see him demonstrate his love of his family was truly beautiful,his story transfixing.
Can the same be said for McCain`s runing mate who he met with but once. I am not just bewildered but insulted not just as a woman but as an American.
I think you can tell a lot about people by their music and watching and listening to the music choices of the convention prove that to be true. What a range of not just songs,but moments in history that came across in those songs.
As far as the building tile by tile of the mosiac of our future all you had to do was l ook around not just the convention site,but Invesco Field. Democrats are the backbone and cornerstone of what is good,and right and just in our country. The color hues,and looks on their faces,the age range,were to me what this country should be about. Plus,they sure know how to dance and still have a good time.
Someone once asked me a very long time ago at our polling place why I am a Democrat,and I said because I am my brother`s keeper. That shows exactly what we as Democrats are today,have been in the past and will be in the future. It is justly so. If we cannot be that,we should not be called Americans.
As I sit here today and watch the weather forecast and listen to the Republicans say they will postpone their convention if Gustav comes ashore because they do not want a split screen, all it proves is that they are as fractured and broken as they look,and that once again Bush and Cheney will not be doing their jobs. What a surprise.
May we go forth to build this mosiac of beautiful hues and colors and patterns of the mosiac that is and should be our heritage and work hard for the next President and Vice President of the United Sates of America. . Barack Obama and Joe Biden!!
Are you willing to build that mosiac along with me and the millions who have proven they will sacrifice jobs,relocation etc to w ork for Change. I especially commend the youth that has finally thrown off their coat of apathy and taken up the mantle of what was in my time a just cause for Civil Rights. We have indeed come a long way folks. Just a little bit more and Change We Can Believe In will indeed be ours.
Senator McCain has just announced his VP choice, The Governor of Alaska.
This will not only fix the crack in the ceiling that eighteen million women cracked but will raise it to new heigths.
Eperience......hmm let me see, mayor of a small town, Governor for two years, anti-womens rights, gun toting former beauty queen,and snowmobiler. Not an expert in f oriegn affairs or any other affairs that I can see.
How does she stack up against Hillary? There is no comparison. Hillary, while she was not my first choice, has done more to advance womens rights,not only cracked the glass ceiling but has shown the grace and wisdom along with fomer President Clinton to show what it like to be a true Democrat.
Michelle Obama while she will be a wonderful first lady has shown more intelligence grace, wisdom and the True Story of what it is like to balance being a wife, mother, and champion not only her husbands` causes but will continue to show what real women can really do.
I still hope that Sen Obama will choose Hillary for an opening on the Surpreme Court so our rights as women will never again be challenged,but also respect the rights of civil unions,and get rid of the disparity of what is now the most biased court in history.
While the Gov. of Alaska may be a wonderful mother,and I applaud her choice and I do mean CHOICE of raising her daughter with Downs Syndrome,what does she bring to the Repubilican ticket? It shows that indeed Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh are running the show,and we would get four more years of the same things we have now.
Could she even adjust her body clock to DC time? LOL I have respected McCain for his service to our country in the past,but today I wonder not just about his physical health,but his mental health. This is not just pandering to the social conservatives it is like crawling in bed with them. Sad to see,but it will inspire our armies of youth, women, independents, new democrats,and the democrats like myself who have pushed the causes of equality,and choice for all of our adult lives. Do we want someonel ike this just a breath away for being the President?
Will this help with the Hillary voters. Lord NO. If they truly are women who believe that she cracked the glass ceiling this will as it rightly should scare the hell out of them.
Come on all you Women who believe you need to set an example to your daughters and granddaughters, vote with your brains and your hearts. Choosing this women is like putting Rush Limbaugh or Karl Rove in drag on the ticket. Not a pretty picture my friends. Remember we are our Brothers Keepers,and our army must march on just like Presidential Obams`s grandfather did in Pattons Army.
Please let me hear what you think if this choice promotes women. Gosh, I sit here completly sick to my stomach. What was he thinking? Or did the Social Conservatives make the choice for h im? This is not a mavericks choice,it is a desperate choice from the Rove staffers that are running his show and the Rush Limbaugh show that run the radio airwaves.
Jesse Jackson`s remarks that were caught on an open mike on The O`Reilly factor show that it is indeed time for the old guard to step down and let the new guard albeit with some advice from the old guard take its place. Even his son agrees that the remarks were not just inappropiate but show he does not have a realistic feeling for what is happening not just with the youth in the black communites,as to responsilbity but with the resposibilty of youth in general.
Senator Obamas` speech on Fathers Day I feel was one of his best speeches ever and addressed the problems of taking responsibity for ones actions and fatherhood,but tells us we have such a long way to go in educating our young people who feel they know it all.
They do not.
Teenaged pregnancies are up and when you have the issues like they do in Mass. with 17 girls in one high school getting pregnant,to me it shows that we sorely need education for our young people and that their parents are unwilling or uncomfortble in dealing with it. Should the schools step in or the more progressive churches? YES! Nothing is more valuable than our youth,and they have to know not just that they can have alternate forms of sex,but need to know that they must take reponsility for those actions
We need health and sex education in our school systems not just in the inner cities but everywhere in between. Could that mean we need child care in not just high schools,but middle schools as well? Perhaps. Education could forestall that.
Our local school district a few years ago put in place a tape that was provided by the the extreme right group "Focus On The Family' which is run by Dr James Dobson. In this tape it showed only minority groups engaging in this behavior which is ludicious to say the least. The fact that there are groups promoting Purity Balls and Purity Rings that are given and attended by only fathers shows how little we have advanced. This maybe is the knee jerk reaction to the flower children of the 60s and 70s.
Did it stop you? Are you denying your own children the means in which not only to educate themselves in the matter of sexual health and responsibility,but in the rising rate of teenaged pregnancies and pacts that were made by girls in Mass.it shows how needy our young people are in needing education.
When parents drop the ball in this issue it is imperative that the schools or churches step in. Never has there been such an advanced and sexually aware generation rife with the possibiliteis of not just pregnancy but disease.
Working in a junior high school I saw this first hand,and it floored me,as to what the youth of this generation are doing. Their parents really do not have a clue.
President Clinton had a Surgeon General who wanted to take the first steps in this matter and she was run out on a rail.
Hopefully we will not go back to the days of old where kids got misinformation on the streets,and from their not so knowleable friends. I do not mean "Friends With Benefits" either.
We are still with the present adminstration and conservative groups trying to push us back to the old ways of such things as suspending a teacher in Indiana for having had her Engish class read a book that is relevant in todays world. Do we really want to go back to banning books?
As parents and grandparents we owe our children and grandchildren all the information they need not to go back to the ways of the past but be able to protect themselves and their futures of health and teaching them responsibiity to control their destinies.
I hope that the old guard stands back,perhaps give advice to Senator Obama when he becomes President,but allows him to put the proper people in his cabinet to help afford the change we need not just in health care but in health education.
While I titled this Jesse Jakson and the Old Guard,what I am really trying to say is that Senator Obama is all about Change and after what we have been through for the last eight years as far as repression and misinformation it is incumbent on him to arm the youth movement he has gathered to be able to tke care of themselves and their childrens` futures.
May we have a totally overwheming majority in Congress to be able to take us "Back To The Future" and indeed have the Audacity Of Hope to change the mind set of educating our young people not just in our counttry but everywhere in the world., Our responsibility to them is to teach them to take control of their responsibility of themselves and of those who come after them.
I watched Michelle Obama today of the "View" with not just interest but as pride in her as a woman.
I feel so strongly about her not just as a wife and mother and woman,but her inner strength.
Her speech in North Carolina moved me to tears,and if he were not running I would totally support her bid for anything.
Her dignity ,her wit,her strength that comes from within is remarkable.
I have a bi-racial great grand son who is the light of my life. I want him to know that in this country anyone can achieve anything they wish to do so. His mother my granddaughter who easily could have become a statistic,just graduated summ cum laude from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
I alway told her that she can overcome anything that may rise up in front of her,and she has.
Senator Obama`s speech Fathers Day I know hit a nerve not just with me,but with her as well.
Whatever I can do, I will do, whereever I can go to help,I will go, what little resources I have I will give.
I believe in the Power Of One. One person can indeed make a change,and we as a nation not only need to do it,but Have to do it.
I am a Latino middleaged woman who according to the talking heads should not be supporting him. I have,since I heard him speak at the 2004 Convention.
I supported the Clintons through everything,but her campaign eventually became about her,and not what is good for our nation. Former President Clinton,obviously has some issues he needs to wok on. His Foundation has indeed done some wonderful work.
I do not want her as VP,however if he is elected I would love to se her on the Supreme Court as the advocate for Woman`s issues that we are sorely going to need.
I feel that whomever he chooses he will pick the person that not only could be President,but that can work closely with him,and not just be a figurehead. I would even like to see him cross the aisle and consider Chuck Hagel. Possibly Gov. Richardson.
It hurts me to know that so many Hispanics are not behind him,and I am willing to talk one on one with anyone that is willing to listen to the issues and not the talking heads.
As a middle aged Latino woman, I deeply resent everyone telling me that I should support Sen. Clinton.
I have supported Sen Obama from the moment I read his books to his speech at the 2004 convention.
While I supported President Clinton in the past and admire what he has done in the past, I feel that Washington should made cleansed of everything Clinton.
Maybe she could be Sec Of Heath or advisor in some capacity,but you will get the both of them no matter what. I feel that since his latest surgery his whole demeanor has changed and she has suffered as a result.
I want something new and a reason to hope and dream again,even at my age. I want my children, grandchildren to believe in the power of one, and know that my bi-racial great grandson can be anything he aspires to.
His mother,my granddaughter who I have raised from birth overcame the odds and has just received her BS from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. This is as a young woman dropped out of high school became pregnant after my daughter and her mother passed away,yet through our support and her belief in herself has never given up and graduated Cum Laude from college.
Does she have the burden of a massive amount of student debt..YUP. However she and the rest of us know that she will prevail.
My Hispanic background makes me proud,yet disheartened at what the media types say constantly on TV that Sen Clinton should go on. I feel that Latinos who that feel that way do a disservice not only to themselves but to the nation at large.
My grandparents on my mothers` side immigrated from Spain to Mexico after my mother was born during the Franco era,and raised eleven children in Mexico. My mother along with some of her siblings moved to this country right before WWII. She married my father,and she had my sister and I.
I am extremely proud of my heritage and will do whatever it takes to spread the word to other Latinos.
I hope to watch with pride tonight as he hopefully can declare himself the victor in this long and often hard fought primary season. May she concede gracefully and be ready to do whatever it takes to win the White House for the entire nation. Senator Obama is the ONLY one who has remained acting like the President he will be,and risen above the fray.
I also admired the way that Sen Edwards conducted himself and am sorry that he will not put himself on the short list. I like Sen Biden or Dodd, and of course Gov. Richardson. However,I feel that the team that Senator Obama has surrounded himself with to make the right choice.
Maybe he could recruit Chelsea Clinton to continue to recruit the young vote, she has proven she can take a punch.
I pray for his victory and will do as I have said whatever it takes to persuade other Latinos that Senator Obama is not only the right choice but the only choice for our nation to go forward rather than continue0 to be immersed in a quagmire
I also see nothing wrong with speaking to the leaders of other nations. I was in Cuba during the revolution and think that only by direct talking to others can you really get a feel for what is the truth.
I have worked as an Area Leader in Montgomery County and am currently a Committee Woman, I have also been involved in raising money for the County. I have always been involved with grass roots politics that concerned diversity and educational issues.
May all of us work like we never have before to prove that The Power Of One can make the difference in our futures.
