OK, we worked hard, rode the rollar coaster of this election through to success for Barack and ourselves. Now what? Here's what I'm doing. I'm reaching out to McCain supporters with the hand of friendship. Today I am taking a pink rose from the mixed boquet I bought myself yesterday after voting and giving it to the mother with the McCain/Palin bumper sticker whose son is in the same pre-k class as my son (who hugged both Barack and Joe in the 48 hours before polls opened! Kid gets at least one benefit from having a disabled mother - close-up seats at political rallies by sitting on my lap while I'm in a wheelchair and praying that none of us have to go to the bathroom before the rally ends and the crowd thins out). Open the walls of this tent and invite the rest of the country into to help with this work, by extending some personal kindness to someone you were trying hard not to sneer at for their lawn signs the last month or so. Live the kind of world you want to reside in.
(please feel free to forward this on - this out-reach message is "open source")
DragonMama in Cleveland, mama of the kid with the monkey backpack (which is a harness/leash) and his little brother D.
It's being reported that Gov. Palin has received approximately $150,000 worth of high-end clothes and accessories paid for by campaign contributions. This is more than 3x the median household income and OUTRAGEOUS! There is a new petition to ask her to sell the clothes on eBay and give the proceeds to charity, preferably one that serves teen moms or special needs kids.
Sign the petition here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/palin-clothes
You think continuing W's tax cuts for the wealthy and job training are the response to the economy? Yeah, tax cuts do so much good for the unemployed and the jobs we're hemorrhaging are more and more often ones that require a college education. No, what's needed is something to staunch the hemorrhaging of our good paying jobs to other countries that already have universal health care, improving the security net that catches people when they're down, and investing in infrastructure even if it means an increase in taxes on the wealthy. And exactly how much job training do you think it takes to ask "do you want fries with that?" or to wear a blue Wal-Mart vest, because those are about the only jobs we Americans are going to have left to train for at this point.
As Obama supporters, we've been being called Kool-Aid Drinkers for a while now from all sides, and some people within our own ranks are starting to use the term as if it's a good thing. Please stop. The reference to Kool-Aid Drinking either refers to taking LSD or, more often, to committing suicide as a show of support to your leader ala Jonestown - here's the Wikipedia entry about it - this is NOT a label we should be casually applying to ourselves!
I believe a more accurate label for us is Redpill Swallowers, a reference to Redpills from the Matrix Movie Trilogy - here's the relevant Wikipedia entry
I'm sitting here in an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio watching CNN and feeling nervous about tomorrow, especially with the winter weather advisory we have here (forecast of freezing rain starting in the early hours). So I'm trying to be proactive instead of pensive. Hence this post.
I went to a local school board meeting tonight and wore my Obama t-shirt hoping to get a little last-minute visibility for Barack the night before the primary. Interestingly, the two women on the board (both "of a certain age") immediately made positive comments about my shirt and Barack Obama, asking where and how I managed to get it (obamacycle.com! Thank you Sandy! I'll be sending you some thank you gifties as soon as I get some breathing room here). Very happy to see Obama support (they weren't the only ones either, not a single negative comment).
I got to thinking...
Yesterday we drove 160 miles round-trip from the western suburbs of Cleveland down to Youngstown to hear Barack speak and hopefully to fulfill the wish of my 3 year old son William (aka Liam) to hug Barack. He's been asking if he can hug Barack pretty much every time he's seen the future president on TV since the debate in early January. One of the very few advantages of having a gimpy mama is that, since I was in a wheelchair due to sciatica issues acting up, we were seated right next to the barrier throughout the speech (which Liam watched with pretty good attention for his age, but his baby brother Delano (7 months old) got fussy and then finally fell asleep when Daddy stepped out into the hallway with him - of course right at the end, so Daddy missed getting to shake Barack's hand.
When Barack came our way, Liam was far from shy and was saying as loud as he could "can I hug him?" so I spoke up for my child and asked Barack if he'd mind hugging my son. Well, not only did Liam get his hug, Barack (maybe not so wisely) picked him up from around the crowd-control barrier and from the look that the Reuters photographer caught on his face, we're worried he may have hurt his back a bit. So we made a little video to apologize for any discomfort.
Michelle, if you come in town, I'd love to send you home with some homemade cookie dough to bake with the girls to make up for hurting your hubby!
After watching the satirical response to the Yes We Can song's video (here's the link, don't be drinking anything while watching and make sure your bladder is empty first), and making an Irish-American happy on the Obamacycle.com website with the reward for my efforts being a "you BaROCK!"... just had to write this...
We Will BaROCK You!
Barack you're our guy, make a big noisePlayin' to these crowds, gonna be president we sayNow is your time and placeStance full of grace Folks are shoutin' all over the place: We will we will BaROCK you! We will we will BaROCK you!
Excellent article to share, could have been written by a UU minister with it's tone.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/5673
Seeing all the state name Super Tuesday shirts makes me love my state (Ohio) all the more... our Obama shirts will just be so friendly ;)
My son is actually named after William Clinton (as well as the college professor, also named William, whose class my husband and I met in during the Clinton administration). Doesn't matter to him that his namesake's spouse is now running for president, Liam loves Barack - or as he calls him "Rocky 2 Bama"! Click Here to watch him on YouTube cheering his favorite candidate on during tonight's debate! (Sorry can't seem to make it embed here)
