Gift Of Love: An Appreciation Of Obama's Relationship With His Grandmother
Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks
Posted November 4, 2008
In an earlier post, we celebrated the relationship between Michelle and Barack Obama. Now, in honor of his grandmother's passing, we want to honor his relationship with Madelyn Dunham and to celebrate the profound effect it had on his life and the lives of all of us.
Because of being raised primarily by his grandmother, Gay had a strong reaction to the moment: "Like many of you, I felt waves of sadness when I heard of the death of Barack's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. I was in my car, but the feelings came so strongly that I pulled over to the side of the road to honor it until it passed. As the sadness resonated through me, I could feel that it was not only for Obama's grandmother but also for Rebecca Delle Canaday, my own grandmother, whose loving presence in my early life shaped every moment thereafter."
"As I sat in my car, deep in reflection while cars whizzed by on the busy street, I realized something I hadn't seen before: One of the reasons I liked Obama from the start was the quality of the love he expressed for his grandparents. I made a point of learning about his relationship with them, partly because his early life so closely resembled my own. I was born at a difficult time in my mother's life, and when hardship required her to relinquish her care of me, my grandmother was there to take me in. I can't imagine what energy source she drew on, at age 63, to care for a newborn baby, but I know that during my first seven years, the period of time she cared for me, I never once heard her complain of being tired."
"As I gave attention to the sensations inside me, I felt the sadness thaw and melt into gratitude. Of all the gifts I received from my grandmother, there's one gift that affects me as deeply today as it did 60 years ago. Wherever Barack is today and whatever he is feeling, I bet he also is feeling grateful for the same gift. It was the gift of love, a gift that continues to open and flower throughout life. Because of his grandmother's love, Barack Obama could attract as remarkable a woman as Michelle into his life. Because of my grandmother's love, I was able to attract as remarkable a woman as Kathlyn into my life. Because of his grandmother's love, Barack could run a positive campaign that inspired hope in the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Because of his grandmother's love, he could show us something we very much needed to see again: Proof that love could overcome fear, not by fighting against it but by embracing it in the wholeness of love, and by so doing liberate the exploration of a new galaxy of creative possibilities in the world."
Wherever Barack is in the world today, he knows that he would not be there without his grandmother's presence in his life. Wherever he is in the world today, millions of us join him in feeling the deep sadness of loss, the warm glow of gratitude for Madelyn Dunham, and the joyful celebration of a life that gently and with no fanfare would change the world. Click here for a slideshow, photos and video of Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathlyn-and-gay-hendricks/gift-of-love-an-appreciat_b_140833.html
the many faces of Obama lovers & supporters in America, the world and beyond!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/obamamania-the-everything_n_140832.html
i cried yesterday when i learned about your grandma's passing and again when i read that Hawaii was going to count her absentee ballot. that made me so happy.my heart is heavy this day and i am keeping you & yer beautiful family close. you are all in my thoughts this day, election day, and everyday!for those who want to send cards, flowers and the lot... may i suggest that you make a contribution to support cancer research instead, in honor of Barack's mother and Toot and for all who have been touched by this disease! just a thought <3<3<3
** reposted from myspace blog **
www.myspace.com/ramona_grey
NO TIME FOR NADER: A LETTER TO NADER AND MCKINNEY VOTERS
Paul Loeb Posted November 1, 2008http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-loeb/no-time-for-nader-a-lette_b_140073.html
I'd thought little about Ralph Nader's potential electoral impact until I read recent polls suggesting he was drawing 3% among likely Ohio voters, 4% in Nevada (plus 1% for Cynthia McKinney), 3% in Pennsylvania, and 5% in Missouri. This means he might once again help tip an election.
Most of Nader's supporters suggest their votes won't make the critical difference. Or insist "the lesser of two evils is still evil." Or list Obama stands or votes they disagree with, some of which I disagree with as well.
But let's assume that the current election still hangs in the balance: that between Republican voter suppression, last-minute attack ads, latent racism, and the uncertainties of turnout among new registrants, McCain and Palin just might be able to win. If you're a Nader or McKinney supporter, I'd like to address this article to you, and ask how you'd feel if, by not voting for Obama, you ended up helping electing them. You may believe that America and both parties are dominated by a corporate oligarchy. I wouldn't completely disagree. You'll probably point out when Democrats (and sometimes Obama) have supported dubious policies backed by these interests, and those examples anger me as well. But after eight years of Bush, it's a dangerous game to assume there's no significant difference between McCain and Obama.
If McCain continues (or even accelerates) disastrous Bush policies that Obama would reverse, that matters. It matters that the Obama campaign has engaged people in a way that could launch a major rebirth of progressive organizing--one that could continue long past the election. Electing Obama also stops a Republican consolidation of power that's fundamentally undermined American democracy--a consolidation that more than a few Nader supporters have called "fascist," though it's not a word I tend to use. So yes, far too many Democrats facilitated the abuses of the past eight years. But given that our president will end up being either Obama or McCain, this question is who will be mostly likely to reverse these trends, and who will create the most favorable landscape for positive progressive change. Here are some key areas of difference:
The Courts: Federal courts can overrule practically any progressive initiative or authorize any regressive one. The Supreme Court justices McCain most admires have consistently extended unchecked corporate and executive power whether voting on torture, reproductive rights, Tom Delay's midnight Texas redistricting, the ability of workers to sue their employers (or for workers to join a union), or the massively disenfranchising Indiana voter ID laws. With three likely Supreme Court retirements in the coming four years, McCain would be able to create obstacles to progressive change for a generation.
Sarah Palin.: Can you say theocracy, with a major dose of ruthlessness? Do we really want someone a melanoma away from the presidency who won her small-town mayor's race by claiming her opponent was soft ..ion and wasn't a true Christian, fired the local officials who'd backed him, and later fired the head of the Alaska state patrol for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law? If evil can be defined as "militant ignorance," Palin fits the bill to a t, and since her convention speech, has embodied every character assassination scenario from the past 30 years. If you want a leader who whips up "real Americans" against disloyal allies of terrorism, she'd do Dick Cheney proud.
Labor Rights : Led by unions like SEIU and the United Steel Workers, we finally have a resurgent progressive union movement--one that raises broader social justice issues and builds broader coalitions, like with major environmental groups. But Bush's National Labor Relations Board has created obstacle after obstacle for union organizing, including the key "Kentucky River" ruling (upheld by the Bush Supreme court) that employers could challenge the right of employees like nurses to join unions because they acted as supervisors. Obama's approach, which includes strong support for a bill that allows union recognition as soon as a majority of employees have signed membership cards, would be very different. It comes both from his own experience working with unions in Chicago and from the practical value of empowering and broadening a political base of support. Given the labor movement's key role in pretty much every effort for progressive change in America's history, the shift from hostility to supportiveness would be huge.
Taxation and Health Care: Obama's redistributes resources downward, McCain upward. I'd like Obama to go further. But McCain wants to make Bush's disastrously regressive tax cuts permanent, while Obama has explicitly focused on challenging tax breaks for companies like Exxon and on having the wealthiest pay a greater share. He's called the election a referendum on thirty years of failed trickle-down politics. He's also pushing for a major expansion of Pell grants and tax credits for going to school, while McCain supported the ghastly Republican bill that until reversed by the new Democratic Senate cut $12.9 billion off federal financial aid three years ago. While Obama doesn't go as far as you or I might want, he's pushing strongly in the right direction.
On health care, McCain's approach gives total power to the insurance companies and gives companies that do provide insurance every incentive to dump all but the healthiest of their workers from the rolls. I'd prefer single payer, but Obama's plan, would be a huge step forward in the number of people covered (including all children) and the affordability of care, McCain's a vast step backwards.
Family issues and reproductive rights : It's abstract unless you or someone you know is unwillingly pregnant. McCain's explicitly backed overturning Roe vs Wade, and Palin and the Republican platform would support making abortion illegal even in cases of rape or incest. Obama also supports universal voluntary pre-school for all children.
Global Climate Change : Although McCain acknowledges our role in creating it, Palin who embraces the Exxon-funded skeptics (not to mention "Young Earth" creationism). This spring, McCain refused to be the deciding vote that would have ended a Republican filibuster on a bill eliminating tax breaks for the oil companies and using the money to fund alternative energy. While progressives will have to push against Obama's receptivity to the coal and nuclear industries, he still goes far further than any major presidential candidate in pushing green jobs as a centerpiece of his platform, with a $150 billion commitment. Meanwhile McCain supporters are left with "Drill baby drill."
Iraq: I wish Obama would pledge to get out more quickly. But he did speak out against the war before it happened, as part of an anti-war rally that any of us would have been proud to attend. And given that he was about to run for Senate, that wasn't a safe or easy choice. He also does at least have a withdrawal time-table. In contrast, McCain, who helped lead the neo-con charge to invade Iraq since well before 9/11, talks of an indefinite occupation and jokes about "Bomb Bomb Iran." It's another area where we'll need to push, but also another huge difference.
The Politics of Fear : Do you really want to reward yet another Republican campaign based on lies and fear? That's what the McCain/Palin campaign is reduced to. Pure slime, from Bill Ayers and "palling around with terrorists," to Rashid Khalidi and "socialism." If McCain loses, maybe we'll get a different politics. If he wins it's Karl Rove on infinite replay.
* * *
But the differences go beyond particular issues to how the respective presidencies would shape a broader context for progressive change. It's easy to dismiss Obama's community organizing background. But three years in south Chicago neighborhoods, plus several more representing the same community groups, is a serious involvement whose legacy has shaped Obama's campaign in a powerful way. No previous president has been a community organizer, or anything close to it. No major party campaign has encouraged supporters to act with as much autonomous initiative. And none since Roosevelt have brought as many new people into politics--people who represent a huge potential voice for ongoing progressive change. When Obama consciously asks volunteers to think of themselves as connected with a tradition that goes back to the abolitionist, union, suffrage, and civil rights movements he gets them thinking not only about a single campaign, but about their long-term ability to join together to shift America's history, and that, unleashed, can be a powerful force.
It's a force we can work with not only to help pass Obama's legislation, but also to push him to take stronger stands. Those newly mobilized might just play a role akin to civil rights movement participants who worked to get Kennedy and Johnson elected, then set their own agenda, dragging Kennedy and LBJ into overcoming initial resistance and taking genuinely courageous positions --like LBJ staking all his political capital on civil rights and voting rights bills that he acknowledged would lose the Democrats the south for a generation. Going back further, progressives turned out to elect and reelect FDR, but also organized unions, occupied factories, worked block by block in their communities, and fought in every possible way to create an autonomous voice. Progressives can do the same with Obama, so long as we keep speaking out after the election and working to engage those who supported him. Given the massive ability of a president to shape the national agenda, I'd rather fight for the Obama proposals I support and push him further in areas where he falls short, than spend another four years trying block an endless succession of horrific Republican initiatives.
As an abstract list of stands, I'd take many of Nader or McKinney's positions over Obama's. But they have to get passed in the Senate and Congress and if I could snap my fingers and install one of them as president, I'd take Obama without hesitation. If I'm looking for someone who's going to pass legislation and lead a country of three hundred million diverse people, I want someone who can work with well with those they disagree with, who's reflective and doesn't just shoot from the hip, and who's willing to be self-critical and self-reflective about their own choices (in a way that Nader, for instance, never really has been about the strategic choices he made to campaign in Florida in 2000). Obama passes that test, Nader and McKinney, though both have taken valuable stands and have wonderful positions do not. I'd like to push Obama in some more progressive directions, although much of what he's proposing as is as strong as any legislation that's passed in 30 6ears. But particularly in a time when we're facing so many multiple crises, I like that he'll step back and think before he acts. I like that he's going to listen to different voices. I like that he's a pragmatist who's going to look at a situation closely before imposing some abstract solution.
You may think the election's already won, so your vote won't make a difference. That may be true in California, New York, and Illinois, but as in 2000 and 2004, Nader's campaigning in states most at risk, with an effort in every major swing state and a final week's focus on Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Obama's four or five point lead in key battleground states is certainly better than being five points down. But if you knock out two or three percent for voter suppression, two or three for last-minute slime ads and potential racial backlash, and two or three because not all the new voters will show up, he could still well lose the election. As Tom Hayden points out in the Progressives for Obama blog, "Kerry won Wisconsin in 2004 by 0.38 percent, New Hampshire by 1.37 percent, Pennsylvania by 2.5 percent; he lost Iowa by 0.67 percent, New Mexico by 0.79 percent, Ohio by 2.11 percent and Nevada by 2.59 percent." That doesn't count the official Florida 2000 margin of 537 votes and New Mexico margin of 368 votes. As someone who's considering Nader or McKinney, you could well make the key difference.
Even assuming Obama does win, the margin of his victory will be key to his leverage following the election. Wavering senators or congressional representatives aren't going to add in third party votes when they decide how far to go to support (or improve) Obama's initiatives. But the more he wins by, the more mandate he has for shifting America in a fundamental direction from everything Bush has represented.
Maybe none of this matters to you. Maybe you feel, "the worse the better." and are gleefully cheering as American (and global) capitalism melts down. Maybe you like the idea of dancing at the apocalypse, and assume that the revolution will follow. But crashing empires get ugly. Real people get hurt and even die--witness Katrina. Add in climate change and a McCain administration would mean gambling with global catastrophe.
It may feel pure to vote for a candidate who will never get in power, so will never disappoint us. But this election isn't about abstract purity. It's about finally halting a Republican machine that wages preemptive wars, smashes unions, purges African Americans from the voting rolls, puts Exxon in charge of energy legislation, passes over a hundred billion dollars a year of regressive tax cuts, and brands everyone who disagrees with them an ally of terrorism.
Either we stop these trends or we don't. And the ballot's the most direct way to do this. If we place all our hopes in awaiting some future popular uprising, we throw away a concrete opportunity to stop the disastrous path of the past eight years. We also give away a chance to elect someone who has actually been part of our progressive movements, from Obama's anti-apartheid student activism, through his community organizing, to his speaking out at the Chicago anti Iraq-war rally. We can cast a symbolic vote for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney. Or vote for Barack Obama and actually help shape the political landscape. It would be a tragedy if because of our own desire for pure and uncomplicated stands, we helped throw away a historic chance to move forward.
Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the 3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org To receive his articles directly, email sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles
because we all know and love someone with whom we can share this moving piece <3<3<3
By Shari MacDonald Strong
When I was about six years old, I decided I wanted to attend the little Baptist Church that was next door to my family’s house – and not just because I loved riding my bike with the banana seat around its parking lot. From that day until a handful of years ago, I attended evangelical churches of one kind or another. So, it’s no surprise that I spent much of my life in the Pro-Life camp, worrying about sanctity of life issues.
And yet, here I am today: a member of the Democratic Party, supporting a Pro-Choice candidate. In fact, these days I consider myself simultaneously Pro-Life (meaning that I would encourage a woman to continue her pregnancy if possible, and I would do whatever I could to help her) and Pro-Choice (because I believe that individual women, and not James Dobson or George Bush, should get to make wise, informed, thoughtful decisions about their lives) – a fact that boggles the mind of friends on both sides of the issue. How did I get here? With days to go before the election, I’d like to explain.
Dear Pro-Life Friend,
As a former Pro-Life Crisis Pregnancy Center volunteer, I’m as surprised (in some ways) to find myself supporting a Pro-Choice candidate as you are to see me here. There was a time when I couldn’t have envisioned it – back when I felt secure in my (comfortable and, I admit, self-satisfied) belief that I knew better than pregnant women whether or not they should have their babies. In church, I was taught that women who sought abortions were selfish, that they wanted a “convenient” way out of their perplexing predicaments. That they didn’t care about the life inside them, and that those of us who did care were responsible for intervening: with our votes in the voting booth, with our bodies at Pro-Life protests, and, yes, with our big, big mouths.
Then, when I was eighteen, one of my closest (and at the time, single) friends became pregnant; she was too frightened to tell her family, and she had nowhere to go. I helped my friend find a family to live with during her pregnancy, and another family to adopt the child. After that, I started volunteering at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. In my training, I learned to tell women that the one-minute pregnancy test took 10 minutes: enough time for them to have to watch the evangelistic VHS tape I was supposed to turn on for them while they awaited their test results. I was supposed to tell them about Jesus, and about abortion tearing their babies to pieces. But when I looked into the tired, anxious, heartbroken faces of the women – none of whom took their decision lightly – what I wanted to do was offer compassion. I never met one who was single and flighty and careless. The women were often married, all of them older than I was, some of them at the end of their ropes. They looked at me like I had no idea what life was capable of doling out – and they were right. My words would do nothing to ease the difficulties of their situations; my judgment would only make the women feel worse about what they genuinely believed they needed to do.
Many were poor, most were struggling, some were in abusive relationships, a number were barely surviving. And there I was: young, privileged, without a care – throwing judgment and Jesus at them, but offering no real help or hope. The pregnancy center claimed to offer support, but there were no real resources available. No halfway houses or homes for pregnant girls ever had room for them. I could help clients sign up for the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program, which gave them access to free cheese. But what good was cheese to the co-ed who had to drop out of college, to the wife in an abusive common-law marriage, to the woman with no place to go? One night, a pregnant girl begged me to help her find a place to live – and no agency I called could help. As she went out into the night, and into an uncertain future, I laid my head on the desk and decided I’d had enough of judgment and finger pointing. I decided the best way to help would be . . . to actually help. Contrary to what I’d learned in church, none of the center’s clients had been looking to abortion as a “convenient” way out; most were figuring out how they would survive, even without a baby. Talk about your inconvenient truths.
These women knew that resources and government support were scarce to nonexistent; they also knew that families were more than willing to adopt healthy white babies, but no one wanted the minority babies, the sick babies, the babies born to mothers who struggled with alcohol or drug addiction. They knew that if they had their babies, most of them would be on their own. It wasn't a question of convenience for most. It was a question of survival.
It was at that point that I began to make a shift. I still wanted to help prevent abortions, help save lives, bring abortion numbers down. But I no longer believed that picketing an abortion clinic or fighting for a law change was the way to do it. I came to believe, and still do believe, that the way to bring down abortion numbers is by helping the women in practical ways: working to get equal pay for women, better access to health care and day care, guaranteed paid maternity leave, etc. A number of studies show that abortion statistics actually go down under more progressive administrations and laws. (I'm sure people on both sides can cite a range of statistics, but it just makes sense to me that when women have more support, they're more likely to have their babies.) So, it's not that I don't care about the abortion issue. It's simply that I come at it from another direction now. I'm supporting the party whose policies I believe help women and families more, and believe their taking office will result in fewer women believing that abortion is their best option.
Finally, to those friends who have painted Barack Obama as “abortion-loving,” let me say that I know a lot of pro-choice folks, and I consider myself both pro-choice and pro-life, and none of us is an "abortion lover." People on both sides of the issue -- including me, including you, including Obama -- are compassionate. We simply disagree about what political actions are most helpful to women and families.
To sum up: I don't support Obama in spite of being pro-life, but because I'm pro-life. Women who are desperate will always find a way to get abortions, whether or not they're legal. I think it's a waste of time to exert our energy on judging women considering abortions and speculating about what their motives may or may not be, picketing clinics, and focusing on laws that won't prevent abortions in the end, anyway. I believe the real goal should be to create a society in which women and mothers and families receive the practical and emotional support they need in order to survive and thrive (again: healthcare, excellent child care, equal pay for equal work, education, access to social services, etc.) if they have their child. I believe that that is the answer to the abortion issue, and that's why I am a Democrat. I realize that many people have other opinions, but this is mine. And that's why I'm voting for Obama.
Love,
Shari
Shari MacDonald Strong is the Creative Nonfiction Editor for Literary Mama. Her essay "On Wanting a Girl" appears in the anthology It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters (Seal Press, April 2006). She writes a column for Mamazine, and has also written for a number of publications, including Geez magazine. Shari worked as an editor and copywriter in the publishing industry for 15 years. She writes a blog from her home in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, photojournalist Craig Strong, and their children: grade-schooler Eugenia, born in Russia, and preschool sons Will and Mac, born via gestational surrogacy.
The Maternal Is Political
http://www.literarymama.com/columns/zen/archives/2008/11/an_open_letter.html
If this election has had you feeling the need to laugh to keep from crying as of late then you just might enjoy this bit! I saw this video on Huff Post this morning, a song from Paul Hipp's Blog of War album... about which Arianna Huffington has said, "Outrage has never sounded so good." It seems most of his work is actually quite serious and soulful, but this one is sure to make you smile... and we could all use more of that right about now, no!?! Enjoy and take good care.
Acting Like a Dick (Video) ::: Paul Hipp
tried but couldn't embed video... here's the link, plus some:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-hipp
paulhipp.com
myspace.com/paulhipp
about Paul Hipp & BLOG OF WAR, from the website:
Sam Stein October 10, 2008 11:12 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/kerry-mccain-palins-hate_n_133584.html
http://www.truthfightsback.com/page/content/smearpolitics
Four years ago, John Kerry flirted with the idea of making John McCain his running mate. Today, he is denouncing the Arizona Senator for "a stunning failure of leadership," and running a nasty, hate-filled campaign.
In a letter to supporters, the Massachusetts Democrat -- no stranger to smears himself -- ramps up his criticisms of McCain to new heights. In addition to airing disgust with the tone of the McCain crowds, he rips Gov. Sarah Palin for making "outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office."
The letter reads:
John McCain has shown a stunning failure of leadership. His campaign, in a time of economic crisis and foreign policy drift, has degenerated into a negative and nasty campaign of smears. The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out "Kill Him!" and "Off With His Head," and yell "treason" when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled. According to reports, every ad paid for by the John McCain campaign is now a negative ad -- every single one! McCain allows his running mate to make outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office. We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to fight back, spread the word about what kind of low campaign he's running, and make sure people know the truth.
The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out "Kill Him!" and "Off With His Head," and yell "treason" when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled.
According to reports, every ad paid for by the John McCain campaign is now a negative ad -- every single one! McCain allows his running mate to make outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office.
We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to fight back, spread the word about what kind of low campaign he's running, and make sure people know the truth.
Kerry, like Obama, has set up a website to debunk smears in real time. And he directs supporters to the link: http://www.truthfightsback.com/page/content/smearpolitics
His strained relationship with McCain serves as a reminder of how much the political dynamics have changed in the past four years. It also begins to raise the question: what kind of reception will McCain receive either if he goes back to the Senate as a campaign loser or has to work with Congress as the next president?
Join & spread the word about John Kerry's effort to stop political smears against Democrats:
"Truthfightsback.com tracks, debunks, and counters the smears of the right wing against Democrats. We are dedicated to trying to end smears of all sorts, working against a style of politics that have become too prevalent, where emotional push-button attacks substitute for vigorous debate on the issues.
It is our hope that we can play a role in exposing the methods and goals of those who smear Democrats so that we can decide our elections on the issues and values that matter to Americans."
also from the site:
We've created signs that you can print off from your own home computer. Post the signs at your home, in your car window, and around your community... then take a picture and send it to us! We'll feature some of the photos on TruthFightsBack.com.
NO SMEAR POLITICS/NO MCCAIN - NO PALIN
Subject: No Political Attire When You Go Vote
From Grace: (Ohio)PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS, OR HATS. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO TURN YOU AWAY. THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN WITHIN ‘X’ FEET TO THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON VOTERS BEING EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET WILL BE ENFORCED THISYEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF YOU ARE TURNED AWAY, YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES. PLEASE JUST DON'T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE POLLS!! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION; AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE ALREADY AWARE, THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO INSULT YOUR INTELLIGENCE. THANKS.
My initial response: (Portland, Oregon)
we vote by mail in oregon, but i'll pass this along to everyone in the case that it is true and let you all forward it at will to any other non-oregonians! it seems to me this would infringe upon our constitutional rights of freedom of speech/expression... but i don't really have time to look into this at the moment!? feel free to get back to me if you do!!! anyway, i'm thankful i can vote from home in my jammies or in the nude... assuming i was into that, of course, which i'm not ;)take care, all, and happy voting incognito!?! much love, B. <3<3<3
From Annie: (Sulphur, Louisiana)
Of course this is true Fran! It is totally illegal to campaign at voting centers which makes a lot of sense to me. You are just imagining people wearing the clothes they want to wear, but the point of the law is to cut down on bullying and threats. It did used to happen in the old days when those in charge did not respect the secrecy of voting and would actually accompany folks into the booth. It's just an old law left over from different times.
My response:
fran, i do get the rationale behind it and can see how things were likely very different back in the day... i was just saying that i had never really thought about it (voting attire) that way before... you know, as "campaigning" rather than just "supporting" yer candidate... besides, i would think that most people go to the polls knowing who they're gonna vote for and aren't gonna be swayed by someone's flare ;) the threats/violence/intimidation/harassment rationale makes better sense... anyway, i got this response from mark this morning:
From Mark: (Hickory, NC)
I was just watching the morning news and remembered an email you sent. The email said not to wear obama shirts or the like to the voting booths because you could get rejected. well WBTV reported taht you could wear anything you like supporting your canidate, but you may not speak to anyone else about who they should vote for all campaigning must be done 50 feet from the voting establishments steps. So wear what you want and keep the chatter down. Later love ya!
From Annie: (SW La.)
Our news said that people would be asked to turn their shirts inside out when they got within 50 feet. Allow me to explain why we have laws that skew the line between supporting and campaigning and why they are to our benefit: As you know, Louisiana has a rep. for crooked politicians and a lesser known fact is that we are one of the most mob run states in the nation. This does cause problems at the polls. When it gets to the point of an area being run by thugs, what is there to do? Nobody can help you. Go into a higher court and everyone is covering up for each other. A comment such as "All we were doing was talking to people and rallying for their support," can put a person behind bars who was in actuality standing in a voting booth with a gun to someone's back, but just hasn't been proven to have done so. Wearing a T-shirt (in the old days buttons) or holding a sign could be a warning to the people of the presence around them (such as the KKK). You have to remember that a lot of these guys were doing things like hanging black folks and had such extreme control over the areas that they seemed unstoppable. One parish had a long time sheriff who literally went to war with the national guard over control of his area. This same concept is why intelligent people vote to keep Louisiana's archaic sex laws around. When a person has obviously committed rape, but it's a he said she said with the question of consent, the DA can put a person away for decades based on an act that they admitted to performing. This is scary, but law is a scary liquid creature that we can not live without. For that reason it is probably more important to pay attention to judge and DA elections than it is to pay attention to presidential elections. I forgot that we had an election Saturday and got a little sick over it. We were voting on judges and a new DA.
in case y'all haven't heard the buzz...
Michael Moore's film SLACKER UPRISING is available to download NOW... for FREE!!!
Slacker UPRISING for freeeeeeeee!
"I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use 'Slacker Uprising' in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free -- I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words -- it's yours!"
http://slackeruprising.com/
http://slackeruprising.com/about.php
http://slackeruprising.com/download/
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears. I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists. But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war. I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity. Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God." Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not. She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes. Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth. Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be. I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression. If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain. Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Eve Ensler: Drill, Drill, DrillSeptember 2008
Eve Ensler: Drill, Drill, Drill
i heart eve ensler, even more so now than ever before. this woman has awed and inspired me for many years. i came to know her through the Vagina Monologues, which i was lucky enough to see her perform solo back in 2001, and have followed her work --literary and altruistic-- ever since. she is a playwright/performer/activist and the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end (sexual) violence against women and girls. they just celebrated their 10th anniversary, V to the Tenth, in New Orleans. google her if you dare and pass this piece along to the ones you love, especially those with a vagina! thanx. i hope these words find you all snug as bugs in rugs. take care and g'nite. <3, B.
taken from the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/drill-drill-drill_b_124829.html, during yet another shameless, self-imposed media blitz brought on by severe tropical weather and political unrest :l
a few things about the Open Letter to Obama email:
although i don't necessarily agree with all of what the author had to say (or how she said it for that matter), i did feel compelled to share her words... and for many different reasons. i know that lots of people have been curious, concerned and confused --not to mention anxious, aggravated and angry-- about the campaign as of late. conversely, there are those who are happier than pigs in sh% about it!? (sorry, i just couldn't resist the piggy reference!) of course, all of this --the good, the bad and the obscene-- is due in large part to the introduction of Sarah Palin to the GOP ticket.
regardless of yer thoughts and feelings about feminism, equal rights for ALL citizens, the separation of church and state, abortion, the new frontiers of medical science, whether the world is young or old, round or flat, the fact of the matter is that this woman has distracted our collective attention away from the real issues and threats that plague our nation. and by this, i absolutely do not mean the "evil and dangerous" impending doom and destruction that george w. bush and john mccain would have us all scared into believing is looming 'round the bend! i am talking about war, the economy, education, health care, global warming and our ever apparent energy crisis.
i realize that in a little over 4 years, at the end of this next presidential term, my daughter will be in primary school. this frightens me to no end. our school systems are deteriorating at an astounding rate, especially here in portland. we're losing teachers, basic and enrichment programs and closing schools due to a lack of funding, BS bureaucracy and who knows what else!? i have friends who are opting to home school their children rather than send them out to receive an uncertain, unstable --and mediocre at best in some cases-- public education. i want to know that all of this could change in 4 years (or even less) and that, whether it be public or private, ALL children are going to have a world class education at their fingertips. there is no excuse for allowing our children to continue falling through the cracks and no reason whatsoever that this expectation --this demand-- for the security of their future not be met! ...this is just one issue that concerns me :l
i won't go on to tell you where all of my passions lie this day, but i will honestly tell you that i completely lack the confidence in the GOP candidates to rise to the occasion and "reform" our government this election year. i truly don't feel that our pleas will be heard, that our expectations will be met or that our families, our rights or our futures will be secure. i just don't believe that their promises are genuine... and false promises can't possibly be kept. period. after 8 years of george w. bush, i want to feel Optimistic... not Hopeless. i want Truth... not Dirty Politics. i want to Believe... not Doubt. i want to Hope... not Fear.
and this is why i share such sentiments with you, offer you to share them with the ones you love and why i keep on keepin' my eye on the prize, fighting the good fight... for you and me and everyone we know... and even for those we don't! i wasn't even a registered democrat before this election. for whatever reason, i was pacific green, likely voting independent in the past two elections. we all see what and where that got us, which is why i truly feel that this election has to be different. i hope y'all feel the same :)
** i appreciate all of yer tolerance of my political unrest these past couple of weeks. of course i am doing my best to put a positive spin on things as i continue my research, education and activism during this campaign. my hope is that y'all are sharing the enthusiasm for Change and, more than that, sharing the information and sentiments with others. every dollar, every voice and every vote will be counted and, for better or worse, will make all difference in the world! let us not just Hope that it will be the one we want and need, the one we're expecting. let us rise up and DEMAND it... with our words, our actions and our hard earned cash! seriously, every dollar counts and i'm not beyond accepting loose change!!! as ever, if you know anyone else who'd like to make a donation to the Obama camp, please direct them to my page! dig deep, kids, and take good care. thanks again for yer support!!! <3, brandi & riley bean
www.my.barackobama.com/page/formybean
also... there's a bunch of interesting, note-and-news-worthy stuff to be had-seen-read here at the MOMocrats site, but it is quite obviously anti-GOP. still, if yer leaning more Left than Right these days, yer likely to find some hidden gems over yonder. enjoy.
"Just So We're Clear: The MOMocrats™ site is not affiliated with or paid for by any Democratic candidate, PAC or the Democratic National Committee. The opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors."
** random excerpts from recent emails and such, reposted from myspace blog **
reposted from myspace, thursday, september 4th
last night's RNC speeches by giuliani and palin were, in my opinion, rather disappointing... not surprizing but disappointing nonetheless. the ceaseless attacks and insults on/of obama's good work and his character were off-putting and, frankly, quite disgusting... and the lies were incessant and blatant, besides!?!does anyone else find it alarming, distasteful, offensive and/or even creepy to see buttons and signage regarding sarah palin such as, "Hoosier's for the Hot Chick!" and "The Hottest VP from the Coolest State!"i typically have a pretty good sense of humor, but for some reason this seems more debasing than amusing to me... sigh...i am a woman. i am a mother. i am a humanist. i understand and appreciate the power and importance of community, of being a contributing member of society, of being a citizen of the world. i am an obama mama, all the way!
Opinion
Palin: wrong woman, wrong message Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
By Gloria Steinem September 4, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,7915118.story
this has been my rant, my litany, since CNN introduced me to this self-proclaimed bulldog with lipstick. i hope other women, other mothers, other daughters --other free-thinking human beings-- are willing to look beyond their respective faiths, personal politics, points of view and family values to seek the whole truth, to see this woman not just for who she is but for what she actually stands for and to recognize the true impact this kind of politics will have on their lives, on their family and on the rest of us and ours! please feel free to share this with the ones you love! take care.
from http://www.literarymama.com/
Sarah Palin's Kids, Our KidsThe Sarah Myth
