I started to post this on the general blog and realized it was a preachy thing to put on the public domain.
I hate all the name calling. While I can't help being amused by all the McCain nicknames I am deeply offended by the name calling that extends to Cindy mCCain. This is a woman who has dearly paid for her mistakes. And proof that money isn't everything. But she also has had flashes of incredible charity.
I read an article on Cindy McCain this AM. Its from Newsweek and gentle but brutally honest about all the warts.I am not saying vote for her husband-I know I won't. And I know she angered our fold with her "proud" remarks. But this woman has been through some stuff and is not all "Stepford".I am making a case that we cease and desist on the name calling. Her finances? She should release em. Her views? She should state em and back em up. But the drugs and the way she looks? I find it so hurtful when we stoop to the Republican level and call her names. For past deeds. Who doesn't have some past issues. The sign of strength to me is SURVIVING them.Did you know she has a masters in Special Education?And that she found her daughter Bridget on a visit to Mother Theresa?excerpt:That same year, she visited Mother Teresa's orphanage in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she saw 160 newborn girls who had been abandoned. The nuns handed her a small baby with a cleft palate so severe that the infant couldn't be fed. Another baby, also just a few weeks old, had a heart defect. Worried they would die without medical attention, Cindy applied for visas to take the girls back to the United States. But the country's minister of Health refused to sign the papers. "We can do surgery on this child," an official told her. Frustrated, Cindy slammed her fist on the table. "Then do it! What are you waiting for?" The official, stunned, simply signed the papers. "I don't know where I got the nerve," Cindy told Harper's Bazaar.When she arrived in Phoenix, she carried the baby with the cleft palate off the plane. Her husband met her at the airport. He looked at the baby. "Where is she going?" he asked her. "To our house," she replied. They adopted the little girl and named her Bridget. Family friends adopted the other little girl.We are so kind and intellectual on this site. Can't we extend that to name calling and off issue banter? She's paid heavily for her bad choices. And then some.
I checked my dashboard yesterday wondering how I could jazz myself up to be more attractive to Obama Bloggers and was absolutely MORTIFIED to see that I have inadvertently checked not registered to vote. NOT registered to vote!!! I have voted in every single presidential election and most every local election since I was 18 waaaaaaaaayyyyyback in 1973.
Much like my idol Michael J Fox in his hysterical sit-coms I was a young Republican from the get-go. I believed (believe) fervently in small government, states rights. My thinking is the farther you get from the trenches the less you know about how to solve the issues. That was made clear to me when I pursued a lifelong career of fund raising for local non profits. I have flown nationwide to raise funds for urban development, conservation, food banks, YMCA s, and even in a University setting. All federal funding was bloated, weighted down to near uselessness in bureaucracy and accounting. But good strong private funding was unfettered and good for immediate use.
I am not saying private funding doesn't come with its own drawbacks--need for recognition, kow-towing to the rich and famous--but hey I am good at that. I don't care WHY you give to the community--only that you DO GIVE. I call it the virtue of enlightened self interest ;O) And I 'll kiss anyones behind (in the metaphorical sense) for a good cause.
So I tunneled my vision and voted Republican on this premise for years and years and...well you get my drift.
And my beautiful, brilliant, funny first born came out of the closet. It was no surprise--I knew it from the age of 3 or so. No sports. Only girl friends. But my vision became crystalline for bias and bigotry. Working in urban causes for 25 years had already given me an ugly knowledge of racism. Now it was personal.
In a matter of months I turned my back on my church, many of my insulting friends and fight my community on a daily basis. I am quite the lightening rod for anti gay sentiment. As is my husband. If you are interested in more-man could I burn your ear-but this is about Obama.
Angry and bitter and clinging to....what? Church hates gays. Bush hates gays. So. We are at a friends camp deep in the Louisiana countryside with my rescued pup and incredible isolation---but they have Direct TV :O) Wow. And I heard Barack Obama for the first time. I was mesmerised. Totally and completely mesmerized. He ended his speech with everyone he wanted in his camp and he said: GAY and STRAIGHT. I cried. That he even SAID it out loud was a miracle. Generally we are shunned for the good of the campaign.
My husband says my hands became pom poms and I became a born again Obamacan.
But just for president because I still believe bloated fed is a bad fed. For me it really is just about Obama. I want lots of Republicans (in spite of their religious right bulls#$%t and warmongering (well I do have don't ask don't tell going for me there, don't I) to continue to keep the balance of power hard fought. Sorry...I trust Obama implicitly but the House and Senate need lots of checks and balances...take from a political science major--there are a plethora of personal juggernauts that need balance-dem and rep). Don't like making Obama's job harder but he has assured me he will reach across the aisle---and if anyone can do that--it is he!
So thats me.
