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SusanP (San Clemete, CA)

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I plan to use this to record the community activities that I lead and participate in, post random thoughts and keep to reread myself

time to get back to work

By SusanP - Jun 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm EDT

Also listed in: San Clemente for Change

Now that we have supported change with our national elections, it is time to continue working with our President to enact true healthcare reform. We cannot accept compromises that do not provide healthcare all Americans. Here in San Clement, part of our objective is to oust Ken Calvert. Bill Hedrick will need our help, so lets stop apathy and get our neighbors out for in support of our Democratic candidate.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed at www.sanclementeforchange.org and hedrickforcongress.org

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My Daughter's (13) Article for her School Paper about the Inauguration

By SusanP - Feb 8th, 2009 at 5:41 pm EST

Also listed in: CA Call Team

A Witness to History
By Melissa Parmelee
As I stood in the crowd of millions, people had smiles on their faces, and everyone around me was glued to the JumboTron. The air was filled with the sound of cheers and celebration. Until President Bush walked onto the stage. I have never heard that any people jeer in unison.
It was Inauguration ’09, and it was the party of the century. I was lucky enough to attend. Three days before the event, my family and I trekked across the county to our lovely capital. After spending a night in Baltimore, we caught a ride into D.C. On Sunday we attended the “We Are One” concert on the National Mall. Monday was filled with museum hopping.
And then, the main event: January 20th, 2009. We woke up to snow flurries at seven, and caught a bus. This bus was a miracle. Without it, half of the morning would have been spent walking through the city. Of course, said bus was so full, my older brother was practically holding onto the driver. As we walked the remaining blocks to the Mall, we ran into a plethora of vendors selling random merchandise. There were countless calendars, T-shirts, and, I kid you not, an apron. We also caught wind of an Obama puppet. Just at the edge of the great lawn, a few guys in their mid-twenties were handing out free bags of pretzels. These pretzels could later be found strewn across the Mall, left to become seagull food.
By eight o’ clock we were gathered in the shadow of the Washington monument. The concert from Sunday was replaying on the JumboTron. As each song started to play, everyone would sing together. It was an amazing sense of togetherness, and the Inauguration hadn’t even officially begun. Eventually politicians and public figures started to show up on the screen. My mother was listening to the radio. She would yell out random facts, causing everyone around us to simultaneously be grateful for the information and question her sanity.
As Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, the cheers were deafening. People were hugging, some were crying. Then he began to give his inaugural address, and an intense hush fell over the crowd. I was previously unaware that 1.8 million people could be that quiet.
The minute the speech was over, every single person started to file off of the Mall. It took us forty minutes to travel the distance of a block. As soon as we hit pavement, we had to shuffle along for twenty-five blocks to reach our destination. This was a direct result of the blockades set up o every street because of the parade. The blockades were buses, parked across the intersections, barring entrance. We got back to the hotel at seven o’ clock at night.
And oh, I almost forgot, it was eighteen degrees the entire time.

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