HOW DO EXPATRIATES SIGN UP?
Last week during the inaugural festivities, I communicated with many people in the States and in at least six varying countries. Mostly, we chatted or recounted how we wept with pure joy.
It now seems clear that the surveys and written responses that accompany them go largely unnoticed. I explained in last Sunday's survey, in depth, how ExpatsforObama feel isolated from the movement even though we are many in number, powerful with communication, and have many unique skills. To send this letter to THIS group simply validates and perpetuates this problem. Please recognize us! We gladly worked hard for Barrack. Don't leave us out now.
The following is a written reply to part of the survey sent around on the 18th of January. I truly hope that our interests are not ignored.
Response from 01-18-09:
I currently live in Queretaro, Mexico as an expatriate. Our organization, Expats for Obama, worked together to spread the Obama message by blogging, writing emails, editorials, and talking frequently to folks back home during the campaign. We also supported each other during this exciting time, developing an impressive affinity, energy, and dialogue that could have been utilized in a more productive manner by the U.S. campaign. Plenty of us have unique qualifications, which would have been an asset to the Obama effort, as well as an unusual amount of spare time. However, many expatriates felt as if our voices weren’t heard and isolated from the national nucleus, even though we were hugely committed to the effort.
We are a powerful force considering our dedication, diversity, and global positions. While Ex-pats for Obama are exceptionally far-reaching and the State Department estimates the number of expatriates to be over 4 million, this mighty group has been largely unutilized. In many cases, it is not typically easy for some of us to meet face to face due to a measure of remoteness and other obstacles. Nonetheless, our technological link is solid and swift. Our devotion is deep-rooted. Our perspective is divergent. Use us! Guide us! We want you to.
Margaret Joan Hunt-Henderson
Queretaro, MX
via Clarksville, TN
Friday, 23rd January 2009
Washington, D.C.
www.whitehouse.gov
Executive Orders to date
www.whithouse.gov
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered the closing of Guantanamo prison and named veteran trouble-shooters for the Middle East and Afghanistan as he moved swiftly to repair America's tarnished image abroad.
Duties of the Secretary of State
Under the Constitution, the President of the United States www.whitehouse.gov determines U.S. foreign policy. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service of the United States.
Created in 1789 by the Congress as the successor to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of State is the senior executive Department of the U.S. Government. The Secretary of State’s duties relating to foreign affairs have not changed significantly since then, but they have become far more complex as international commitments multiplied. These duties -- the activities and responsibilities of the State Department -- include the following:
In addition, the Secretary of State retains domestic responsibilities that Congress entrusted to the State Department in 1789. These include the custody of the Great Seal of the United States, the preparation of certain presidential proclamations, the publication of treaties and international acts as well as the official record of the foreign relations of the United States, and the custody of certain original treaties and international agreements. The Secretary also serves as the channel of communication between the Federal Government and the States on the extradition of fugitives to or from foreign countries.
Tuesday, 20th January 2009
Washington D.C.
Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.
His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.
Sunday, 18th January 2009
Text SERVE to 56333 for alerts about Renewing America Together – National Day of Service.
Text EVENTS to 56333 to receive the latest info on events & updates on free Inaugural events in the area.
Text SCHDL to 56333 for latest updates and breaking announcements and any schedule changes.
Text TIPS to 56333 for information on how to prepare for Inauguration
Text WEATHER to 56333 for basic weather updates in the DC area and planning
Text METRO to 56333 for alerts about the buses and trains in DC.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGxFlr
www.change.gov
At last, after many weeks in the planning and development stage, our very own Mybarackobama.com (MYBO) inaugural celebration event has finally found its form, nature and place, and we are thrilled and proud to announce the...
MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, the Social!
http://grassrootsball2009social.eventbrite.com/
We've come full circle, right back where we were supposed to be!
Initially intended to be held in a Capitol Hill church social hall -- and always imagined as an "alternative" ball --, the event grew rapidly in the early flush of euphoria and excitement of our victory in the days following the election, but through the worries and the vagaries of fundraising and just exactly how crowded Washington, DC would be for this historic occasion that we all want to witness and celebrate in a financial environment that encouraged anything but confidence, the MYBO alternative ball's future in the balance, we find ourselves welcomed by the Universalist National Memorial Church, "a liberal Christian church in the heart of the city."
The MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, the Social is intended, as one of our fundraising volunteers put it, to be a ball:
“that will celebrate Obama's election, and celebrate the hard work we did to get to this point – and provide a space to network with fellow Obama supporters to get "fired up" for real change, going forward.
There are tons of official and unofficial inaugural balls, but the difference is this one will be affordable (hence the need for sponsorship) and Obama volunteers will have the first crack at tickets (rather than the tickets just going to the highest bidder.)”
Universalist National Memorial Church provides us an ideal space in the community at a price that allows us to accomplish our mission -- tickets priced so that everyone who would like to attend to meet so many people with whom they have exchanged on MYBO and want to meet after all these months can afford to attend.
For tickets -- only $26.00!! -- http://grassrootsball2009social.eventbrite.com/
BYOC, or bring your own champagne! The event will include food and a bar featuring wine and beer, an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages, but if you would like to raise a toast to Obama with bubbly, please feel free to bring your own bottle, or one to contribute to the bar. You may also help us off-set bar costs by contributing a bottle of white -- the church asks for no red in their furnished parlor, sorry! --, and the caterer will accept for refund any unopened bottles they provide and we do not need to consume.
There will also be music with performances by local and home-grown MYBO talent.
Attire is cocktail or semi-formal, but please wear what makes you feel comforable. If you need to come directly from another event that doesn't permit you to dress for the evening, such as the Day of Service at the MLK Memorial Library, please feel welcome to come as you are.
Sponsors needed! Help make the MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, the Social a success -- become a sponsor at any level you can. Your non tax deductible donation will help with food, bar and entertainment for the evening. It's simple. The more those of you who can afford to give something more, the better the evening for all. It's The Obama Tax Plan at work, so let's put our money where our mouths are! Click here to make your donation. It's easy and fast with Google Check-out.
DC for Obama and Mayor Fenty Office's MLK Day of Service Activity (9 am to 4 pm).
The MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, the Social is joining together with DC for Obama, which will be collaborating with Mayor Fenty's Day of Service events and will be sponsoring supporting those in need through serving food at the MLK Memorial Library throughout the day. Please join us and take a step towards supporting others who may have less.
We will be providing further information on how you can become a part of this important day of community service and hope that you will be able to join us in taking this step to fulfill President-elect Barack Obama's call to community service.
Then, join us for a memorable evening getting to know in person so many of the people with whom you have worked, and with whom you have become friends, on MYBO.
Thank you!
Mary Ritter Jacqueline Ashton de Floris The Organizing Committee
Perhaps you have been checking here for news from time to time, wondering what's happening, if anything at all. I have sworn myself to a sort of discretion, a virtual white-out of news on the Ball because it is a complex and delicate business to organize, but we are in the final hours of decision-making, and we are not all of the same mind.Wait. That's what happens in government, too.We all felt so monolithically committed in our support for Obama, even while we fought monumentally over whether he was right or wrong to vote for the FISA bill this year, or right or wrong not to hate Hillary Clinton forever, or to pay her campaign debt, that it was always rather surprising to find ourselves in désarroi.But that is what is starting to interest me the most, oddly; it's the process itself, how we can start with a shared dream, build momentum from one another's excitement and passion, discover our points of désaccord, experience let-down, frustration, and even anger as we encounter difficulties, set-backs and conflicts, and then -- out of respect for one another and the importance of our relationships and work -- sit down and think about how to proceed, even manage to at all because the people involved are as important to all of us as the success of the project itself.How many times in the MYBO listservs did the atmosphere become tense, did a voice or two speak out and remind us all of why we were there, and that we hold one another in esteem, did cooler heads prevail and we go on? It's the same. It's a process that can teach us all a lot that we can use in our lives, at home, at work, in political action. Speak your heart, as well as your mind, and do it from that place in yourself.The ball has been hard. Harder than we imagined when we started out. I suppose no one starts out imagining the obstacles, or no one would ever begin anything. Those of us working to put it all together have made many discoveries about people -- most heartening, some laughable. There are some flakes out there, and they are not all falling to the ground to blanket Chicago in snow for its white Christmas.We succeeded, and we failed. Or, perhaps better said, we have met with success and with failure. We have raised money that can be considered significant from among the individuals supporting our ball, and we nearly did from an individual, who chose in the end not to, without ever really making that choice final, or clear. Inference is sometimes good enough, or has to be.
There have been successes that were very important to me. Yesterday, a $50 contribution arrived in the PayPal account from someone who has nothing to gain from their contribution to help make the ball happen, other than perhaps to help make sure there would be a ball for which to purchase a ticket, and at a price we can call "grassroots". That person might have thought that their $50 was "nothing" compared to others' $2,000, $1,000 or $500 (non tax deductible) donations, but that isn't how it felt to me when I heard. I felt indebted to that person and grateful for their gesture of support, that is really a gesture of belief in the dream that I had, that the other organizers had, that the more than 600 people who contacted us to get themselves and their friends and family on our list for news of the ball, when the tickets would be available had, too.And the people who have joined us to offer their time and energy, their encouragement, their contacts, anything they had, and offered their thanks for our efforts. No matter what happens to this ball, I will carry forward their group of people like a community that will live inside me. I don't know how to visit that place, or see all those people, but knowing they are there is about enough. I know that one day there will be another project, another mission, and I will reach out to them, or they will reach out to me.Today, we are asking everyone on our lists to go to the website and take a survey. The answers to the three questions are "Yes, I still planning to purchase tickets to the Grassroots Ball for the people of Mybarackobama.com to meet and celebrate our victory in Washington, DC on January 19, and hurry up!", "No, thank you, I have already made other plans for the inauguration," and "No. I just can't get to Washington, after all." Please have each person in your party register and take the survey so we can get an accurate number.We need to know if 700 people sure will purchase tickets so that we can make the deposit on the space in downtown Washington with confidence. It can hold up to 1,500, and we have the option to grow the event to that capacity if ticket sales are strong.We have become timid about committing our sponsor's money in an event that might have lost its momentum without our knowing it, especially in such uncertain times. Asking you is our best way to know if your silence has been your polite and remarkable patience, or proof of your loss of interest.Like Barack said to us throughout the campaign, more and more frequently as the numbers coming to see him grew beyond anyone's wildest imagings, this ball was never about we, the organizers, it's about you, and it's for you if you want it. If you don't, that's fine. Personally, I can accept hearing that, but I can't as easily accept ending it all because we are worried the time and the opportunity are already behind us without having asked you if they are.We shall see what happens today, and in the next hours, and then we will know.For those wondering why nothing has been happening on the website, we decided spontaneously to communicate via our email lists rather than continue to promote a ball there that was at risk of not happening owing to fund-raising disappointments and their impact on the ticket prices that we could offer.As it stands, they would be a minimum of $175, possibly closer to $200, and we would try to offer a percentage of the total tickets available at the $100 level for those whose means are limited. As we had always intended with our "Joe-the-Plumber" Ticket Plan, we would ask everyone to stop and think before purchasing and ask themselves if they really needed that $100 ticket, or if they could leave it for someone who does, each according to his conscience, and the fiscal philosophy Barack Obama laid out to Sam Wurtzenbacher in Ohio.Thank you, everyone.http://www.grassrootsballdc2009.com....
An open invitation to join : President Barack Obama Inauguration Day 2009 - Washington, DC Group!!!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/InaugurationDay2009
Make plans to be in DC on this historical day!
Make plans to be tuned in with TV and/or the Internet.
Be out in public with friends and fellow citizens.
A Grand and Wonderful Celebration!
Hello MYBO People,
The very first Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 -- originating right here in MYBO -- has a challenge for 40 people in our network of campaign volunteers.
We are trying to secure a venue in Washington that is convenient, on the Metro with space for more than 1000 people, and we are trying to do this for what is regarded as the inauguration that will be the most widely attended in our nation's history. Everybody wants to be there to witness this historic event and celebrate, and maybe nobody more so than those of us here on the MYBO listservs. Obama's Internet Army soldiers.
It's really, really hard to get space in Washington right now, and MYBO has done it. Almost.
So, The Challenge.
We are on the verge of signing a contract for a venue, and to do it we need 40 people to kick in $1,000 so that we can be ready with our check for the down payment before someone else beats us to it.
Your underwriting of the down payment not only assures us the space to hold our very own Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, it will cover $40,000 of our total budget. Think of yourselves as part of Barack's tax plan. That top 5% that will help to reduce ticket prices and make our ball more affordable for everyone--most especially for the 95% of MYBO who need a break after all the donating to the campaign!
What else will you get? You will receive:
What else, you ask?
The undying thanks and devotion of everyone who wants this ball to happen. You can also choose one of our sponsor gifts, once we figure out what they will be.
We need this as quickly as possible. Don't think it over. Reply right away to Russell Miller, our treasurer, at Russell@grassrootsballdc2009, and we go to contract to have a ball!
You don't have $1,000? That's okay.
If you have $500 to help us underwrite the ball, we can guarantee you:
And If you don't have five hundred dollars to get the ball rolling, don't worry. We'll be rolling out other sponsor levels, and tickets will be available shortly at a range of prices that make sense for every working American. (We revere the Constitution, but we're breaking the law of supply and demand.)
This ball is going to be for EVERYONE—or at least as many as the fire codes allow.
Jacqueline Ashton de Floris, Mary Ritter, Russell Miller
Members, Organizing Committee
PS: Money Where Our Mouth Is Department—All three of us are already in as sponsors. It's lonely out here, but we know it won't be for long. Join us!
PPS for shy folks: You can be anonymous sponsors if you like!
Dear MYBO volunteers, This is to let you know that a core organizing committee has formed and has been working round the clock since Friday to get our Grassroots Ball 2009 off the ground . We have chosen a URL for the event, the website is being developed and will be ready to go soon, we are negotiating with venues and are working to solicit sponsors and underwriters to help keep the ticket price as low as we can make it. This last is an urgent need, and anyone interested in sponsoring, purchasing advertising in the program, underwriting, or investing to help us raise the down payment on the venue should get in touch with one of us right away.
We need to rasie $40,000 before the end of next week to secure our venue big enough for a couple of thousand Obama-supporter volunteers to celebrate the fruits of our hard work, and, for many, finally meet face to face. That may sond like a lot, but remember, it was all our little donations that put Barack over the top!
If you are a fundraiser or have experience as a volunteer doing fundraising for a charitable organization, have the time right now and want to take this on, please let us hear from you! We can help put together a team to assist you.
Once the website is up, we will put the word out so you can check it for information and the announce date for ticket sales. We can no longer accept any requests for reservations by email.
Please contact one of us if you are a volunteer field organizer for the campaign.
Thank you! Jacqueline Ashton de Floris, Mary Ritter and Russsell Miller
Members, Organizing Committee -- The Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009
Where imporssible become a luxurious reality.
Yes we did it,
Obama For President
So far we have been blessed with an historic win. A young, uncorrupted, and intelligent representative who has listened throughout and run a relatively positive campaign. Let us keep this momentum and remain vigilant. Now is the time that we put all of our good ideas to work.
Let us not let Obama site die by the way side, only to be resurrected in 4 years when he needs to be reelected. Let us transform this site to a place where we may discuss bills and news. Where as foot soldiers during Obama's campaign, we can remain an army of thinkers and networkers; helping bridge the gaps between republicans, independents, and democrats so that we may rebuild our infrastructure; save our economy; renew our education system; reform our military; return our civil liberties; end our global wars; fix our health care system; and bring sanity back to the United States.
just to say I'm so glad we all won and so glad I made the phone calls I did from London. Wish I could have been in the U.S. but happy to be here too and see how much it meant to everyone - watched the returns with a Danish friend who cried her eyes out along with me when Barack won and during his speech. I can only hope your ability to govern, Mr President Elect will be as inspiring, God knows you have been handed quite a huge task. Many people have a lot of faith in you, including me, and I am certain you will deserve it.
For my part, what matters most, and always has is that you remain the human being that you are. Your humanity is what shown through when I saw you speak to a handful of people in Iowa last December and that, as you well know, is what will get you through. I am off to sleep now, and wish you and your unbelievably gorgeous family, everything good.
I am certain you have heard it before, but worth repeating is the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to the know difference.
Blessings to all.
Like many other people last night, at precisely 11PM when the polls closed in California, Oregon and Washington, and Keith Olbermann called the election, I started to cry. Steady, solid, weeping that kept coming in waves.
Then I glanced at the screen where the MSNBC director was flipping from one celebration to another and saw many others crying: Blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, young, old, men, women, all over the country. A series of individual shots that, together, redefined the United States of America last night.
There was a student at Spellman College in Atlanta who collapsed in tears and was being comforted by her friends.
Then Oprah was leaning on the shoulder of the man in front of her as she cried uncontrollably, Jesse Jackson standing directly behind her with two rivers flowing freely down his face.
A quick shot of a nursing home day room where elderly white men and woman, some in wheelchairs, one man wearing an American Legion cap, some cheering and some wiping their eyes with tissues.
Cut to a sports bar in Georgia where white and black faces kissed each other, and hugged.
And always back to Grant Park in Chicago. The roar of the poor, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to be free lifting their voices and their smiles and their hands in relief and jubilation and ecstacy and exhaustion.
I thought of my mother, who died in 1996. She had my sister and me sit in front of the television when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial before an endless sea of people who only had hope for a different tomorrow. Their - our - tomorrow finally came at 11PM Eastern time last night. I remembered how she wanted to go to that rally but Dad talked her out of it because it might become "dangerous." It turned out, the only dangerous thing was Dr. King's ideas.
John McCain came on screen in Pheonix to concede, giving the best speech of his campaign and silencing the yahoo's in the crowd who booed when he mentioned Barack Obama. Then back to the studio where someone was reading a White House transcript of Bush's congratulatory call to Obama where he told the President-elect to "go out and enjoy yourself." Only George W. Bush would hand the presidency of a country he came close to ruining to someone by saying Obama should "enjoy himself." It was akin to urging people to shop after 9/11.
Finally, there was Obama himself. He gave a better, more encompassing vicory speech than most inaugural addresses over the past 30 years.
Someone, it might have been Chris Mathews, said he looked "exhausted." He may have been that after 20 months of campaigning but, to me, he looked somber. Written all over Obama's face was the reality of the burden he suddenly bore, not just for himself and the country but the entire world. Even after his speech, when Joe Biden and his family and the throng of relatives and well-wishers crowded around him, he couldn't shake the look of a man who suddenly realises how alone he is.
I remember what Jack Kennedy said the first morning he was president and walked into the Oval Office. Surrounded by long-time aides and advisors, he sat in the chair behind the Lincoln desk that he requested be brought out from the Smithsonian Institute, looked up and asked, "Now what the hell do we do?" Last night, Obama's face showed that he knew full well "what the hell do we do."
But he's not alone. He has tens of millions of people around the country, and around the world, there to help. For those of us who helped make this morning possible, our work has just begun.
Dear President-Elect Barack Obama,
My sincere condolences and deepest sympathy upon the passing of your beloved grandmother.
As The Original New York City Free Advice Man I would like to congratulate you, your wonderful family, friends and all our fellow supporters, true Democrats, real Republicans, sensible Independents and others, for getting you elected the next President of Our United States of America! I am exceedingly grateful to you and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden, whom I consider a friend, for putting up with all the senseless garbage and difficulties that our opponents threw at us during this long, testing and tiring campaign. You can count on me to provide you, your administration and our government any and all Quality Free Advice, Objective Criticism, Critical Insight and Foresight needed to help insure that the coming four years or more will be successful, especially in restoring Our American image and reputation abroad and our Constitution at home.
Having been a specific target of those who have unscrupulously, severely damaged our country I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and/or my friend Joe Biden (who was my preference until you’re very promising Iowa Caucus victory) and briefly discuss my very unpleasant experiences these past seven plus years. I also hope my YouTube endorsement video (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk ) helped a little bit, and that all my other efforts at home (Maryland/DC) and here in London contributed to our success. Should you ever need the views/ideas/opinions of someone who truly thinks way outside of ‘the box’, then remember that The Free Advice Man is fully at your service. Consider me one of your National Philosophical Advisors!
Respectfully yours, best, J
ean-Pierre Ady Fenyo
Philosopher-at-Large
The Original New York City Free Advice Man ( www.infinitysociety.org/FREEADVICEMAN )
November 3, 2008 Edgware, London, England, UK Europe
Happy are those who have seen what many generations past have desired but never opportune to see.
Happy are we that have live in this generation and witness the tearing down of the wall of inimical and detrimental dogmatism that have plague us and make us suspicious of one another.
Happy are those of us who have lived to be part and parcel of this historic moment in the annals of the United States of America.
Rejoice and be glad America and Americans for unto us have been given a reborn conscience and heart in which tolerance, objectivity, broadmindedness and above all love has triumphed over hatred and unity over division.
Rejoice and be glad all those who took the giant steps to forgo the past and instead help engineer by far the unthinkable and unimaginable by helping to elect Sen. Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.
Indeed, it suffice to note that Obama was handsomely rewarded by the youths of our time who saw in him the values that are fundamental to the basic idealism of the country and its foundation- unity in diversity, land of opportunity and the abode of hope and haven for humanity.
Mothers have come out massively to help tilt victory on his side, recognizing the necessity of our time and also appreciating the need for a new direction.
Words are not enough to comprehensively enumerate or describe how enormous this victory has been for America, Americans and the world at large. It will amount to a miniaturization of the reality and gravity of the 2008 presidential election outcome to claim that Obama’s victory is kudos to the African- American community! On the contrary and within the horizon of realism, what we are seeing today is a result of consensus building, the fierce urgency to work together as a people and above all the necessity of treasuring the values of our diversities and the potentials it brings to the nation.
I am dumbfounded, surprised astonished and yet to recover from the decision that majority of Americans have made in deciding who should lead as the commander in chief. We are surely on the path to a pragmatic healing, reconciliation and reclamation of the country we all love so much and willing to protect its corporate existence and integrity.
To God is the glory. Amen
God bless USA
God bless Obama & Biden
Having been a specific target of those who have unscrupulously, severely damaged our country I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and/or my friend Joe Biden (who was my preference until you’re very promising Iowa Caucus victory) and briefly discuss my very unpleasant experiences these past seven plus years.
I also hope my YouTube endorsement video (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk ) helped a little bit, and that all my other efforts at home (Maryland/DC) and here in London contributed to our success. Should you ever need the views/ideas/opinions of someone who truly thinks way outside of ‘the box’, then remember that The Free Advice Man is fully at your service. Consider me one of your National Philosophical Advisors!
Respectfully yours, best,
Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo
November 3, 2008
Edgware, London, England, UK Europe
The American author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams once wrote, "The eyes of the future are watching us and they are praying that we learn to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with clasped hands that we might act with restraint, leaving room for the life that is destined to come."
Described as a "visionary" by the Utne Reader, Williams’ prayerful hope sums up how I feel this morning, the day before what will be the most-critical election of our time. Maybe any time since Lincoln was elected in 1860. Yet I also tremble for my country as it stands on the eve of electing its 44th president.
I tremble because we stare numbly at a world in crisis due largely to America’s catastrophic wars of and “in your face” foreign policy.
I tremble because we live terrified in an economy melting faster than a snow cone in August thanks to the unbridled greed and “grab all you can before someone else gets any” philosophy nurtured by a president who has no moral compass.
I tremble because we shiver in the cold, early days of winter as a cold, shivering chill runs down our spines when we hear John McCain and Sarah Palin throw smears and platitudes like red meat to starving animals instead of discussing real issues like 11% of the country not working when unemployment claims are added to the number of people who’ve become discouraged and stopped looking for a job, or poverty in America, or one-sixth of the country hoping they and their kids don’t get sick or injured because they have no insurance.
I tremble because we’ve endured eight years of seeing America’s honor in the world torn to shreds, the Constitutional rights that protected us for 225 years from government abuse of power and authority systematically stripped and shredded, the novel American ideal of equal justice and equal rights and equal opportunity and equal protection raped repeatedly by an ideologically-driven Supreme Court where one Republican-appointed justice is angry he was born black, a second is a mental midget and a third accepts the far right notion that those who have it are worth more under the law than anyone who doesn’t.
I tremble because if We the People of the United States of America have another election stolen out from under us there will be hell to pay at home and around the world. One of the most laconic women I know told me last night that if somehow McCain confounds the reams of polls and somehow wins, there will be rioting in the streets and “I’ll be out there throwing bricks myself.” Ironically, a deposition is being taken today in Ohio of the man who may have been responsible for illegal, computerized vote switching and disappearing votes in the Buckeye State in the infamous Great Ken Blackwell 2004 Presidential Election Vote Switcheroo.
I tremble for my country because there is not enough Loraizapam™ in the world to calm me down if Obama loses. I should be celebrating my birthday today but instead I sit worried, fearful, frightened and trembling.
I wrote this email just now and sent it to my friends and acquantances. I am hoping to use my words to get those I know to reach out to those who might hesitate to vote for Barack Obama because they have never voted for a Democrat or a bi-racial person to consider the reasons to do so now, as presented by life-long, conservative Christian Republican Frank Schaeffer, and to get those among them who might be hesitating themselves to reflect, one last time.
And to ask them for one last donation to the Obama campaign, now while Missouri shifts back to rose from a fragile blue, Indiana turns pink from white, and the McCain campaign howls their anger and frustration, screaming more lies to the people, so that it can drown out the negative and quiet the fear.
This is my American prayer on this last Sunday before all of us who haven't already, head to the polls.
....
Dear friend,Some of you I know personally, a couple of you I know through a family member or friend. I know how most of you will be voting because I know you so well, but in the case of others, I don't know, and I hesitate to presume to ask. It's pretty much a matter of conscience for each and every one of us how he or she will vote. As usual, it embarrasses me a little to write to you. Please feel free to hit "delete" without reading further. On occasion, throughout this election year, I have written to send an article or to ask for a donation for the Obama campaign. I am writing one last time with both. A friend sent me this article yesterday. I had read it when it was published in The Huffington Post October 8, but I am sending it out today to all of you, in case any of you knows someone Mr. Schaeffer's point of view and own experience might help to take what for them might be the difficult one of voting for a progressive, Democratic candidate for president, who also happens to have a black father. While this might make some our souls sing, coupled with his dignity, integrity, intelligence and forthright willingness to talk about Hope and the needs of the people who make up our country, it makes some nervous. For someone who has never voted for a Democratic candidate for president, but is dismayed with what the Republicans have made of theirs in a head-long rush to the bottom of the food-chain, courting the least representative and universal of their base, who distort the idea upon which the United States of America was based -- the principle of tolerance --, it might still feel unacceptable to vote for a Democrat.
It's normal, party affiliations form our identities for many. They are the direct reflection of our values systems and most closely-held beliefs. But for many, the neoconservative Republican party has been squeezing out so many values as unacceptable, while assaulting our Constitution, our intelligence and our decency, that they no longer feel pride in voting for the Republican candidate in 2008. We can help them, as Mr. Schaeffer has sought to do in his piece, by reminding them what "Country First" means. Barack Obama has borrowed from the beginning LBJ's words in his speech on the occasion of his signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, reminding us that there is but one America for all of us. Barack Obama has taken us seriously. We deplored an increasingly divisive and self-interested politics in America that left the voter out in the cold, while playing him for a knave in the endless campaigns of smears and denigration. If our public discourse, particularly our election season discourse, were to be taken for a measure of our country's intelligence and civility, we knew we were in deep trouble. We said, "Enough!", and Barack Obama let us know he heard us not only by bringing a fleash and bones message, but by relentlessly behaving in accordance with that message, even when the attacks were relentless. During the debates, a panel of psychiatrists determined that neither candidate seemed to want the job very much because they didn't fight for it; Obama didn't provide the "knock-out" punch. Well, T. Byram Karasu, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Montefiore Medical Center, seems to have misunderstood Obama entirely.
He can win it without a "knock-out". To borrow from Christianity, he turns the other cheek, but without letting the slight go. He's smart. He knows that to dwell on the slight only swells its significance. Answer the pertinent attacks on policy, and let your supporters get the word out when a lie is told, and we do. Philip Berg's case was thrown out of court a little over a week ago. Obama never mentioned it. The state of Hawaii pronounced his birth certificate legitimate the other day. Obama never mentioned it. We make the calls, we knock on the doors, and we forward the emails. We let Barack stay on topic.So, I send you this article. It might be the thing that could help someone you know, or yourself, truly vote "country first." One day, it might be a Republican appleaing to me when my party has fallen, but somehow I think not, because as George Lakoff argues in his book, The Political Mind, the Democratic Party is the progressive party, and our country was based on progressive ideas and ideals. This aligns the Democratic party more closely with the core of American values. It is harder for us to stray, although individual Democratic politicans can fall, victim to their human vices. If you know someone who might feel better about voting for Barack Obama because of the arguments Mr. Shaeffer makes, please share it with them. We need all of us to bring the sort of fairness and decency in government that can bring peace of mind and security to all Americans. Help those of us who support Barack Obama restore morality and responsibility to our federal government, for the sake of its and the world's citizens. They are counting on you. At least the French. I know it because they tell me all the time. The campaign is asking for a last push of financial help to counter a rise in McCain attacks in critical swing-states, and to keep the ground effort going until the polls are closed. If you can spare anything more, please consider making a donation to the campaign through my fundraising page. Please show your support for mine, and everyone like me. You receive credit for your donation. The tiniest of contributions is significant when added to so many millions of other offerings from others like you, who want to see the sort of America that Barack has been describing. Please feel free to pass this message on to anyone you choose, or to borrow from it to make your own. My words are public property.My best to you,Jackie-- "But that spirit can't just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there's some folks that are going through their own quiet storms." -- Senator Barack Obama, on the campaign trail in Milwaukee, September 1, 2008http://thesisyphusjournals.comFollow me on Twitter -- http://twitter.com/Fleur_de_Paris Spare Change for Change -- http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/jdeflorisI am 63.5% there! Can you donate the smallest something to help me help us reach our goal for progressive government in Washington that puts our nation's citizens and their needs first? Thank you.
