We gathered 13,400 pounds of food -- with more to come tomorrow -- the second largest amount for a single drive for the year!
We brought in $4300 in cash and checks -- the largest amount of any drive for the year!
To put that in context, the Food Bank serves an average of 200 households each, three days a week. The food we brought in in one afternoon, including the bulk food that can be bought with those donations, is almost enough to feed the community for an entire month!
George Francis born in 1896, the oldest man in America cast his vote for Obama.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6189921
To God be the glory. Amen
God bless USA
God bless Obama
Unlike McCain, Obama has the potential and capacity to bring about the kind of humane globalization that could see the USA leading the committee of nations in dealing with issues that affect humanity for the common good of mankind.
The past eight years clearly epitomizes the campaign and articulations that are unilateral and purely based on militarism rather than diplomacy and multi-lateralism and the entire world was not happy about that kind of leadership model coming from the greatest nation on earth.
In light of the recent inclinations and opinions coming even from the United Nations, it is almost clear that the world is likely to welcome an Obama presidency than any other person.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/25/AR2008102502011.html?referrer=emailarticlepg
By and large, America will be better off with Obama than McCain, since the later is almost synonymous to President George Bush's policies that have isolated the country from both allies and foes and painted the United States of America as a hypocritical state that say one thing and go ahead to do exactly the opposite as manifested in its policy and articulation in Iraq and the handling of domestic issues such as the Katrina hurricane, healthcare for middle class family and the treatment of prisoners that undermine the essentiality of fundamental human right.
God bless Obama & Biden
Its time to A C T !!!!! This election season has remained too close for comfort and to close to call! We have 100,000 ' s of unregistered voters and millions who remain on the fence! Its time for us to come together, voice our unity, and make a difference! Tuesday September 30, 20008 everyone is asked to do two things 1) WEAR BLUE 2) REGISTER TWO VOTERS! (If you can't register two voters talk to two people who may be on the fence/ or a McCain supporter and sway them to become an Obama Supporter). LETS MAKE OBAMA BLUE DAY A DAY OF ACTION!!!! BARACK THE VOTE!!!!!! PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING!!!
Its time to A C T !!!!!
This election season has remained too close for comfort and to close to call! We have 100,000 ' s of unregistered voters and millions who remain on the fence! Its time for us to come together, voice our unity, and make a difference!
Tuesday September 30, 20008
everyone is asked
to do two things
1) WEAR BLUE
2) REGISTER TWO VOTERS!
(If you can't register two voters talk to two people who may be on the fence/ or a McCain supporter and sway them to become an Obama Supporter).
LETS MAKE OBAMA BLUE DAY A DAY OF ACTION!!!!
BARACK THE VOTE!!!!!!
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING!!!
Here is a wonderfully inspiring video. This video should open even blind eyes. Watch and Share!
http://www.vimeo.com/1742831#success
This is yet another very desperate, malicous and distorted and deceptive ad from the McCain campaign in attempt to get media attention.
So sad indeed to see this could have been elderstateman humiliate himself by perpetuating the campaign of denigration and calumny as opposed to Obama's objective and humane style.
Below is the link to the ad and the Fact Check!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/09/obamas_fannie_mae_connection.html
I feel so sorry for McCain who in good time and bad time continue to orchestrate the campaign of negativism, fear and intimidation of the people of the country.
It was not for no reason that the world greeted the nomination of Sen. Obama as the presidential flag bearer of the Democratic Party in the United States of America and welcomes his overseas trip with conspicuous excitement and fanfare. Surprisingly the level of excitement, anticipation, hopes and dreams that have emanated from every corner of the world since his nomination is better imagined than described as evident by the many turn outs and especially the rally in Berlin Germany.
Obama pragmatically epitomizes the new face of America, that which will forge ahead in a humane, aggressively and thoroughly diplomatic and articulate manners that will help restore the image of the country while at the same time repairing the unfortunate and inimical relations that the country has with many other nations which is by far the worst ever since the inception of the modern USA.
The high level of acceptability and appeal that the inspirational and God gifted Obama has garnered world wide let alone at home is a classical examples of the anticipated potentials that he will usher into the political landscape and therefore win over nations to join the USA in the fight against terrorism, poverty and man inhumanity to man.
This is the interview that NPR's Fresh Air show had with Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat. http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=9-8-2008. Inthe interview, Friedman provides great analysis of the energy situation in the U.S. and the world and how McCain's energy plan is a certain disaster on so many levels.
Please listen to it and circulate widely.
This was sent to me by a fellow woman Democrat today. The story it tells is one we should not forget or fail to honor.
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
(Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the Night of Terror on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.
History is being made.
Have Joy Prayer Warriors! GOD is still on the Throne!! We pray hard. We seek the Lord diligently. We persevere in prayer. Join us as and log on to our Obama Convention Bump event.
We're giving $28 on August 28th, the night of Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, to give him an uproariously overwhelming show of support on line - as well as in the stadium.
Have Joy Prayerful People. GOD is still on the Throne!! We pray hard. We seek the Lord diligently. We persevere in prayer. Join us and log on to our Obama Convention Bump event. We're giving $28 on August 28th, the night of Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention to give an uproariously overwhelming show of support on line - as well as in the stadium.
This description of Southern attitudes, to the degree it is true, expresses the kind of feeling which supports Republican candidates in the South. I think ordinary Republicans, elsewhere and anywhere in the country, ought to decide they have had enough of that Southern influence in their party and vote differently this year. It is way past time for this to end. If you are a Republican in the South and have made efforts to change your party, thank you. The rest of the country needs good folks in the South to stand up and change the politics that has been so dominant there and hurtful to us all, black and white. (This is also available at www.pubtheo.com)
This writing is in response to Dr. James Dobson's broadcast addressing his reaction to being named in a speech given two years ago on Faith and Politics. I'd like to preface this by stating that though there is much about which I disagree with Dr. Dobson, I am convinced that he is a well-intentioned brother in Christ who seeks what is good for our society. I believe like many within the faith community, our differences are based upon how one gets from where we are now, to where we want to end up as a society. I see Dr. Dobson as one of the more Pharisaical religious leaders in our country. I think he can speak volumes to those of us who are already committed Christians. But I feel that he has an edge to him that comes across in a way that says, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner in such a way as to make him or her feel about an inch and a half tall." Although his teaching probably does strengthen Christian families, I have a hard time seeing how his rhetoric wins unbelievers to Christ. That having been said, I will respond to his broadcast in a point-for-point fashion. This broadcast asserts that The United States is a Christian nation. This is incorrect. Though the founding fathers shared values that we recognize as Christian, many were, in point of fact, Deist or Unitarian Universalist. This is a common, interesting, and reoccurring debate. My pastor, Dale Oquist, put together what I felt was a very interesting sermon on this very issue. It can be streamed on line (and the accompanying slides viewed) via our sermon gallery at http://www.ecconline.cc/ecconline/bridgesermons.php The sermon you are looking for is "Mythbusters part 2." Dr. Dobson points to a segment of Sen. Obama's speech in which he stated that, even if, by some imaginary circumstance, like exporting everyone who is not Christian from the US, "whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would it be James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" Dr. Dobson seemed to interpret this to mean that Sen. Obama was implying that he (Dobson) wants to expel people who are not Christians form the United States. This is a reaction based on misinterpretation. Sen. Obama was merely invoking a hypothetical circumstance in order to point out that there are vast differences in the points of view of leaders within the Christian community. James Dobson and Al Sharpton were invoked to illustrate that difference, NOT, as Dr. Dobson seems to feel, in order to cast them in the same light, or to somehow say that James Dobson is the right-wing mirror image of what Al Sharpton is on the left. Dr. Dobson also expressed objection to Obama's highlighting of the different direction that various passages in the Bible would lead us on - citing Levitical Law in contrast to the Sermon on the mount. Dr. Dobson states that Obama is "willfully or accidentally dragging biblical understanding through the gutter." On this point, I think he has some valid concern. I have some amount of discomfort with the dismissive tone that Obama has sometimes used in reference to parts of scripture. In a section in Audacity of Hope which I will be citing in a later point, he refers to "an obscure line in Romans," which given the context I can only imagine he means the section in Ch 1: 21-28, particularly v 27: "and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." How I wish that he had phrased his point differently, in a tone that clearly revered all of scripture. I believe the spirit of what Sen. Obama was trying to express is this: We must revere all of scripture. We must not focus our efforts at identifying sin in the culture around us at the expense of caring for the poor and the widows and bringing light and love to the lost. Tom Minnery goes on to state that "Religion is the grounding, the foundation of morality." This is in response to the section in the sppech in which Obama boldly asserts that there are very good, moral people, who do not affiliate themselves with organized religion. Certainly we can all think of a few. Obama frequently cites his mother as one such example. C.S.Lewis devotes some thought to this in "Mere Christianity" in which he argues that the very fact that we have this notion of good and evil within us and a basic desire to be good is evidence that we are divinely created beings. The bible is clear on this point: God created us all, and loves us all - not just those who have made the choice to love Him back. That we are all created in His image is sufficient explanation for me of the intrinsic sense of morality, even among those who do not profess to be Christian. I could agree with Tom if he said that "God is the grounding, the foundation of morality," but religion cannot presume the role of God here. Now to the heart of the matter: Dobson asserts that Barack Obama is "trying to make the case that it is anti-democratic to believe or fight for moral principles in the Bible that are not supported by peoples of all faiths, or presumably by people of no faith... What the Senator is saying there in essence is that I can't seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue, and if I can't get everyone to agree with me, it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the scripture." This is absolutely the opposite of the case that Sen. Obama makes! He argues time and again that there must be consensus in civic society, and that faith based rationale cannot trump secular reasoning, or the views of another faith. Consensus does not imply unanimity, but in cases where it affects something the Supreme Court views as an area the Constitution protects, it better at least involve a 2/3 majority of public opinion. In Audacity of Hope (pg 222) Sen. Obama writes, "Between those who believe that life begins at conception and those who consider the fetus an extension of the woman's body until birth, a point is rapidly reached at which compromise is not possible. At that point, the best we can do is ensure that persuasion rather than violence or intimidation [and to that I would add political trickery and deception] determines the political outcome - and that we refocus at least some of our energies on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies through education (including about abstinence), contraception, adoption, or any other strategies that have broad support and have been proven to work." Now here's the biggie! THE BIG LIE being fed to people of faith by the right: Dobson again: "Remember, Tom, that Senator Obama is a man that when he was in the State Legislature, did not oppose the killing of babies who were aborted, but then somehow came into the world alive." I have done a bit of research into this issue and this is what I have learned: In 2000 a federal law was passed called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. It's author was a pro-life activist and 44 co-sponsors jumped on board, eager for the positive association. In 2002 a piece of similar legislation was sponsored by a Labor and Delivery Nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL (ironically run by a joint Lutheran and Evangelical enterprise). Her claim was that mid trimester unwanted pregnancies were being terminated by early induction of labor followed by provision of "comfort care" only, and according to her testimony, even their comfort was neglected. Rather that blow the whistle on her employer's violation of existing federal law, or the existing state law that had been on the books for 20 years, she advocated for a bill that duplicated this protection, and based on the wording in it, defined "alive" as "any stage of development," leaving open the very real (and undoubtedly deliberate) possibility that even early first trimester abortions would fall under the reach of this new statute. This issue needs to be addressed clearly, loudly and sincerely by the Obama campaign, lest the lie gain even more traction in deceiving us! Finally, Dobson laments, "To my knowledge, none of the political candidates, speaking also of Hillary Clinton, has said a work about the importance of preserving the family, not a word. It has no significance at all." This last statement is flatly ignorant. Sen. Obama dedicates significant tame addressing the fallout of the decline in two parent homes, particularly within the African American community. See Audacity of Hope pages 332-335 for further discussion of this topic. Sen. Obama advocates for strengthening families with common sense approaches. "Research shows that marriage education workshops can make a real difference in helping married couples stay together and in encouraging unmarried couples who are living together to form a more lasting bond. Expanding access to such services to low-income couples, perhaps in concert with job training and placement, medical coverage, and other services already available, should be something everybody can agree on. " Amen. Thanks for your time in reading this. Feel free to pass it on as a point of discussion to others within your faith community.
What we have been witnessing in a few of the last primaries is really disheartening. In my mind, the Dem Party has always been coupled with eleminating the race divisions and promoting the racial equity in America. I could never think of having both the "race card" and the "Democratic Party" in one sentence.
Unfortunately, we have seen in a few primaries that people would bluntly state that race is a factor that influences their votes, and 9 out of 10 of those vote for Sen. Clinton! The Clintons actually succeeded in putting the two words, "race card" and "the Dem. Party" in one sentence together. This is really disheartening!!
I believe that Sen. Clinton is the one to blame for invoking this card in an ugly way. Unfortunately, the Clintons are wiping out their good record in bringing racial equity to the United States.
It is really time for Sen. Clinton to graciouly drop out of the race, but I am afraid she does not see that yet.
I believe that Sen. Obama missed an opportunity in West Virginia to show that he is a real fighter and he cares for every vote and every person. I know that WV was probably going to Sen. Clinton anyway, but it is the message that he cares and fights for every vote. The Biblical image of the shepherd looking for the lost sheep comes to my mind in relation to this point.
I guess that this is the biggest lesson to take to the rest of the primaries. He needs to fight for Kentucky, and Puerto Rico if people assume that he does not have much of a chance there.
I have no doubt that Obama will be the nominee, but I believe that such efforts will pay back in the Fall.
Nevertheless, these primaries are dragging a bit too much, and it is time to move on beyond them.
Go Obama, Go!
Nader
