let's head that bs off at the pass, too -
we're leaving ourselves wide open sometimes as latte-sipping, volvo driving, aged hippies, retro kennedy nostalgics...
OBAMA works must be OBAMA citizenworks... putting new programs in place that go past the election or even the next 4 years - a new way of being citizens in America requiring whatever we can commit to giving - 10 minutes a week or 1 hour a month, hopefully $10 a month EVERY month to something...
they'll mock barack and deride michelle [the question is did any of those who make her out to be terrible ever liked her and changed their minds... i doubt it] -
but if WE do OUR part, they cannot argue with citizen action and service projects and community outreach and a new commitment to ALL of the children our children go to school with ---
the best thing we parents can buy for our children is a better world and happier, more secure and grounded kids in their classrooms and hallways...
we only have 100 of these blessed days before barack wins big and then there will be BlowBack from the powers that be - they'll be furious because the gig is up - and we are going to quickly learn how really bad a shape the country is in, as bill clinton found out about the economy he inherited from "41"...
there'll NEVER be another time like this certainly in my lifetime but maybe ever again - a time of hope and when we can voluntarily and joyously step up and step it up -
i hope to God more and more of us set aside as much time as we can and devote the energy we can to this very very special 100 days when there COULD BE a groundswell of joy and renewal of our ideals and values...
as i see some people giving SO MUCH of themselves to this campaign - and others giving some but notsomuch...
and as i have been reaching out to people for 6 months now... i have seen that barack has his work cut out for him because too many of us Don't Get It yet. not really...
Suze Orman - the blonde financial wizard on tv, oprah's favorite money guru - wrote The Bible on money called 9 Steps To Financial Freedom - and she explains the value To The Giver of giving just 10% to others of both time/energy and money... the benefit of feeling wealthy enough to Do For those who have less, rather than grasping for ourselves, feeling we need all we have for ourselves...
John Edwards tried to get us to think about The Two Americas in 2004...
there are more and more stories in the press about how the rest of the world resents us, the US, for using up 25% of the resources when we are only 5% of the population - i remember DECADES ago reading that every Chinese person couldn't have a refrigerator, as we take for granted in the US, because it would put too much of a strain on the environment... and here we are.
are we in obama nation going to start voluntarily conserving, doing more with less materially... to stop excusing what is unabashed greed and grasping...
will we start thinking of how to reduce our individual standard of living and put the overage to helping those who have too little?
i'm in alexandria VA - a LOVELY wonderful place - talking to people about The Two Alexandrias...could a community as blessed and privileged as this is reach out to those who breathe the same air and walk the same ground and drive the same streets but who have Not Enough...
could we each decide what is a minimally acceptable standard of humane living... and then decide to reach out to make sure that everyone within an X radius of us is at that minimal standard -
could there be a groundswell of consciousness-raising and of voluntary sacrifice that starts change in our country NOW in the summer - those of us who have heard the call of barack and michelle to BE better and to DO better...
to start change NOW...
to prove to repubs and cynics and skeptics and those who would like to believe but just can't bring themselves to dare to hope one more fruitless time...
could we rise to the occasion individually and collectively to demand more of ourselves, to reach for something higher as a community of Americans...
could we set up trust/slush funds for teachers and guidance counselors to draw from to make sure that when they see a kid who needs something, they can just take care of it - or to offer an incentive for kids to bring up their school performance [make honor roll this term and you get an ipod]... not as charity... but because this is the kind of civilization we want to live in - and that we want for the kids who walk through the same school halls our kids do...
could each private school ask their parents to provide a slush fund for the poorest local school...to adopt a local poorer school...?
can we start thinking, all of us, about what our ideal society WOULD be like? and then take a step, try to figure how to manage even giving 5% of our resources, 2 hours a week to bettering our communities and country...
not as charity but as the cost of citizenship, in gratitude for Having More...
could we in obama nation make barack and michelle obama as proud of us as we have been of them so often in this campaign? could we surprise and delight them with taking this ball and running with it ourselves?
whatever it "costs" us will buy our ideals back... and if it is true that the secret to staying young is not losing one's ideals... then maybe THIS is the true Fountain of Youth...striving each day in some way to do something to make a little more heaven evident on earth?
5%... just 5%... is a good start?
Circumstances prevent me from being able to put my idea into action.
And I'm going to my idea out there with hope that someone will read it and know how to make it real.
(Actually, I already sent the idea to Oprah...I know, I know, lol).
The name is "Pick Up America" and here's the concept:
---Provide child care for workers (free or subsidized for those attending parenting classes) ---Provide adult learning classes (personal finance, job interview skills, etc) ---Provide uniforms
Steal this idea!!
