In the course of a political argument with a neurofeedback therapist as to the virtues of Hugo Chavez, I was told that "the Jews should leave Venezuela". Are the Jews not true Venezuelans after centuries of residence? Guess not. Are we true British, Americans, or anything other than Jews? Probably not. So we belong to Israel, our ancient homeland. But I read in another psychotherapist's blog that Jews are distinguished as being the only people without a homeland, and that our identity is a collective atonement for the death of a great Egyptian in another land where we were guests. Of course, this presupposes we have an identity to start with. A little circular, I think.Of course, when we attach ourselves to Israel, we are told that it is not ours, because we are supplanting a group of people whose ancestors settled there after we, as a group, were kicked out.All this leads me to question who, or what I am. What I come up with, is that I am the nation-less soul (which I use figuratively, because I am an atheist) who belongs nowhere except in a land that I have no right to inhabit. The convenient Nowhere Man, whose butt is a convenient target for anyone afraid to kick his own. I am thus led to the following little bit of dogmatism:I am a Jew.The nation of Israel lives.To make any sense of this at all, I am a committed Zionist.Those who object, may take a flying f**k. Of course, if you choose to eliminate us (as you have repeatedly), you will have only yourselves to kick in the Butt. OUCH! If we choose to eliminate you, we will also have to kick our own selves in the Butt. DOUBLE OUCH!So, we might as well leave each other alone, and admit that ultimately, we are all one, under the greater umbrella of man. And try to conquer something else. Like Mars. We could all use the room, and reviving the spirit of mutual growth and exploration could benefit us all. After all, Medieval is just sooo last year, and hard as hell to spell.
Health Care reform will not benefit people like me who already have insurance". Just because you are covered today does not guarantee that you will have coverage in the future. You want make certain you health insurance is available when you need it. "Nearly 266,000 companies have already cut health care coverage. Will your company be next? You need to support health care reform even with insurance coverage to benefit for future use. As long as it is low cost and affordable to you. Stand-up or set down for what is right: health care reform for all.
We asked for change and now President Obama is giving you the opportunity. He is asking you to support his agenda for health care reform. President Obama has established three core principles:
To reduce health care cost for families, businesses and government
To allow Americans choice: coverage and doctors
Quality, affordable health care for all (that includes you:)
Organizing For America (OFA) - Charlotte, part of a grassroots organization that was form to support President Obama's agenda for change. OFA supporters in Charlotte are coming together rallying to show the nation and elected representative that we are ready for health care reform 2009. Will you join us? If so, go to www.my.barakobama.com/findevents and sign up for "Rally for Health Care Reform Now! Charlotte.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lucia-brawley/president-obamas-arts_b_136616.html
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ARTS
by Lucia Brawley
At 10 years old, Mordecai Santiago was already the toughest kid at the 52nd Street Project, the renowned Hell's Kitchen not-for-profit where I volunteered as an academic tutor and arts educator. Though diminutive in stature and "held back" in school, Mordecai wielded an authority beyond his years with children and adults alike. Officials at his over-crowded elementary school had diagnosed Mordecai with A.D.D. and wanted to put him on Ritalin. He shared a small, low-income-housing apartment with four other siblings and two parents. They had no computer.
But Mordecai was a natural on the piano. He loved to play Beethoven's Fur Elise by ear on the only piano in the after-school clubhouse. Since he'd never had a proper lesson, his fingering was incorrect, but he hit every note flawlessly. The only way I could get him to finish his homework, was by promising him "piano time" at the end of every tutoring session. He often would rather play his own haunting compositions than go home.
His unadulterated love of music inspired me to ask fellow Harvard alums to donate piano lessons to kids at the program. Offers flowed in by email in overwhelming numbers. However, the administrators of the program, already under-staffed, under-resourced and over-worked, regretfully explained that they could not accept.
In Mordecai, a tough, brilliant, little kid in baggy jeans and a puffy North Face jacket, I saw up-close the precarious fate of millions of American children who might evolve into great artists or great criminals, at the flip of a coin. Without proper funding for programs like the 52nd Street Project, the latter possibility becomes an inevitability for too many kids.
In order to stay true to the campaign's message of hope, progress and action, I would like to see an Obama administration accomplish a broad array of arts policy goals. Arts education must find its way back to American public schools, not only as a proven measure to bring up students' math and science scores, but to allow students a means of self-expression that will save their futures - as well as saving the system the cost of trying and incarcerating many of them. Even if they never go into the arts, a youth's acquired creative problem solving abilities will serve her in any field.
Imagine art and performance exchanges between students from different areas and strata of American society, in order to create dialogue that bridges psychological gaps between demographic groups and regions.
More than an educational tool, the arts offer unique diplomatic opportunities. In the Kennedy tradition, there should be exchanges between students and adult artists from our country and other countries around the globe, perhaps in partnership with the U.N.
Controversially, during the Cold War, the CIA infiltrated Eastern European theater groups, in order to inspire revolt within oppressive regimes and prevent democratic regimes from turning Communist, as illustrated in The Cultural Cold War:The CIA and the World off Arts and Letters, by Frances Stonor Saunders. Whether one agrees with such secretive programs or not, do they not reflect the diplomatic potential of the arts, as an alternative to overt military policing?
Acting in Hungary, a country famed for its great composers, I saw young students well versed in classical music. How wonderful it would be to see original U.S. musical forms as part of every American child's curriculum: jazz, folk music, rock'n'roll, and hip-hop. What could be more patriotic than embracing our nation's cultural contributions to the world? And why not include world music and dance as an integral part of the American-immigrant and global stories?
With an eye toward valuing the contributions of artists, as all other developed nations do, I would like to see artist-tailored unemployment and healthcare insurance for those who can prove a history of work in their chosen field. And, to offer alternatives to a justice system that now reinforces the dehumanization inherent in an excessively stratified society, I would like to see more programs like Rhodessa Jones' "Medea Project," that helps rehabilitate inmates in the Bay Area correctional system, by allowing them to enact their own stories, thereby exorcising the causes of their anger and accepting responsibility for their actions.
Visual art projects helped children overcome the trauma of having witnessed 9/11. Imagine the benefits of music and art therapy for every soldier returning from Iraq who suffers from PTSD.
The arts humanize society, not merely in a spiritual and emotional sense. We have tangible historical evidence of how the arts have directly contributed to the fortification of a troubled America. F.D.R.'s New Deal - especially relevant now, as we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression - included the Federal Writers Project, Federal Theater Project, Federal Art Project and Federal Music Project, each of which employed artists in ways that served and uplifted society and the economy as a whole. In their 1995 essay, "New Deal Cultural Programs: Experiments in Cultural Democracy," Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard state that, rather than homogenize distinct regions with a big government agenda, these projects set forward in vivid relief the unique beauties of each region, inspired progress within the labor movement, and led to commercially viable enterprises.
Today, Barack Obama often speaks of a deficit, not merely economic, but of empathy. He reminds us that, "I am my brother's keeper." Obama's campaign has inspired an unprecedented amount of creativity through songs, artwork, dance and dramatic arts, and captured the imaginations of people worldwide. If a President Obama chooses to utilize his historic grassroots organization beyond the campaign, in order to successfully put forth initiatives that stand up to corporate special interests, he must remember that the arts will be the primary mouthpiece for galvanizing the people's partnership.
Monologue #2
Humor Writing/Writing Humor
Theresa Starkes
9/30/08
“Barracuda”
“I think Sarah Barracuda would be a great president … I mean, vice president. She’s just like me, and I can relate to her on several levels.
For one, I like the whole “Annie Oakley” thing. What woman, in their heart of hearts hasn’t secretly yearned to shoot wolves, which can’t possibly get away, from the safety and comfort of a low flying plane? Look out Wolf Blitzer … you’re in my sights!
What about her whole “sexy librarian” thing? Brilliant! Brunette is definitely the new blonde. I can’t wait to dye my hair back to brown, and I’m thinking of getting extensions. That “up-do” is so chic. Did you see that dyke Posh Spice chopped off all her hair to look like a boy? Loser.
Let’s talk about the glasses. Who knew that my middle age reading glasses could transform me into a cougar? Suddenly I feel sexy, like the “hottest governor from the coolest state.”
Sarah entered a beauty pageant to get a college scholarship. Score … then she went to the University of Hawaii, and several other colleges, to complete her degree. What about all of the men who “whore themselves out” to the military to get an education, doing tours in Iraq? Obviously this is yet another attempt to bash our girl … sexist pigs.
Many elitist media pundits are clubbing poor Sarah like a baby seal for not talking to them. Listen, I’m in college. I too, sequester myself from the evil vices of the world so that I can study. And Sarah has the added distraction of having a direct line to God. Can you imagine trying to learn how to run a country with added burden of God putting in his two cents, while breastfeeding your four month old child? This woman has huge responsibilities. Spinning god’s point of view into your political agenda without being detected is tricky.
She’s also subtly working the whole foreign policy thing in and no one is picking up on it! Attack, withdraw, surge, withdraw; she is poetry in motion. And since the bastards on You Tube found her preaching at her church we know that it’s God’s plan. Sarah is all about gestation; just get that you whiny rape and incest victims who kill your innocent children!
And finally, as a mother with an out of control daughter, I feel Sarah’s pain. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree. Yeah … I said it. Kick ass women raise rebellious children. Before Sarah came into my life, I wasn’t proud of this fact, but Sarah has made me the new “it” girl in my family. Drill, baby, drill!
So take that “Uppity OJ,” I mean, Obama, with your equal pay for equal work … blah blah blah. You community organizer; does he think we actually bought that garbage?
I’m going to go slap some gamey meat on a stick, put on my headphones, and listen to Minneapolis’ token black man “Prince” who said, and I quote:
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered today to get through this thing called LIFE. Electric word LIFE that means forever and that’s a mighty long time, but I’m here to tell you there’s something else …THE AFTERWORLD …”
“God bless you, Sarah Palin and thank you for gracing our sin infested big city with your small town presence.”
ok ... PBS is playing Casablanca ... which happens to be one of Obama's favorite movies ... can we spin this to suggest that Jim Leher, moderator of last night's debate, has declared Obama the winner?
Bogart just said: All of America is asleep ...
I'm Kidding!
TheresaObama Supporter & "Female Fundit"
Writing Humor “Words”
9/23/08
“Barack ... please don't Mock": An open letter to Barack Obama
“Hey listen, I’m out here campaigning my buttocks off, telling people that you’re a good guy, and risking my life in a toss up state. Then you go and run an ad poking fun of John McCain’s computer skills. What the f**k?
I know it’s hard to stay clean out there, with McPalin running ads that make you look like a pedophile, but sweetie, listen … “Saturday Night Live” is on it. When millions tuned in last week to see if that “sexist” Tina Fey would do another skit, they got Al Franken’s skit about McPalin’s lying ads instead. We’ve got your back.
The “fundits” (comedy pundits), like John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Joy Behar are representing. And people are listening to them. I mean, who in their right mind actually listens to, or believes the mainstream media these days … I mean, really.
The jokes are writing themselves. Palin at the U.N? Excuse me?
The thing is sweetie, I know that “your people” were trying to be funny with the ad about McCain, but it wasn’t that funny. It came off as beating up the old geezer. I had to convince a bunch of Senior Citizens in my building, that you weren’t making fun of old people. And believe me, right now, they are a tough crowd.
And listen, that ad he’s running where your scary big government “shadow” eats the cute, little, white, sleeping baby at the end, is so subliminally brilliant, it’s scary. Take a cue from their own playbook. Scare the f*ck out of those Republicans! That’s what they respond to, hit them where it hurts.
There was even a study done recently that: “conservative voters respond to fear and liberal voters do not”! So scare the f**k out of those Republicans all you want, just don’t try to be a comedian!
You do get “this” fundits approval for that one about John McCain on the campaign trail the other day. You know, where you said that: “McCain says he wants to fight the good old boys in Washington, but in the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting.” That was funny, but you probably wrote that yourself.
I know … create an advisory board of humor! Put “The Daily Show” staff writers on the payroll. Heck, I’m sure they’d do it for free. Tell them that you promise to provide lots of good entertainment if you get elected. They are worried about job security too. Push the Joe Biden factor. I’m sure it didn’t slip past you that Senator Biden asked a disabled guy in a wheelchair to: “stand up and take a round of applause”. I mean …excuse me? That’s great material.”
On 15th August I hosted an event for Mr. Obama The rain and the distance probably was responsible for the low turn out BUT WHAT an event it was !.I await the blog from the Huffington Post rep who was there. For my part I sure learned a great deal especially from a NC native who increasingly suggested that more attention needs to be paid to the Rocking Chair Rural Vote in this state.As a member of the group Artists for OBAMA we presented a Poetry readaing in three languages.: FRENCH ENGLISH and SPANISH. My emphasis continues to be Obama for president not only of America but of the World!
Buena Suerte Compai!Sheila Elaine
