Farewell, Vanessa!

I've had a lot of fun this past year reading what Vanessa's done to "green" her life. I've had a lot of fun doing some of that stuff myself.

The difference between Vanessa and myself on this whole "green" thing is that I didn't commit to a particular timeframe or a 1 thing each day during a timeframe, so I can't say when I'm done trying on the different "green" hats to see if they fit.

I doubt that she's done with it, either. I think there'll always be a little devil on her shoulder suggesting that she throw away her concerns about how the new LED nightlights came in enough packaging to kill two polar bears and an angel on her other shoulder suggesting that the wine she wants tonight was stomped by slave monkeys or something. Heh.

Good luck, Vanessa, and thanks a bunch for the fun!

64 minutes with Obama and Google.

Getting close to primary elections here in Texas. I'm pretty sure we're gonna early vote today, but if we don't make it we still have tomorrow. Sunday, we're having a call party through Move-On.Org to (in particular) remind folks of how Texas has BOTH primary elections AND caucuses, so people who vote in the primaries need to return to their polling places on the evening of March 4th to vote AGAIN. Heh. We're ONE place where voting TWICE is not only LEGAL, but a sure way to get your candidate elected.

It's WONDERFUL that the 2008 election has included Texas. As you can see, we're REALLY turning out for this phenomenon.

Post for #3. It's ALL for you today, son!

Valentine's day was a yo-yo!



NPR: Interviews Michael Specter: Count Carbon Along With Calories.

If that audio tickled your fancy, move on to Michael's article here.

How to Behave on an Internet Forum




Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Feel free to add more when you have time.

Stand for Change Rally

Today, Em and I went to Reunion Arena for the Stand for Change Rally.

We took the TRE to Union Station and walked half a block or so to the Arena.



Once at the Arena, we were directed to the end of the line. I think someone said there were 17 lines (one for every entrance), but our line snaked up into the parking lot. We walked 25 minutes before we got to the end of it. We'd been told that the doors opened at 10:30, so we took the train that got us there at 10:31. Obama was to speak at 12 noon. Heh. We were still in line in the parking garage at 12 noon, so didn't know if we'd miss the rally or not.

We met lots of nice people in line, so we weren't bored at all. The crowd had LOTS of young people, but there were other boomers and even people older than us. We talked to these two girls and ran into them again when we got to the TRE to go back home.



It might have been 12:30 when the line REALLY began moving. In fact, we were encouraged to not run, but walk VERY fast the last 500 feet or so before the entrance to the Arena, as Obama would be speaking soon. Em's knees were about to give out at that point, and the volunteers were just about cheering us on, thanking us for coming to the rally.

Once inside, we found our way to some seats in the nosebleed section after stopping to catch our breath sitting on some steps which we (of course) couldn't block. We listened to the last bit of a speech by a previous Dallas mayor, some inspiration from Emmitt Smith (who I think plays football down here), and then about 1pm someone introduced Obama.

We hadn't been through security, because we were absolutely no threat at this distance from the stage.

By 1:30pm, it was all over. We left and followed the crowds back to Union Station where we talked to the girls again. TRE (as well as DART ) scheduled extra trains; we were very appreciative, as we'd just missed one.

It was a LOT of work to go through to attend a live rally for Obama, we discussed on the way home from the TRE station afterward. We could have seen HIM better from a chair in front of the TV at home, but (much like viewing live sporting events) we wouldn't have experienced the passion of the crowd. Doubt there'll be too many more years of political activism for us, though. Time for all those youngsters to pick up the torch.

UPDATE 2/23/08: Here's a video made by some folks we know about their experience (pretty much identical to ours) at the Stand for Change Rally:



Since this is "pay attention to Texas" week,



Chelsea Clinton (the blonde walking up the steps) held a question/answer session on the campus of UTA today. No. 1 took the photos and said that she really isn't a very good speaker. She also said that the crowd was mixed, with one "fan" sporting a sign that said, "Stop Hillary; Save America".



We didn't see anyone in opposition to Obama at Reunion Arena, but it's not like any of us felt that Reunion Arena was our home turf, either.

No. 1 stopped by tonight to get her voter's card and looked so cute I took a picture.



When she read this entry (which I'd just finished) she said, "You should know that Emmitt Smith is a football player! When we went to Norway, people learned that we were from Dallas and thought Em was the Dallas football player!" Heh. I've slept a few times since then.

Like Hope, But Different: The Republican version of the "Yes.We.Can" Video... "John.He.Is".

PC failures and priorities.

My PC failed this week. It failed badly enough that I had to call support. Roommate of No. 1 came over and spent an hour or two three days in a row doing what it seems I've forgotten (or never knew) how to do. He bought a new hard drive for me, but hasn't installed it yet. I need to document the software I use so he knows what to reinstall once he switches me over AND what he did yesterday to reinstall my video card driver fixed everything (for now)... and those are two key words.

Things I learned this week include:

1. No. 1's roommate could be making pretty big bucks doin' what he knows how to do in addition to or in lieu of his day job.

2. My PC is a big, big part of my life and I need to change that to provide more balance.

3. Hate to print stuff (just can't see wasting the paper or the ink), but I'm a list-oriented person, so all my lists are on the PC (with no backup). I need to suck it up, print some lists and start taking routine backups of my system of lists. D'OH!

4. Our area is unsupported by the Geek Squad. The phone book telephone numbers are ALL out of service. This brings me back to the FIRST thing I learned this week.

Got to go to update and start printing lists, burn backup CDs, etc.

Color us healthier.

Em's feeling better this week, his cough is down to infrequent inconveniences, and he's STILL not smoking. He put that not smoking thing to a pretty good test Wednesday, as we drove to Winstar for the day. If you've ever smoked, you're aware of "triggers" associated with the habit. One of Em's triggers was driving. He drove there and back with no problem with that trigger. He ALSO sat in a smoke-filled casino next to people smoking and didn't bum a cig. I don't think either of us is calling him a non-smoker YET, but he's doing awfully good, IMO, and I think this could be the end of it for him, just like my being sick for almost two weeks was the end of it for me three years ago.

Time to tear through some cleaning chores this weekend. Not what I might have wanted to do while North Texas is experiencing wonderful weather for this season, but something I want to get done before we host a Super Tuesday party next week for Move On Org. This office of mine has been pitiful for way too long and it's pretty much because I had intended on doing data entry for thousands of recipes I'd collected during the years when I didn't know how to cook. I HATE data entry, so those recipes sat around waiting and waiting and waiting for me to enter them into a database I'd created for them until I learned how to cook without recipes (which is pretty cool in itself). So, today I started office cleanup and the recipes went into an accordion folder willy-nilly, as their only purpose in life right now is printer paper (on the other side of the recipe).

Should be able to finish up most of my chores tomorrow while Em does Super Bowl Sunday somewhere else. I think all those years in IT created a deadline-oriented woman.

O'Bama Mania; I can't help but be smitten; I was smitten with JFK, as well.

Caroline Kennedy endorsed him yesterday.

If you're not sure what he stands for, listen to this interview. The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed him today.

This is the man. Now is the time. We can do it. YES WE CAN!

Edited to include another video 1/29:

What's New.

Em's still sick, although not as bad as he was. He's eating a little more now, his cough is more productive, and he's able to walk around some. Still off the cigarettes, although he asked me yesterday what happened to them, beseeching me to NOT give them away because he might want one. He still hasn't been outside and I think he's given up on the coffee. No. 1 stopped by yesterday with two more bags of CUTIES; Em's going through them like crazy. They're tangerines that sell in the stores this time of year, if you're unfamiliar. From MY perspective, he needs to eat a whole lot more and forget about smoking at all. He was already skinnier than 170 lbs BEFORE he got sick, and he's down to 160 now. Not big enough, IMO, for a 6' tall man. But, that's from MY perspective, and he's his own man.

No. 1 and I went shopping this past weekend together several times, as well. Mostly grocery sale items to replace soups, cough/flu medicines for us, but there were sales on makeup, so No. 1 took advantage of those, as well. I needed potting soil to do some household transplants and start the seeds for this year, so we went to Home Depot where we got a big bag of soil and THIS:



It's 100% plastic, 100% made in China, but works really well. Instructions state that it holds enough water for 11 hours, but I filled it 2 days ago and it's still shooting out spurts of steam (as you can see). No. 2 has one just like it. I'd asked her where she got it, but she didn't say Home Depot, and when I saw it there I just grabbed it and put it in the cart with the soil. I think we needed a fun addition to our home, so don't feel at all guilty. I love to just sit and watch it spoof and we didn't have a humidifier or vaporizer, so I think it's playing an important role in curing Em of his chest congestion.

Also in the "we didn't have" department, I bought us both slippers at Thrift Town last week Monday and within one week they've become a part of our lives. I don't think we noticed cold feet before this year, but now we wonder how we ever felt comfortable without slippers. Thrift Town had a 30% off sale on Monday of THIS week that I would have loved to attend, but life is what happens when you have other plans.

No. 1 will be doing 25 hours of community service at Texas Masonic Retirement Center to fulfill the requirements of one of her Social Work classes. She stopped by (with the cuties) yesterday after checking out the place. "This is where RICH people go to die; the place is a MANSION!" The social worker who will be showing her the ropes of elderly institutions (her desired specialty) told her that other places will NOT be this nice. Besides that class, I think she's taking Anthropology and 2 literature classes. No. 2 is taking Nutrition, Ethics, Music Literature, and College level Algebra, while #3 is taking Advanced Operating Systems, Computer Forensics, and Advanced windows administration. He's on quarters, while the others are on semesters. Lots of school and work going on with the younguns this year.

I'm thinking a lot lately about this year's garden in addition to getting some painting done inside. We're totally not handy and have no desire to paint walls and ceilings ourselves, so I'm going to call a guy who did some work for us a few years back. He's handy AND local. Not sure he's still doing handywork, but it's worth a check. He had a truck (last time we used him), so he could haul some gardening stuff for us, too.

Think I got a small piece of glass in my left foot. There's a little hard BB-type "ball" shape underneath the skin right on the outside edge parallel to the metatarsal arch. I remember a walk we took a few weeks back wherein I had to remove my sandal to shake some (most likely) glass that was hurting my foot, so I think a little piece of that glass got stuck and I'm just noticing now. I've already started "surgery" to remove whatever it is.

In the Who Knew? department, there's THIS:



D'OH!

I have a Dream ... Let Freedom Ring!

45 years ago.



Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: The Great Need of the Hour Atlanta, GA | January 20, 2008

The Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. The walls of the city were too steep for any one person to climb; too strong to be taken down with brute force. And so they sat for days, unable to pass on through.

But God had a plan for his people. He told them to stand together and march together around the city, and on the seventh day he told them that when they heard the sound of the ram's horn, they should speak with one voice. And at the chosen hour, when the horn sounded and a chorus of voices cried out together, the mighty walls of Jericho came tumbling down.

There are many lessons to take from this passage, just as there are many lessons to take from this day, just as there are many memories that fill the space of this church. As I was thinking about which ones we need to remember at this hour, my mind went back to the very beginning of the modern Civil Rights Era.

Because before Memphis and the mountaintop; before the bridge in Selma and the march on Washington; before Birmingham and the beatings; the fire hoses and the loss of those four little girls; before there was King the icon and his magnificent dream, there was King the young preacher and a people who found themselves suffering under the yoke of oppression.

And on the eve of the bus boycotts in Montgomery, at a time when many were still doubtful about the possibilities of change, a time when those in the black community mistrusted themselves, and at times mistrusted each other, King inspired with words not of anger, but of an urgency that still speaks to us today:

"Unity is the great need of the hour" is what King said. Unity is how we shall overcome.

What Dr. King understood is that if just one person chose to walk instead of ride the bus, those walls of oppression would not be moved. But maybe if a few more walked, the foundation might start to shake. If a few more women were willing to do what Rosa Parks had done, maybe the cracks would start to show. If teenagers took freedom rides from North to South, maybe a few bricks would come loose. Maybe if white folks marched because they had come to understand that their freedom too was at stake in the impending battle, the wall would begin to sway. And if enough Americans were awakened to the injustice; if they joined together, North and South, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, then perhaps that wall would come tumbling down, and justice would flow like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Unity is the great need of the hour - the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it's the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I'm not talking about a budget deficit. I'm not talking about a trade deficit. I'm not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we're still sending our children down corridors of shame - schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can't afford a doctor when their children get sick.

We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.

We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged.

And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.

So we have a deficit to close. We have walls - barriers to justice and equality - that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.

Unfortunately, all too often when we talk about unity in this country, we've come to believe that it can be purchased on the cheap. We've come to believe that racial reconciliation can come easily - that it's just a matter of a few ignorant people trapped in the prejudices of the past, and that if the demagogues and those who exploit our racial divisions will simply go away, then all our problems would be solved.

All too often, we seek to ignore the profound institutional barriers that stand in the way of ensuring opportunity for all children, or decent jobs for all people, or health care for those who are sick. We long for unity, but are unwilling to pay the price.

But of course, true unity cannot be so easily won. It starts with a change in attitudes - a broadening of our minds, and a broadening of our hearts.

It's not easy to stand in somebody else's shoes. It's not easy to see past our differences. We've all encountered this in our own lives. But what makes it even more difficult is that we have a politics in this country that seeks to drive us apart - that puts up walls between us.

We are told that those who differ from us on a few things are different from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The believer condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the believer as intolerant.

For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays - on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

Every day, our politics fuels and exploits this kind of division across all races and regions; across gender and party. It is played out on television. It is sensationalized by the media. And last week, it even crept into the campaign for President, with charges and counter-charges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation.

So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds. The division, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame our plight on others - all of this distracts us from the common challenges we face - war and poverty; injustice and inequality. We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.

Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts.

But if changing our hearts and minds is the first critical step, we cannot stop there. It is not enough to bemoan the plight of poor children in this country and remain unwilling to push our elected officials to provide the resources to fix our schools. It is not enough to decry the disparities of health care and yet allow the insurance companies and the drug companies to block much-needed reforms. It is not enough for us to abhor the costs of a misguided war, and yet allow ourselves to be driven by a politics of fear that sees the threat of attack as way to scare up votes instead of a call to come together around a common effort.

The Scripture tells us that we are judged not just by word, but by deed. And if we are to truly bring about the unity that is so crucial in this time, we must find it within ourselves to act on what we know; to understand that living up to this country's ideals and its possibilities will require great effort and resources; sacrifice and stamina.

And that is what is at stake in the great political debate we are having today. The changes that are needed are not just a matter of tinkering at the edges, and they will not come if politicians simply tell us what we want to hear. All of us will be called upon to make some sacrifice. None of us will be exempt from responsibility. We will have to fight to fix our schools, but we will also have to challenge ourselves to be better parents. We will have to confront the biases in our criminal justice system, but we will also have to acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities and marshal the will to break its grip.

That is how we will bring about the change we seek. That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words - words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white; not just the Christian but the Jew; not just the Southerner but also the Northerner.

He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap; that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination.

That is the unity - the hard-earned unity - that we need right now. It is that effort, and that determination, that can transform blind optimism into hope - the hope to imagine, and work for, and fight for what seemed impossible before.

The stories that give me such hope don't happen in the spotlight. They don't happen on the presidential stage. They happen in the quiet corners of our lives. They happen in the moments we least expect. Let me give you an example of one of those stories.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organizes for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She's been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and the other day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

So Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake.

And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta.

And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia.

And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope - but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone.

So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. May God bless the memory of the great pastor of this church, and may God bless the United States of America.

Obama 08