Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Monday, September 19, 2011

Authenticity and Facebook

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Mark Twain


I found an interesting article in the New York Times last Sunday about authenticity, especially on-line. (Anybody who's been around for awhile surely recalls the old cartoon about how "nobody knows you're a dog when you're on the Internet.") Everybody these days seems to be professing authenticity, a big topic of discussion in connection with the many GOP presidential candidates. One thing I'm pretty certain about: the truly authentic don't have to announce it to the world.

The article mentions Facebook--how it is usually our presentation of "ourselves on our best day." And that a typical person's post is an attempt, consciously or not, to sell him or herself. I think Facebook is a little more complicated than that; people who post are driven by one or more motivations including the need to publicly reveal:


- the best possible face

- a singular item expected to awe/amaze/amuse

- a whine, with the hope for sympathy

- an opinion, with the hope that many will agree with it

- a series of compulsively recorded details about every day life in a ploy for attention

- a polite, dutiful periodic comment in order not to appear to be too much of a lurking voyeur

- a short response to someone else's post to demonstrate solidarity and/or some level of participation in life


There are probably many other modes--do people even think about it anymore? Or is Facebook so ubiquitous at this point that asking these questions is like asking what "mode" somebody is in when they use a telephone or send an email?


I think the underlying motivation is to connect with other people in some way, but without any great investment of time, energy or commitment. However, this basic need to connect is authentic, no? Even though the "face" people present on Facebook may not be truly accurate or authentic, it does give people a way to maintain at least a very low grade connection with others. And so Facebook has redeeming value because it allows people to stay connected albeit in a very superficial way for the most part.


So, back to authenticity--how to define it? Is it telling the truth no matter what, even if it does more harm than good? I think it's telling yourself the truth, and acting in close concert with your most deeply held values, no matter what the cost. Given this, mentioning authenticity and presidential candidates in the same breath seems highly contradictory.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Summersense



The grassy green fragrance of Queen Anne's lace,
The brassy sassy yellow-black sunflowers,
The snowmelt rushing downward
Under soft warm air.
Lightly salted sweat at mouth corners,
Deep breaths.

The last waltz of summer.

***********************

Bill Keller wrote a great column in the Sunday NYT about those plodders on Capitol Hill who are all so very sure of their viewpoints. He says what they all need is a good dose of poetry and he quotes the poetry columnist David Orr who commends poetry for encouraging "hesitation, doubt and ambiguity."

The column also includes these wonderful but sorrowful William Carlos Williams lines:

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.


I've always believed more progress is made by people who have a modicum of humility about whether they've got all the answers. And yet our election process seems to insist on absolute surety on every subject.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Salad Days

An 11/25 NYT article by Judith Warner, "Junking Junk Food," describes Sara Palin's latest maneuver, bringing cookies to the kids at a middle school in Pennsylvania to fight the "school cookie ban" there.  Apparently Palin tweeted that she wants to "intro kids 2 beauty of laissez-faire."

This woman is really starting to bug me. When 17% of children and teens are obese, doing what we can to encourage better eating habits is not an example of the "nanny state" anymore than educational programs on the dangers of smoking.

I had a fine moment as a mother a couple of days ago when my 24-year-old son told me that he was glad we had so many salads when he was a kid, that he loves having them when he comes over for dinner, and that often his "mouth waters" craving a salad. It can be done and it's not nanny state, it's good parenting.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Freedom

Yesterday, Lui Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  “Who the heck is that?” you may ask.  He is a courageous Chinese dissident and one of the authors of Charter 08, a manifesto published in the People’s Republic of China in December 2008.  Charter 08 demands freedom and democracy for the Chinese people.  Lui Xiaobo will not easily enjoy the prize money since he is serving year two of an eleven-year prison sentence in China as a result of Charter 08’s publication.

I found the English translation of Charter 08 on a website called Human Rights in China (HRIC).  The document outlines 19 demands for democratic change—concepts we take all too much for granted in the U.S. including an independent judiciary, a guarantee of human rights,  freedom of association, assembly, expression and religion, and election of public officials.  The Chinese government is quite unhappy with the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding this prize and has warned Norway formally that this act will “pull the wrong strings” in the relationship between the two countries.

Since I work closely with people who live in China I take great interest in the changes that country is now undergoing.  The people I work with are like anybody else—they want to earn a decent living and provide the best they can for themselves and their families.  We do not talk about dissidence since they could risk imprisonment.  But I believe in them and like them, and I think I see signs of an awakening to the desire for these long-denied freedoms.  The Chinese people have been through many trials but they will overcome; it is time.  Charter 08 says it very well:

“After experiencing a prolonged period of human rights disasters and a tortuous struggle and resistance, the awakening Chinese citizens are increasingly and more clearly recognizing that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal common values shared by all humankind, and that democracy, a republic, and constitutionalism constitute the basic structural framework of modern governance. A “modernization” bereft of these universal values and this basic political framework is a disastrous process that deprives humans of their rights, corrodes human nature, and destroys human dignity. Where will China head in the 21st century? Continue a “modernization” under this kind of authoritarian rule? Or recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system? This is a major decision that cannot be avoided.”

In other words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...”

We live in interesting times.  Right on, China.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Clowns


If we couldn't laugh, we'd all go insane."  - Jimmy Buffett

I still read a newspaper each morning (one that is printed on actual paper). This morning the Boulder Daily Camera had an article about how many states are in such dire straits financially that they’re looking at creative new ways to collect revenue, like collecting taxes on services rather than just merchandise. They’re considering taxes on, among other things, helicopter rides, bowling, funerals and accounting services. And of course they are also considering (I am not making this up), taxes on clowns. I know what you’re thinking. Are mimes next?

I’m sure everyone is well aware of the increasing prominence of clowns in our lives, with impacts as yet unmeasured. Clowns are showing up more and more often at everything from children’s birthday parties to circuses, from horror films to bachelorette parties, from the House to the Senate.

You could tax them extra for the red noses (especially the ones in the Senate). You could tax the people who hire the clowns also (oh, wait, that would be we the taxpayers).

The more I think about it, laughter being at a premium, it seems excessive to tax clowns. Please, God – anything but the clowns. As Emily Litella used to say, “never mind.”

Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Existential Garage Sale Manifesto

I walk through Sobo (South Boulder as the cognoscenti call it) this Independence Day morning. On Ash I encounter a small garage sale with a difference. A brown cardboard sign is posted with the Gothic lettered title: Existential Garage Sale

In very small black hand-lettering beneath is a lengthy diatribe on how we all have way too much stuff, how we have multiples of stuff we don’t even need singles of, how we’ll all feel a lot better if we unload some of our stuff and find ways to reuse the stuff we have. How stores like Target are filled with unnecessary stuff like many brands of toilet paper when it would be better to have one superior brand of toilet paper and be done with it.

Two thoughts immediately occur to me: 1) Despite the fact that I already have too much stuff, I really must find something to buy at this garage sale to reward the creator for this unusual and timely sign and 2) one man’s superior toilet paper is another woman’s bathroom crisis; I remember an old friend’s trip to Poland several few years ago when she was told to take toilet paper with her because of tp shortages. Shortages of Toilet Paper! That’s deprivation.

In any case, I found a dog-eared and annotated $1 copy of Eudora Welty’s “The Optimist’s Daughter” to buy, and had a short conversation with the existentialist, a relatively young man. I complimented him on the sign, and he told me he had sold it to a guy for $100 and would be handing it over once he moved away. I gave him another $1 in tribute to the sign.

He said he was “trying to be a good socialist through capitalism.”

“Easier said than done,” I remarked in return, and we smiled at each other. Another fine day in Sobo.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Wearing Slacks in Ellettsville

I attended high school in the small southern Indiana town of Ellettsville. (You remember Ellettsville—I wrote a song about it). Back then, girls were not allowed to wear slacks in high school; it was Against the Rules. Don’t even ask about jeans—that would have really been pushing the envelope.

My 16-year-old heart was outraged at this injustice, especially in the dead of winter as I shivered waiting at the bus stop in my pantyhose and skirt uniform. One icy February morning I defied the rule, and wore a very nice pair of sea green tweed wool slacks to school. My father was called at work and had to come get me and bring me home to change. My mother, a teacher in the school system, was called on the carpet. Needless to say, my parents were not thrilled with my rebellion.

I also wrote a letter to the editor of the Herald-Telephone suggesting that in enforcing this rule the all-male school board was driven more by prurient interest than the best interests of female students, since they benefited from clear views of young girls’ legs in the bleachers at the gym during basketball games. The authorities remained unamused, and unswayed.

Oddly enough I never wrote a letter to the editor about another matter at the time. Abortion in even the first trimester was illegal and a girl that wanted one had to take a shady trip to Indianapolis and pay cash for a dangerous procedure rumored to involve coat hangers.

Now I watch events unfold in Iran. Courageous women and men face injury and death to stand up for their human rights. The Internet obligingly carries full coverage, and a young woman named Neda (whose name means “Voice” in Farsi) dies before our eyes. You have only to peruse a book like “Reading Lolita in Tehran” to see how much has been denied the woman in Iran since 1979—the right to wear what they wish, look as they wish, read and study what they wish, speak their minds, have their votes count, be who they really are. Mixed anger and admiration surge in my 56-year-old heart as I see their amazing bravery in the new Iranian revolution.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

News Flash: I’m a woman who doesn’t wear lipstick – and I vote

I am utterly amazed at some women who were for Hillary who are now saying that with McCain’s nomination of Sarah Palin they will vote for that ticket. Palin’s positions on almost every issue you can name are diametrically opposed to Hillary Clinton’s positions. Sarah’s womanhood, in and of itself, does not sway me in the least. And I am very weary indeed of all the references to lipstick as some red badge of courage for womanhood. Lipstick is a choice for women like any other choice (and God knows we need our choices), but as a symbol it stinks. Please, please – can we get back to important issues like what the hell we are going to do about the economy and the war and health care? Just say no to lipstick politics.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

It's All Right

After a weeklong business trip with the usual sense of isolation combined with strange moments of connectedness with airport strangers that business travel usually brings me, I woke up intensely grateful to be back in Boulder. This morning I listened to a Paul Simon song that’s been running through my head all week, the music based on a Bach chorale and the words so very relevant for the current time and for my return home from traveling: “American Tune.”

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I’m all right, I’m all right,
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and von vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
This country continues the long struggle of picking up the pieces from the latest hurricane in Galveston and environs. I see pictures of the places we visited in March on the west coast of the island, now totally destroyed. Meanwhile Wall Street has had its own hurricane and the U.S. government, counter to the current administration’s usual philosophy of letting the free markets resolve these messes, is stepping in to bolster the “giants who cannot be allowed to fail” before they topple and destroy our economy. But it’s only money, right?

Do listen to "American Tune." Simon sang it for the Democratic Convention in 1980. He sang it again on the first Saturday Night Live after 9/11. Simon has said in interviews that he wrote it in 1973 after Nixon won reelection.

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
We’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong
In these times it’s important to remember how lucky we still are and how much we have to be grateful for as we seek the change we need in November. You can imagine Paul Simon waking up on a November morning to another four years of Nixon and writing this:

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest.
The song could leave you with a bleak feeling but I choose to take it as a hopeful call to find our way and make it all right before it is too late, to find our way again on this “long strange trip.” It’s time for a different approach. McCain represents safety and assurance to some, but there is no security because we are blazing a new trail on many fronts: financial, international and ecological. These lives we are all living—what radical changes may really be required to continue to live in this world and ensure that all the other inhabitants may also live? I believe Obama recognizes what we all must realize--much must change and greed must fall.

I intend to continue to recognize the abundance I have in the simple joy of living. To draw my happiness from the moment, not from all the “stuff” and money and accumulations. A key question: am I being generous enough to my fellow human beings? Am I practicing enough acts of random kindness? Eckhart Tolle says:

Many poets and sages throughout the ages have observed that true happiness is found in simple, seemingly unremarkable things...Why is it the "least thing" that makes up the best happiness?...The form of little things leaves room for inner space, and it is from inner space, the unconditioned consciousness itself, that true happiness, the joy of Being, emanates. To be aware of little, quiet things, however, you need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required. Be still. Look. Listen. Be present.
And…if you are having a cynical moment (or two or three) as you read this, please ask yourself how you like living with this cynicism every day and what you or anyone else is getting out of it. As John Lennon sang: "You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one."

Saturday, August 23, 2008

2008 DNC in Denver – Pre-Convention Impressions

We drive into the Mile High City to see what we can see on Saturday before the Democratic National Convention. At 9:30 am in Lodo, Denver’s streets are pretty empty as they usually are on a Saturday morning—mainly tired people who’ve worked all night waiting for the bus to go home. As we walk among the tall buildings more people gradually emerge, some with convention passes already dangling from their necks and taking pictures. People stand on each street corner collecting money for the homeless.

Security on the 16th Street Mall is on high alert; quintets of cops biking the full length of the street, others on foot in cumbersome riot gear randomly searching inside flower pots and underneath tree grates. Cardboard boxes lined with trash bags have replaced the usual trashcans perhaps because they are much more easily checked and searched; the cops peer into them as they walk by. In front of the Paramount Theater at least 20 officers exit a bus and stand waiting for something. This is more cops than I have seen at one time since January 1973 in Washington, DC at the Nixon inaugural parade when Mark and I illegally marched too near the festivities and suddenly found ourselves fleeing a line of gendarmes waving billy clubs. The guys today seem a lot calmer, at least so far.

We stroll over to the Pepsi Center, now surrounded by rusty metal grid fence segments. At a security check that looks like a press entry point we see the white CNN logo on many dark blue t-shirts. A brick wall has huge stenciled lettering: CNN = POLITICS. A cop and K-9 unit wait to one side of this entryway eying all of those who wait in line to enter and a man takes his time searching a row of bags, backpacks and camera equipment one by one on the sidelines. Men with dark blue vests that say POLICE on the back and SECRET SERVICE on the front vet each person in line. (By the way, what is secret about people who wears clothing labeled “secret service?”)

Three serious people speak French as they stand to one side with bags and camera equipment labeled “French International Television.” Various security personnel inside the iron grid patrol the perimeter as the red, white and blue star decorations on outer walls of the Pepsi Center rise up behind them.

By 10:50 am we hear our first helicopter go over, and after lunch the crowds have increased significantly and all manner of street vendors are out selling food and convention paraphernalia. We buy two patriotic hats and three Obama buttons across the street from Larimer Square where every state flag in the union has been strung in colorful banners over the street. It is time to head home to Boulder.

As we reach the car we pass a woman unloading a stack of “Hillary” signs and I tell her I want a picture for “old time’s sake.” She says she is part of the Texas delegation, from Austin. I tell her to have a great convention and she wishes me the same, not knowing that the closest I will get is television each night next week. Yes, I was for Hillary – but now it is Barack Obama’s time with his newly chosen VP Joe Biden by his side, and we are all ready for a change in this country. Let’s do this.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I’ve just finished rereading “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values” by Robert Pirsig circa 1974. I think I first read this book about 30 years ago, and I certainly understood it and got more out of it this time around. If you get it yourself, be sure to get the Perennial Classics Edition with extra insights and a new introduction by the author.

Three threads intertwine in the book: the story of a man and his son trying to connect with each other as they travel cross-country on a motorcycle, an examination of the indefinable concept of quality and the balance necessary between intuition and technology, and a man’s inner struggle to retain his sanity as he reconciles two essential parts of his being into one, for his son’s sake.

The narrator talks about a friend traveling with him who has no interest or patience for learning how to maintain the motorcycle he rides - foresaking technology to focus only art and intuition – and how this is a mistake. To have Quality (Oneness) in one’s life both art and knowledge are needed. He makes the point that this is true for any work or activity and uses motorcycle maintenance as the analogy. Although Quality cannot be defined, you know it when you see it. Quality in an activity is recognizable by the peace of mind a person feels during the activity. Without peace of mind there is no Quality.

These ideas seem very relevant in this election year. From p. 270:

To put it in more concrete terms: If you want to build a factory, or fix a motorcycle, or set a nation right without getting stuck, then classical, structured, dualistic subject-object knowledge, although necessary, isn’t enough. You have to have some feeling for the quality of the work. You have to have a sense of what’s good. That is what carries you forward. This sense isn’t just something you are born with, although you are born with it. It’s also something you can develop. It’s not just “intuition,” not just unexplainable “skill” or “talent.” It’s the direct result of contact with basic reality, Quality, which dualistic reason has in the past tended to conceal.

It all sounds so far out and esoteric when it’s put like that. It comes as a shock to discover that it is one of the most homespun, down-to-earth views of reality you can have. Harry Truman, of all people, comes to mind, when he said concerning his administration’s programs, “We’ll just try them…and if they don’t work…why then we’ll just try something else.” That may not be an exact quote, but that’s close…The reality of the American government isn’t static, he said, it’s dynamic. If we don’t like it we’ll get something better.
(Yes. In January, we will get something better. Don’t forget to vote in November.)

I recognize in these ideas the reason why I am unhappy at work when there is too much focus on numbers, metrics and people as interchangeable “components” and not enough focus on the essence of good work and good results which is represented by Quality.

Meanwhile, I think of my brother, who also read this book thirty years ago and related especially strongly to it. Paul was a mechanical genius – he could fix almost anything. He just knew how machines worked. He was highly interested in Philosophy and could hold his own in philosophical exchanges with my husband, which is no small feat. And Paul struggled to reconcile dueling parts of his personality at war with each other in a way that only a person who is bipolar can really understand.

Pirsig talks about the issue of “stuckness” – how seemingly insurmountable roadblocks and problems are actually opportunities to step back and open mindedly re-examine the facts and their relative importance. This also reminds me of my brother as well as myself and our experiences in the high tech world. P. 292:

Stuckness shouldn’t be avoided. It’s the psychic predecessor to all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all Quality, in mechanical work as in other endeavors. It’s the understanding of Quality as revealed by stuckness which so often makes self-taught mechanics so superior to institute-trained men, who have learned how to handle everything except a new situation.
In other words, you must set aside ego enough to admit you’re stuck (even if you’re supposed to be a pro) before you can start down the path toward a solution. At the time he wrote this book Pirsig, onetime professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy, was writing technical documentation for IBM computers. So, high tech folk, the question of Quality as peace of mind comes into play. P. 301:

Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial to technical work. It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good work and that which destroys it is bad work. The specs, the measuring instruments, the quality control, the final check-out, these are all means toward the end of satisfying the peace of mind of those responsible for the work. What really counts in the end is their peace of mind, nothing else…The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
He says that this inner peace of mind, “involves unselfconciousness, which produces a complete identification with one’s circumstances…levels and levels of quietness quite as profound and difficult of attainment as the more familiar levels of activity.”

In other words - the profound quietness that can be found in the Now. I want to believe that somewhere, somehow, Paul has also finally found this peace of mind.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Bitches Get Stuff Done

Are you wondering what exactly Tina Fey said on Saturday Night Live the other night that made so many women shout, "right on!"? She was doing a commentary on the "News Update" segment and she said this:

Maybe what bothers me most if that people say that Hillary is a bitch...yeah, she is. So am I...You know what, bitches get stuff done...bitch is the new black!


So many times at work and elsewhere I've observed a core group of people working on various projects who communicate proactively, retain a sense of humor, collaborate on fresh approaches to long-standing problems, include other people and keep them informed, help each other accomplish things, find common ground, facilitate and resolve conflict, and think ahead, warning each other of upcoming potholes in the road. And the members of this core group, with very few exceptions, are women.

Many of these women are not shy about being assertive and striving to persuade others to their viewpoints. They sometimes even raise their voices a tad; they have high standards, and sometimes they interrupt to get a word in edgewise.

Some people call them (us) bitches. If that's what a bitch is I'm fine with being one, and voting for one as well.

Bitches get stuff done.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

HRC

At the caucus the other night, a couple of other "women of a certain age" who had also voted with me in the minority for Hillary Rodham Clinton came up to me afterwards to thank me for "speaking up and for my passion" about supporting HRC as our next president. We spoke together about how hard it is for us to understand the degree of hatred and anger some people seem to have for her. Although I consider myself to be quite a good communicator, I find it hard to vocalize the certainty with which I believe she is the best person for the job at this time.

Fortunately, Robin Morgan has written an outstanding essay, "Goodby to All That #2," that says it all, pretty much perfectly, including several examples of the "toxic viciousness" and double standard that bother me most. She also points out that the values HRC has go way back to her early days and provides several great quotes that show this. I'm grateful to my brother-in-law Bill for forwarding the link to me.

In the end, Robin is right. I am for Hillary Clinton not because she is a woman, but because I am, and because she is the best choice.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Caucus-Race

As I attended the first caucus in my life Tuesday night, I was amused to remember this quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in WFree Picture From Alice in Wonderland of Alice and the Dodo Bird. Click Here to Get Free Images at Clipart Guide.comonderland. The scene
occurs just after a frustrated, giant Alice’s excessive tears have caused everyone to have to swim to dry land:

+++++

" 'What I was going to say,’ said the Dodo in an offended tone, ‘was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.’

‘What is a Caucus-race?’ said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and
no one else seemed inclined to say anything.

‘Why,’ said the Dodo, ‘the best way to explain it is to do it.’ (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (‘the exact shape doesn’t matter,’ it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no ‘One, two, three, and away,’ but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out ‘The race is over!’ and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But who has won?’

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, ‘everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’ "

++++++++++++

It was standing room only in the Creekside Elementary gym. Dire warnings about exceeding capacity were uttered and all those who weren't registered to vote were asked to leave, with no noticeable impact. Babies cried, young people gave up their seats to the elderly. Familiar-looking neighbors (although I am name-challenged), young and old, stood shoulder to shoulder, all clutching their white or blue registration cards for the Colorado Democratic caucus.

The cold winter’s night with snow on the ground and ice on the sidewalks did not deter these voters, who were finally motivated to have a say in a year when the caucus was held early enough to make a difference.

In my precinct, which I am told has a total of perhaps 330 registered Democratic voters, an unprecedented 129 people had Shown Up. The amazed old hands who have been showing up for years said that prior to this they had seen turnouts ranging from 8-30. A few straw polls and subsequent binding votes and a few impassioned statements from various participants later, we had 99 for Obama and 29 for Clinton, resulting in 5 county delegates for Obama, and 1 for Clinton.

I voted for Hillary, and was interested to see how hard it was for me to be in the minority. I even screwed up the courage to say a few words to try to sway my neighbors, with no observed affect other than causing my heart to beat very fast for a few minutes. It was a fascinating, messy, but ultimately productive process managed totally by dedicated volunteers who got the job done by 8:45 pm. Barack carried the State of Colorado, but I have faith in Hillary and we are in early days still. See future blogs for more on this.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Here I Go A Caucusing

Super Tuesday for primaries and caucuses is coming up this week on February 5. Colorado is one of the twenty-four states participating, early enough to make a difference in deciding who will be the Republican and Democratic candidates this fall.

I have been quite fascinated recently with the campaigns and have watched several of the debates. I’ve decided to attend my precinct’s caucus Tuesday night although I’ve never been to one and am having to research what the heck a caucus is and how it works. At first I felt I was incredibly ignorant and out of the loop not to have a better understanding of this process. After all, I’ve lived in Colorado for the last 30 years. But there were always primaries in Indiana and also in Colorado it turns out until a switch in 2003 to caucuses for presidential elections, apparently to save the $2 million each primary costs.

Since I’ve voted in primaries in the past, I am registered as a Democrat, but in order to participate in Tuesday’s caucus I had to decide who I favor to be the Democratic candidate. Although I have great admiration for Barack Obama and the fresh excitement and passion he has brought to the campaign especially for the youth of our country, I have decided that Hillary Clinton is the best choice to be our next president.

My choice is not based on the fact the she is a woman and would be our first female president, although it will be thrilling to see that happen in my lifetime. Instead, I believe she is the best candidate for the job. My choice is based on her 35 years of experience in public service, including the past 7 years as a New York Senator and distinguished member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as her successful effort to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program. She learned a great deal from her previous effort as First Lady to bring about reform in health care and will apply this knowledge when she is president. She is committed to ending the war as soon as practical but fully understands the complications including the danger not only to our troops but to the 100,000 civilians and Iraqi citizens who have helped us during the Iraqi War.

Barack Obama has great promise. But he has been a Senator for only three years. Although he believes he will bring a fresh approach to Washington and the White House, finding ways to work with Congress to get things done is easier with past experience to draw on, and Hillary has the experience to hit the ground running. She already knows the challenges she’ll be facing and has clear and detailed plans for how to address these challenges. It will be a great historic moment when she is sworn into office and I really want to see it happen. I logged onto her website today and made a donation; I also signed up to make phone calls on her behalf and have already done a few today, something I have never before done in my life. It’s not easy making these “cold calls” but I hope my small part makes a difference.

Super Tuesday should be a very interesting day.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Hope for America

During a short hike up Chautauqua Trail in Boulder, and a good look at the Flatirons on this June Sunday morning, I had time to think about two hopeful articles I read recently. Luminescent clouds against a Colorado blue sky framing the Colorado Rockies can do this (give you hope).

The first article was in Newsweek. I have always enjoyed Fareed Zakaria’s analysis of the complex interplay of culture and politics in the Middle East. Last week he wrote an article about hope – the hope we must all hang on to for the future of America. He helps us remember who we are by describing what he saw in the United States when he first arrived here as an 18-year-old from India in 1982, during another period of great challenge and transition for our country with unemployment at 10.8% and interest rates at 15% as well as great unrest in many areas of the world. Despite this there was hope and optimism. Today, he says we are so seized by fear we have forgotten how to believe in ourselves. He says we must stop using our energy to bash W. and get ready to move on:

“To do this we must first tackle the consequences of our foreign policy of fear. Having spooked ourselves into believing that we have no option but to act fast, alone, unilaterally and preemptively, we have managed in six years to destroy decades of international good will, alienate allies, embolden enemies and yet solve few of the major international problems we face.” - Fareed Zakaria

His point is, we do have what it takes to win back the respect of the world and move forward. Fareed says: “What the world needs is an open, confident America.” I agree.

The second article was a column by Garrison Keillor, author and host of the radio show ”A Prairie Home Companion.” He writes about the serenity and simplicity of the Amish and of small towns in a column called “Making the Case for the Simple Life.” He concludes that…

“There are bandits and demagogues and red-eyed zealots and destructive visionaries out working the main roads, but back here in the little towns and hoods, the country survives on steadiness and some innovation.” - Garrison Keillor

Yes. Let us cease the negativity of Bush bashing – and elect a new administration that will lead with hope, optimism, steadiness and innovation.