My readers over the years have been some of the most encouraging people in my life. Lately, I've received a couple of nudges: "Julie, are you ever going to blog again?" and "Are you okay, I haven't seen you update your blog in ages." I can't tell you how nice that is when it happens. I hardly get over to blogs any more with all the social media short-cuts like Twitter updating and Facebook statuses (or is it stati?). I haven't given up on blogging though. It's just that right now, my life needs to be shielded from too much public scrutiny. When I get to the "other side" of the biggest hurdle in my life, I'll share much more freely (retroactively) because I have SO MANY IMPORTANT THOUGHTS ABOUT ALL OF IT. :) Or, more like, I'll be happy to catch you up on what you missed if you want to know.
In the meantime, here's a little bit of what's happening that I can share.
As I get nearer to 50 (I'm 48 right now), I find that I'm not afraid of that number at all. 40 was a bitch, 41 was downright depressing. But somehow, as I look ahead to 50, I'm excited about it. I'm ready to do the things I'm meant to do, which will include surfing.
I'm officially at the end of the homeschool years. My youngest two have opted for fulltime enrollment in the local high school starting in the fall. I'll have three kids essentially out of the house (two at Ohio State). That means only the dog and I will be home sipping tea and clicking the keyboard (or at least, I'll be doing those things and Rocky will be hogging the only pool of sunshine that leaks through the windows).
Brave Writer is growing... again. For some reason, speaking invites are tumbling into my in-box so I see planes in my future as well. The other day I was scrolling through my 8000 emails (I do not possess the will to delete) and felt this surge of gratitude for all the wonderful families I know through my business. For instance, in some cases I'm teaching the third, fourth and in one case, sixth child in a family. Incredible. And what commitment! No wonder we get tired or burned out or anxious about the outcome of all those years invested.
I've had a few people ask me how I feel about Obama, now that he's been doing his thing for a year. I still believe in the guy. You know why? He's doing just what I hoped he'd do when elected. So let me let you in on why I voted for Obama in the first place. It wasn't healthcare or Iraq that made me vote for him. The reason I walked dozens of miles and made hundreds of calls on his behalf? Barack Obama demonstrated to me his commitment to transcending the polarization of politics in America.
So what's happened? Both sides got even more polarized. The progressives want Obama to bully the R's and get his agenda passed (enough bi-partisan discussion they say!). The right tags Obama as socialist, dangerous and completely unworthy of negotiation. All the while, Obama won't give up his original vision: transcending the debate and expecting both sides to work together. It blows me away, frankly, that he still believes it's possible for two sides to create solutions they can both support. Obama hasn't forgotten his pledge to bring America together. It's not surprising that that commitment is being tested in the most extreme way.
This is what I like about Obama though. It's what made him a different candidate. It's what makes him a president I continue to admire and follow. The House vote on HCR is slated for Sunday. I look fwd to seeing how it all plays out. I think the year long debate was entirely appropriate.
And that's it from West Chester! Would love to hear how you all are doing in comments if you want to share.
Love,
Julie
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Waking up: The shift from one point of view to the another
My Facebook set of friends is one of the more diverse bunch of people I've run across online. That's because suddenly my past and present have collided in conversation in ways that would never happen if we limited our relationships to in-person contact. So what's happened is that my high school friends, who knew me mostly as a short, a-political, theater student without much of a religious agenda, are interacting with my college friends who knew me as this zealot who shared the Four Spiritual Laws with anyone stuck in a bank line with me. My missionary and Vineyard friends are interacting with my liberal theological graduate school buddies. My homeschool momma friends are talking to my business networking friends here in Cincy. And of course, my Obama campaign colleagues are talking to my rightwing radio pals from bygone years.
And like me, many of my friends have gone through significant shifts (either a deepening of loyalty to their original commitments, or a radical reassessment which led to a new, changed point of view).
I respect all of you (even when we disagree). I wouldn't keep you around on my FB if I didn't! In fact, I have kicked a few off my list when they've crossed that invisible line called "Coerce Julie back to what is good for her and tell her she is going to hell if she doesn't listen."
So here's the thing. For years (over 20), I adopted a point of view both politically and theologically that was rooted in a set of assumptions (these assumptions were handed to me with care and conviction, and they were based on the core doctrines of evangelicalism at the time). I remember once saying to Don Carson (some of you will remember him), the head of our Campus Crusade chapter at UCLA, "Why are you telling me that predestination as a theological tenet has to be believed in order to be a Christian? I haven't even had time to think about it yet." I had the same reaction to inerrancy (Is this really necessary to be a Christian? Can I think about it a bit?), to the doctrines of heaven and hell. I still remember saying at my first Bible Study at Kappa Kappa Gamma that I didn't like the idea of hell, after all, that would mean all my Jewish friends from high school and step relatives were going there... and I couldn't quite *get* that. I mean, it was one thing to believe in heaven and hell when you grew up in La Canada or Pasadena, where everyone you knew was Protestant. But what happened when you had to include people you loved, A LOT, in that number?
I found myself suddenly in conflict: to belong meant to adopt (uncritically, really) the values and doctrines that enabled me to remain a part of the community (this new, great group of people who were so much fun to be with), or I could reject those tenets and not be in the group, not have the love, worship, prayer, moral values, and community Christianity offered. So adopt I did (and worked to learn the apologetics for these tenets) and from then on, made it my chief aim in life to save those I loved and those I hadn't yet met from hell.
But time has a way of tugging at the tangled threads. The intellectual conflicts, the theological discrepancies, the arguments online with people I genuinely grew to love about splitting hair differences... how did these show the compassion of Jesus or the relevance of spirituality in a globalized world of diverse expressions of reality? It hurt to think Christians couldn't even agree on very basic ideas and would be cruel and critical of each other arguing over what amount to technicalities, many times.
The rightwing vision of politics has also walked in lockstep with the evangelical vision. Since we grew up knowing we couldn't criticize theology (who could ask if Jesus really rose from the dead with a physical body or if the Bible has mistakes, and stay in an evangelical church?), we are also equally beholden to rightwing politics as naturally right, clear. If someone speaks with conviction, we tend to adopt that point of view as long as it leads us back to reinforcing those original tenets we were told to adopt (our membership in the community is at stake if we challenge those tenets - ask me how I know this).
To inhabit someone else's point of view, to give it weight, to care about its interior logic is not one of the values of evangelicalism. We are taught to convert people to our point of view and to understand theirs only enough to change their minds. We spend countless hours reinforcing our own beliefs in community contexts, privately, listening to sermons and tapes, reading books, listening to music. We adopt these views as our own, but from within the safe protected context of like-minded people (and we elevate those with more education as leaders as a way to tell us that we are thinking critically, to help us navigate the pesky incongruity or penetrating question of someone from the outside). We suppress our own questions. We avoid The Jesus Seminar or Richard Dawkins, because they are dangerous.
This is not to say that there aren't brilliant men and women on the right or in the conservative evangelical movement who have dug deep and have spent time drawing conclusions that they feel are both intellectually sound and honest. There are. I've read them, met some of them. What I reject today is that so many people have adopted their thinking second-hand. (To be fair: on both left and right, though I am less versed in how this happens on the left - what I have seen is much more arguing over nuances on the left - a chief value of theirs is dissent!)
If you haven't sat inside the point of view (letting it be "right" for awhile, looking for its logic, how it hangs together, how it creates a worldview that coheres and supports a vision of life and happiness for the one who holds it), you can't actually know if yours is true (or at least, "true enough" for your life). It's one reason I attend a black church. I was sick of secondhand reports about what black leaders are doing and saying or not doing and saying. I was sick of the myopia of white church that thinks reconciliation means having a sister church that is black, or getting more blacks to attend your white church. I wondered what the black community had to say about it. I wondered how they experienced America, and the church, and "truth" from their experiences.
I spent two years reading pro-choice literature, getting inside the mindset that saw being "pro-choice" as the higher morality (yes, they do feel that way!), as the obvious right belief system that is more compassionate and ethical than the alternative. I did this after we had been actively involved in Operation Rescue. I also wish pro-choice people would spend time understanding the radical commitment of those engaged in civil disobedience to stop abortion, too.
What's happened to me, then, is that I got tired of secondhand news, theology, sociological commentary. I stopped buying into the scripts I'd been handed and became unwilling to defend something just because it had always been "true" in the community I loved. If I had one piece of advice for those who can't quite grasp what it is that's happened to me, I'd say pick the thing you are most afraid of (the thing you most don't want to be true) and go read about it. Meet someone who holds that viewpoint and let that person influence you. Invite their ideas into your living room, care to understand the world from inside someone else's mind. If you do that for a little while, yes, you will change. But your compassion will also grow, and your insights will be yours, and your spirituality will deepen.
I'm also conscious of the fact that there is so much I can't possibly know well enough to make adequate judgments (how could I ever say if global warming is real or not? I'm not a scientist, have no training or tools to evaluate the arguments, can't come close to making a real case that isn't some watered down version of someone else's). So I hold my current "positions" with some guardedness, knowing that I'm a few arguments away from another shift. But I'm no longer afraid of getting it right or wrong. I love the process, and I feel privileged/relieved/blessed to have been able to leave behind the need to vilify "the other" in order to protect my point of view. (That doesn't mean I won't criticize the other, but I hope I do it knowing that I could again shift my point of view if the facts that I understand warrant it.)
Peace.
And like me, many of my friends have gone through significant shifts (either a deepening of loyalty to their original commitments, or a radical reassessment which led to a new, changed point of view).
I respect all of you (even when we disagree). I wouldn't keep you around on my FB if I didn't! In fact, I have kicked a few off my list when they've crossed that invisible line called "Coerce Julie back to what is good for her and tell her she is going to hell if she doesn't listen."
So here's the thing. For years (over 20), I adopted a point of view both politically and theologically that was rooted in a set of assumptions (these assumptions were handed to me with care and conviction, and they were based on the core doctrines of evangelicalism at the time). I remember once saying to Don Carson (some of you will remember him), the head of our Campus Crusade chapter at UCLA, "Why are you telling me that predestination as a theological tenet has to be believed in order to be a Christian? I haven't even had time to think about it yet." I had the same reaction to inerrancy (Is this really necessary to be a Christian? Can I think about it a bit?), to the doctrines of heaven and hell. I still remember saying at my first Bible Study at Kappa Kappa Gamma that I didn't like the idea of hell, after all, that would mean all my Jewish friends from high school and step relatives were going there... and I couldn't quite *get* that. I mean, it was one thing to believe in heaven and hell when you grew up in La Canada or Pasadena, where everyone you knew was Protestant. But what happened when you had to include people you loved, A LOT, in that number?
I found myself suddenly in conflict: to belong meant to adopt (uncritically, really) the values and doctrines that enabled me to remain a part of the community (this new, great group of people who were so much fun to be with), or I could reject those tenets and not be in the group, not have the love, worship, prayer, moral values, and community Christianity offered. So adopt I did (and worked to learn the apologetics for these tenets) and from then on, made it my chief aim in life to save those I loved and those I hadn't yet met from hell.
But time has a way of tugging at the tangled threads. The intellectual conflicts, the theological discrepancies, the arguments online with people I genuinely grew to love about splitting hair differences... how did these show the compassion of Jesus or the relevance of spirituality in a globalized world of diverse expressions of reality? It hurt to think Christians couldn't even agree on very basic ideas and would be cruel and critical of each other arguing over what amount to technicalities, many times.
The rightwing vision of politics has also walked in lockstep with the evangelical vision. Since we grew up knowing we couldn't criticize theology (who could ask if Jesus really rose from the dead with a physical body or if the Bible has mistakes, and stay in an evangelical church?), we are also equally beholden to rightwing politics as naturally right, clear. If someone speaks with conviction, we tend to adopt that point of view as long as it leads us back to reinforcing those original tenets we were told to adopt (our membership in the community is at stake if we challenge those tenets - ask me how I know this).
To inhabit someone else's point of view, to give it weight, to care about its interior logic is not one of the values of evangelicalism. We are taught to convert people to our point of view and to understand theirs only enough to change their minds. We spend countless hours reinforcing our own beliefs in community contexts, privately, listening to sermons and tapes, reading books, listening to music. We adopt these views as our own, but from within the safe protected context of like-minded people (and we elevate those with more education as leaders as a way to tell us that we are thinking critically, to help us navigate the pesky incongruity or penetrating question of someone from the outside). We suppress our own questions. We avoid The Jesus Seminar or Richard Dawkins, because they are dangerous.
This is not to say that there aren't brilliant men and women on the right or in the conservative evangelical movement who have dug deep and have spent time drawing conclusions that they feel are both intellectually sound and honest. There are. I've read them, met some of them. What I reject today is that so many people have adopted their thinking second-hand. (To be fair: on both left and right, though I am less versed in how this happens on the left - what I have seen is much more arguing over nuances on the left - a chief value of theirs is dissent!)
If you haven't sat inside the point of view (letting it be "right" for awhile, looking for its logic, how it hangs together, how it creates a worldview that coheres and supports a vision of life and happiness for the one who holds it), you can't actually know if yours is true (or at least, "true enough" for your life). It's one reason I attend a black church. I was sick of secondhand reports about what black leaders are doing and saying or not doing and saying. I was sick of the myopia of white church that thinks reconciliation means having a sister church that is black, or getting more blacks to attend your white church. I wondered what the black community had to say about it. I wondered how they experienced America, and the church, and "truth" from their experiences.
I spent two years reading pro-choice literature, getting inside the mindset that saw being "pro-choice" as the higher morality (yes, they do feel that way!), as the obvious right belief system that is more compassionate and ethical than the alternative. I did this after we had been actively involved in Operation Rescue. I also wish pro-choice people would spend time understanding the radical commitment of those engaged in civil disobedience to stop abortion, too.
What's happened to me, then, is that I got tired of secondhand news, theology, sociological commentary. I stopped buying into the scripts I'd been handed and became unwilling to defend something just because it had always been "true" in the community I loved. If I had one piece of advice for those who can't quite grasp what it is that's happened to me, I'd say pick the thing you are most afraid of (the thing you most don't want to be true) and go read about it. Meet someone who holds that viewpoint and let that person influence you. Invite their ideas into your living room, care to understand the world from inside someone else's mind. If you do that for a little while, yes, you will change. But your compassion will also grow, and your insights will be yours, and your spirituality will deepen.
I'm also conscious of the fact that there is so much I can't possibly know well enough to make adequate judgments (how could I ever say if global warming is real or not? I'm not a scientist, have no training or tools to evaluate the arguments, can't come close to making a real case that isn't some watered down version of someone else's). So I hold my current "positions" with some guardedness, knowing that I'm a few arguments away from another shift. But I'm no longer afraid of getting it right or wrong. I love the process, and I feel privileged/relieved/blessed to have been able to leave behind the need to vilify "the other" in order to protect my point of view. (That doesn't mean I won't criticize the other, but I hope I do it knowing that I could again shift my point of view if the facts that I understand warrant it.)
Peace.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Checking in... testing 1, 2, 3
Yep still works. Apparently they didn't pull the plug on this dormant thing so here I be, back in the saddle.
Life is crazy busy for me (Brave Writer high season) and kids are ever busy with friends, King's Island, church, and preparation for the fall school season. Caitrin woke up today and before even opening facebook, opened her math book. We started the review. Time to dust off the long division skills and get back to work.
Liam will go to the freshman school for two classes so we'll enroll him this week. He says adamantly, "No one can make me go." But I think I may win this one. :) Oh, I'm non-coercive on the whole. Anyone who knows me knows that. I mean: stay up until 5:00 a.m. playing Warcraft - dooode be my guest! But this time, his main reason for staying home and not schooling it?? Sleeping in! Ha! (Maybe that Warcraft all nighter-ing is starting to take its toll.) So I'm more like, "Uh, not this time, pal." If he wants to ski in January every Wednesday, he's got to rise with the dawn and garbage trucks for the whole year. That's the only way it will work. And that, my friends, is what we call holding your child over a ski barrel.
I head out to be with the crazy liberals who want to impose healthcare on recalcitrant birthers and Republicans next week: Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. Seriously excited about this. I'm such a complete political novice. But I came to love that "little" (cough sputter) community of 200,000 last year during Campaign "No One Can Stop the Man Born in Kenya." We hung out and bled our veins for Obama and ahhhh. Now he's in office and all the ones who hated him then, hate him more now and they ask me things like, "What do you think now that Obama is ruining the country and everything is worse than ever and no one has jobs and he wants to make us have healthcare against our wills and he's not even American and he has to read all his jokes off a teleprompter?"
I'm kind of at a loss. I mean, for crying out loud in the night! I gave freaking George W. Bush EIGHT years! EIGHT that we'll never get back. I let Bush invade a sovereign nation, allow for the deregulation of energy (which led to the Enron crime of the century - the one crime that made me think the death penalty is not punishment enough for white collar criminals - and the subsequent bankrupting of California), violate our citizens' rights to privacy, support and condone torture, and send our country spiraling into out of control debt as well as bailing out banks! And I'm supposed to convert to being a "hater" of Obama, who's been in office, what, 7ish months because it's taking awhile to get the economy righted after the disaster Bush left behind?
Come on! I gotta give the man a little more time and love than that! You know I do!
Anyway.
Life is actually pretty okay these days despite the obvious sources of angst. Had a great time in CA. Feels good to be home in Cincy. Really good. Like, I'm Beyonce "crazy in love" with this city. I knew it when I got off the plane this time that Cincy really is home now. I heart Cincinnati.
Okay, let's hope this little freewheeling freewrite gets me back in the groove for blogging. I've missed you all.
Life is crazy busy for me (Brave Writer high season) and kids are ever busy with friends, King's Island, church, and preparation for the fall school season. Caitrin woke up today and before even opening facebook, opened her math book. We started the review. Time to dust off the long division skills and get back to work.
Liam will go to the freshman school for two classes so we'll enroll him this week. He says adamantly, "No one can make me go." But I think I may win this one. :) Oh, I'm non-coercive on the whole. Anyone who knows me knows that. I mean: stay up until 5:00 a.m. playing Warcraft - dooode be my guest! But this time, his main reason for staying home and not schooling it?? Sleeping in! Ha! (Maybe that Warcraft all nighter-ing is starting to take its toll.) So I'm more like, "Uh, not this time, pal." If he wants to ski in January every Wednesday, he's got to rise with the dawn and garbage trucks for the whole year. That's the only way it will work. And that, my friends, is what we call holding your child over a ski barrel.
I head out to be with the crazy liberals who want to impose healthcare on recalcitrant birthers and Republicans next week: Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. Seriously excited about this. I'm such a complete political novice. But I came to love that "little" (cough sputter) community of 200,000 last year during Campaign "No One Can Stop the Man Born in Kenya." We hung out and bled our veins for Obama and ahhhh. Now he's in office and all the ones who hated him then, hate him more now and they ask me things like, "What do you think now that Obama is ruining the country and everything is worse than ever and no one has jobs and he wants to make us have healthcare against our wills and he's not even American and he has to read all his jokes off a teleprompter?"
I'm kind of at a loss. I mean, for crying out loud in the night! I gave freaking George W. Bush EIGHT years! EIGHT that we'll never get back. I let Bush invade a sovereign nation, allow for the deregulation of energy (which led to the Enron crime of the century - the one crime that made me think the death penalty is not punishment enough for white collar criminals - and the subsequent bankrupting of California), violate our citizens' rights to privacy, support and condone torture, and send our country spiraling into out of control debt as well as bailing out banks! And I'm supposed to convert to being a "hater" of Obama, who's been in office, what, 7ish months because it's taking awhile to get the economy righted after the disaster Bush left behind?
Come on! I gotta give the man a little more time and love than that! You know I do!
Anyway.
Life is actually pretty okay these days despite the obvious sources of angst. Had a great time in CA. Feels good to be home in Cincy. Really good. Like, I'm Beyonce "crazy in love" with this city. I knew it when I got off the plane this time that Cincy really is home now. I heart Cincinnati.
Okay, let's hope this little freewheeling freewrite gets me back in the groove for blogging. I've missed you all.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Is it ironic....
that during the Bush years, the Republicans oversaw the multiple fronts of the so-called "War on Terror" (the one thing I would never want to trust a Republican to oversee given their myopia, inability to see "the other" and their "bomb first, ask later" style of international diplomacy), while we are now in the Obama years, and suddenly the Democrats are in charge of the largest money crisis since the Great Depression (honestly, my conservative roots still make me a bit queasy turning over that power to the gov't, despite wanting to trust the president on this one)?
Seriously.
It's like a big cosmic joke.
Seriously.
It's like a big cosmic joke.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Why Rush is Wrong (by David Frum, Newsweek)
Why Rush is Wrong
I confess: I listened to Rush for ten years. I saw the light and haven't listened for the last ten (except when it seems to be a moment to remember). This is an astute argument for how Rush Limbaugh represents his own interests more than those of conservatives (and the true ones still garner my respect).
I confess: I listened to Rush for ten years. I saw the light and haven't listened for the last ten (except when it seems to be a moment to remember). This is an astute argument for how Rush Limbaugh represents his own interests more than those of conservatives (and the true ones still garner my respect).
On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.
And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.
Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.
But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise—and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I dreamt of this day a year ago: President Obama
I distinctly remember discussing this moment online with friends, the audacity to imagine that Obama wouldn't just secure the nomination, but that he might, gasp, win the presidency and survive to give the State of the Union address. Tonight felt like a dream - a fantasy come true (and when does that happen in life? Not so often). As he entered the chamber, with all that anticipation building, I felt a welling of joy that in my lifetime, I get to repeatedly witness the bursting forth of hope, optimism and change.
It felt fitting that after my post on peacekeeping vs. peacemaking, the "not state of the union" speech would talk about recapturing our integrity and values through ending the war, through rejecting the practice of torture. It takes guts to focus on peace, rather than war. Obama will leave 50,000 troops on the ground in Iraq and will bring home the forces in 19 instead of 16 months. Yet even with that news, the tone and agenda of tonight's speech had that "peacemaking" spirit about it. We need to contend for the things Obama promised: better education, health care and rebuilding our economy through investing in America.
It was pure joy to see Hillary in her bright, euphoric (even) magenta jacket with a smile as wide as the China Sea, being kissed on the cheek by her former rival. It was incredible to watch Michelle glide into that chamber - sheer class; to behold Ruth Bader Ginsburg up on her feet, looking so happy. Then it was finally time for Barack to enter: The President of the United States - well, reality shattered illusion and what I had only imagined became solid, sure, and better than hoped for.
A campaign of hope pays off in a time of struggle and doubt. Obama's uncanny sense of timing (when he ran, his campaign message and spirit, his ability to read this moment without guile, bitterness or even petty blame) may be his greatest unsung gift. We trust Obama as much for his intuitive sense of what "now" demands as we do for any plans that he puts forward. Obama "gets" us. That's why we trust him.
Tonight felt like a mirror ball's glittering reflections dancing all over our country, reviving our energy and renewing our joy. Much needed, I'd say.
Oh, and the prez? He speaks English with elegance, too. It doesn't get much better than that.
It felt fitting that after my post on peacekeeping vs. peacemaking, the "not state of the union" speech would talk about recapturing our integrity and values through ending the war, through rejecting the practice of torture. It takes guts to focus on peace, rather than war. Obama will leave 50,000 troops on the ground in Iraq and will bring home the forces in 19 instead of 16 months. Yet even with that news, the tone and agenda of tonight's speech had that "peacemaking" spirit about it. We need to contend for the things Obama promised: better education, health care and rebuilding our economy through investing in America.
It was pure joy to see Hillary in her bright, euphoric (even) magenta jacket with a smile as wide as the China Sea, being kissed on the cheek by her former rival. It was incredible to watch Michelle glide into that chamber - sheer class; to behold Ruth Bader Ginsburg up on her feet, looking so happy. Then it was finally time for Barack to enter: The President of the United States - well, reality shattered illusion and what I had only imagined became solid, sure, and better than hoped for.
A campaign of hope pays off in a time of struggle and doubt. Obama's uncanny sense of timing (when he ran, his campaign message and spirit, his ability to read this moment without guile, bitterness or even petty blame) may be his greatest unsung gift. We trust Obama as much for his intuitive sense of what "now" demands as we do for any plans that he puts forward. Obama "gets" us. That's why we trust him.
Tonight felt like a mirror ball's glittering reflections dancing all over our country, reviving our energy and renewing our joy. Much needed, I'd say.
Oh, and the prez? He speaks English with elegance, too. It doesn't get much better than that.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Malia and Sasha Adorableness
You must see these incredibly sweet photos of the girls on the campaign with Obama and yesterday's inauguration.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Money quote
[O]ur security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.May it be so. Thank you President Obama for putting it before us - an opportunity to both live our ideals while defending our freedom.
Monday, January 19, 2009
From Slave House to White House
Today the White House, built by slaves, will be inhabited by a man of African descent and his wife, descendant of slaves: leaders of the free world. That journey, that struggle has spanned more than three centuries. It's included the deaths and back-breaking heartache and oppression of hundreds of thousands of people. The cycle of abuse (physical, verbal, emotional, economic, sexual) was played out in our country with institutional justification and legal support!
To achieve that oppression, the slaves had to give up their language, their diet, their very names. Remember "Roots" when Kunta Kinte is beaten until he yields to his master's name for him, replacing his African heritage? Slaves were systematically stripped of the cultural touchstones and personal identities that had they been retained, would have made it nearly impossible to keep that population enslaved for so long. Once Lincoln's Union won the Civil War (a war that shredded the relational fibers of the nation), the former slaves became the second-class citizens, attempting to map out a new existence, finding new names, all within the confines of institutional and relational racism that would go on in Jim Crow, in segregation, in second-class status.
To overcome that tragic history, someone had to say: enough! And that someone had to grab the hand of another fellow-sufferer and say, "Follow me to freedom" or "Come with me to a march" or "Don't sit at the back of the bus" or "Yes I can get an education and I'm supposed to be in this classroom." The risks and costs were deemed worth it because the struggle to be free, to be autonomous, to know that you could choose for yourself how your life would be, became the heart cry of every oppressed person, eventually.
How that word reverberated at the Democratic National Convention this summer: Enough! A rallying cry we won't forget.
The whole world admires the results/fruit of that struggle for equality and freedom. We've immortalized the fallen heroes. We are the generation that gets to see King's dream fulfilled. What a privilege. Our part so small - electing a man to office, voting, making a few phone calls, overcoming our own prejudices to do it.
But here we are.
And as my pastor shared in November, is it is a part of the divine comedy that 390 years later (since that first slave ship crossed the Atlantic), 40 years after MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, that the first African-American president is NOT a descendant of slaves, but is a natural born African and American who has his own African name!
Barack Hussein Obama... Full circle. For African Americans, he symbolizes a reclaiming of much more than dignity in America. Obama also brings that African connection into an international focus and restores that identity to all who have lost theirs.
It's a moment and yes, it's historic. We don't get to live in those very often. Clearly, we're lucky. And blessed. Have a glorious day.
To achieve that oppression, the slaves had to give up their language, their diet, their very names. Remember "Roots" when Kunta Kinte is beaten until he yields to his master's name for him, replacing his African heritage? Slaves were systematically stripped of the cultural touchstones and personal identities that had they been retained, would have made it nearly impossible to keep that population enslaved for so long. Once Lincoln's Union won the Civil War (a war that shredded the relational fibers of the nation), the former slaves became the second-class citizens, attempting to map out a new existence, finding new names, all within the confines of institutional and relational racism that would go on in Jim Crow, in segregation, in second-class status.
To overcome that tragic history, someone had to say: enough! And that someone had to grab the hand of another fellow-sufferer and say, "Follow me to freedom" or "Come with me to a march" or "Don't sit at the back of the bus" or "Yes I can get an education and I'm supposed to be in this classroom." The risks and costs were deemed worth it because the struggle to be free, to be autonomous, to know that you could choose for yourself how your life would be, became the heart cry of every oppressed person, eventually.
How that word reverberated at the Democratic National Convention this summer: Enough! A rallying cry we won't forget.
The whole world admires the results/fruit of that struggle for equality and freedom. We've immortalized the fallen heroes. We are the generation that gets to see King's dream fulfilled. What a privilege. Our part so small - electing a man to office, voting, making a few phone calls, overcoming our own prejudices to do it.
But here we are.
And as my pastor shared in November, is it is a part of the divine comedy that 390 years later (since that first slave ship crossed the Atlantic), 40 years after MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, that the first African-American president is NOT a descendant of slaves, but is a natural born African and American who has his own African name!
Barack Hussein Obama... Full circle. For African Americans, he symbolizes a reclaiming of much more than dignity in America. Obama also brings that African connection into an international focus and restores that identity to all who have lost theirs.
It's a moment and yes, it's historic. We don't get to live in those very often. Clearly, we're lucky. And blessed. Have a glorious day.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The World Reacts
In case it isn't entirely obvious by now, I spend a lot of time wandering the Internet. I have a couple of forums where I post quite regularly that have nothing intrinsically to do with politics. Yet the week following the election seems to have prompted so many reactions! The other day, while I was reading this serious post of marital pain on one board, the Aussie writer took a paragraph out of the middle to say, "And let me just take a moment to say 'thank you Americans for voting in Barack Obama!' We were so thrilled to watch it happen and feel hopeful that the United States will be a place we can look to for leadership again." She went on to say that it blew her away that we really did it - really elected a black man.
Then I visited another place I post. Same thing. Canadians, Brits, Aussies all weighing in on how glad they are that we Americans got it right, that we took the chance to restore our reputation, that we offered them a vision of what it looks like to embrace our ideals.
Yesterday, a friend sent me an email with a note from her young-twenties daughter who is working in Rwanda. Elizabeth's goal is to empower women through her organization: AfricaGrassroots. I was completely amazed by her report of how her friends in Rwanda reacted to the news of Obama's election... but even more, I couldn't believe what they had to say about McCain!
Then I visited another place I post. Same thing. Canadians, Brits, Aussies all weighing in on how glad they are that we Americans got it right, that we took the chance to restore our reputation, that we offered them a vision of what it looks like to embrace our ideals.
Yesterday, a friend sent me an email with a note from her young-twenties daughter who is working in Rwanda. Elizabeth's goal is to empower women through her organization: AfricaGrassroots. I was completely amazed by her report of how her friends in Rwanda reacted to the news of Obama's election... but even more, I couldn't believe what they had to say about McCain!
Elizabeth is returning from Rwanda in a few weeks. They stayed up to watch the elections and the next day, she sent out this email to some friends. I thought you would enjoy, and appreciate, what she said.Maybe there is something to that "light on a hill" imagery we keep hearing about. It's a great country, isn't it?
I spent the very early hours of this morning sitting in front of a TV with about 10 Rwandan friends who stayed up the whole night to watch all the results come in. They screamed and cried tears of joy and pride when Obama won.
But surprisingly, their favorite part of the whole evening? McCain's speech!
They watched in wonder and amazement as McCain spoke highly of Obama and said that we need to now come together as a country to support him. They said "Can you believe this?? The loser is now supporting and congratulating the winner! He is telling America to come together as one country to support the new president, even though he lost!! Could you imagine if something like this happened in Africa!! Only in America!!"
Friends from across Rwanda called me all morning to say congratulations- and some just screamed into the phone and I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying.
On the other hand, there is a great deal of suffering and violence going on across the border in Congo right now. Today's victory and celebration of freedom provides a stark contrast to the daily reality of brutality and oppression in so many places in Africa.
Living in a country free of violence is such a luxury.... we should never forget how truly lucky we are.
Love from Kigali,
Elizabeth"
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Friday, November 07, 2008
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters to Realize
How Empty Their Lives Really Are.
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
This just was a little too close to home to not laugh hilariously. Remember: it comes from the Onion.
Yes We Can, er, Will, er, Did! Or something. :)
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
This just was a little too close to home to not laugh hilariously. Remember: it comes from the Onion.
Yes We Can, er, Will, er, Did! Or something. :)
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Roger Cohen's op-ed at the NY Times
This article moved me today. But here's my favorite take-away line:
Rosa Parks sat in 1955. Martin Luther King walked in 1963. Barack Obama ran in 2008. That our children might fly.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Precinct #44
Meet my canvassing partners: Jayla, Jada, Jaesa and Kayla.
I arrived yesterday at precinct #44 with a list of more than 70 doors to knock. In Butler county, it's a critical precinct: section 8 housing with many Democrats who often don't vote to the rate that they could. It has always gone red. Senator Kerry lost Ohio by 7 votes per precinct. My one goal for this election: win seven votes. Steal them from the GOP. We knew we needed #44 this time if we were going to do our part for this election, to cut into the Butler County GOP votes.
As a result, we sent a canvasser first thing in the morning and then I went back to all the same doors three hours later, to follow up and make sure they all voted. I arrived in the bright sunshine, parked my car and was immediately surrounded by curious children. I let them in on my goal for the day and the next thing you know, I was led by the hand door-by-door.
Jaesa grabbed the clipboard and Jada helped me find the door numbers.
"Stay on the stoop. This house? They got a big dog and he bites."
"Is my momma on yo' list?"
I'd look (uh-oh, no!) and say, "Yes! Let's go see your momma." And we'd go.
One little boy saw my white button and asked to swap me for a blue one. I gladly did. Then I gave the blue one away to a grandmother who had never had the chance to get to an HQ to obtain one for herself. Her comment, "I just want a piece of history for myself." Well of course she does! We all do.
I was introduced to everyone, spoke to many more families than my list indicated. One woman had been told that she couldn't vote because she was no longer living in her precinct. Not true! I called our field organizer and got campaign lawyers to tell us how to help her vote. Provisional ballot. Found three more in this neighborhood who had been also discouraged from voting for the same reason.
People stopped me to find out the polling location, when the polls closed, wondering how to actually vote! One woman told me that the polling place was on a street where they began construction on election day right in the front making parking nearly impossible. So I reminded every voter: be patient. Park, vote. (What kind of bone-headed city worker set up road work on election day?!)
I met so many wonderful people, had a gang of about six kids trailing me by the time I was done (including two boys on bikes). It took me nearly four hours to meet everyone and help them get out to vote. I saw many who had voted between the first and second canvass.
By the time I left, I felt so wonderful that this group, these lower income families living in what we sometimes call "White Chester," were going to see an African American elected and their votes would help him get there.
Last night, our big Butler County volunteer team met at Champs to watch the results roll in. CNN projected for Ohio, and we cheered, wept openly, hugged each other, screamed till we were hoarse. We knew we had done it!
When CNN projected Obama President Elect, the house fell down. Noise, screams, phone calls, text messages, everyone hugging each other, even waiters rolled into our raucous party! I felt used up, totally exhausted, thoroughly happy... and then, Allan, our canvassing captain hurried to me to drag me over to one of our co-workers.
One of the poll workers from Precinct #44 had come to the party. Allan said, "Listen to her. You won't believe it."
"Julie, Precinct #44 went blue.... by 11 votes."
My jaw dropped. 11 votes.
She went on, "They streamed in all afternoon until about 5:00 p.m. I watched them and they came with their door hangers, looking up the polling place and showing up to vote. They were happy and proud."
That's when this election became utterly personal for me. All that work, the thousands of calls and door knocks, the hours, the passion, the writing... It all felt deeply worthwhile. I know my community in a way I never did before, I felt bonded to people I had not even known lived within miles of me, I felt united in spirit with the hopes of my neighbors.
11 votes. When I started back in February, I had hoped to get 7. We did it.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Eugene Robinson makes the most eloquent statement
about what this election means to the African American community, and by extension, then, what it means to and tells each of us about ourselves as Americans.
A New Kind of Pride
He writes:
I wanted to add that this is the core of my admiration for Barack Obama - he represents a new era in our country's self-understanding. In nearly taking the highest office in the land (and may well do so), he has shattered the belief that race can never be transcended. More tomorrow. For today, GOTV!
A New Kind of Pride
He writes:
Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been "vindicated" by his campaign's success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn't they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren't dreaming, the way that I do?Keep reading. So moving.
snip
For African Americans, at least those of us old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, this is nothing short of mind-blowing. It's disorienting, and it makes me see this nation in a different light.
You see, I remember a time of separate and unequal schools, restrooms and water fountains -- a time when black people were officially second-class citizens. I remember moments when African Americans were hopeful and excited about the political process, and I remember other moments when most of us were depressed and disillusioned. But I can't think of a single moment, before this year, when I thought it was within the realm of remote possibility that a black man could be nominated for president by one of the major parties -- let alone that he would go into Election Day with a better-than-even chance of winning.
Let me clarify: It's not that I would have calculated the odds of an African American being elected president and concluded that this was unlikely; it's that I wouldn't even have thought about such a thing.
African Americans' love of country is deep, intense and abiding, but necessarily complicated. At the hour of its birth, the nation was already stained by the Original Sin of slavery. Only in the past several decades has legal racism been outlawed and casual racism been made unacceptable, at least in polite company. Millions of black Americans have managed to pull themselves up into mainstream, middle-class affluence, but millions of others remain mired in poverty and dysfunction.
I wanted to add that this is the core of my admiration for Barack Obama - he represents a new era in our country's self-understanding. In nearly taking the highest office in the land (and may well do so), he has shattered the belief that race can never be transcended. More tomorrow. For today, GOTV!
Vote
What makes us all equal is the right to vote. Today's the day. Exercise your right, follow your conscience.
Thanks for all the wonderful conversations over this election season with me. Thanks for reading along when you disagreed, for engaging the ideas I offer, for considering the points I raise.
I love this country; I love its ability to reinvent itself. I'm moved this morning thinking that Obama has made it this far and could only achieve that dream in America. France wouldn't do it. We have shown a remarkable willingness to grow, transform, and reach out to the common good. To judge a person not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. That day, that dream is fulfilled.
Vote! It's your most basic right.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Obama's grandmother dies today... one day shy
I'm without words. Here's what Obama's sister wrote:
Also, another sad note: Obama Nev. director Terence Tolbert died today. Can you imagine working on this campaign for two years and dying the day before the election?
A statement from Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng:Is that even fair? I can't imagine the conflicted emotions Barack must be feeling today with his general election tomorrow tied to his grief over losing his grandmother.
It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer. She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances. She was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left this world with the knowledge that her impact on all of us was meaningful and enduring. Our debt to her is beyond measure.
Our family wants to thank all of those who sent flowers, cards, well-wishes, and prayers during this difficult time. It brought our grandmother and us great comfort. Our grandmother was a private woman, and we will respect her wish for a small private ceremony to be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you make a donation to any worthy organization in search of a cure for cancer.
Also, another sad note: Obama Nev. director Terence Tolbert died today. Can you imagine working on this campaign for two years and dying the day before the election?
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Church this morning.... the sense of history grows!
This morning at church, our pastor preached a sermon called "I am my brother's keeper." In it, he talked about five murders this weekend (one of a local African American pastor and four others of young blacks in Avondale). He is doing a series on how the church can make a difference to the neighborhoods of Cincinnati by knocking on every door for Jesus.
The sermon made an interesting contrast to the Youtbue he played at the start of the service. We watched a video montage of the history of the African American struggle for civil rights. It included pictures and drawings that traced the history through Jim Crow, Civil Rights, lynchings, MLK Jr., Katrina and more. By the end, when the "Change we need" signs flooded the screen, we were all in tears.
Church ended with everyone reminding each other to vote, offering rides to the precincts, finding out where to get buttons and more. The whole experience was so exhilarating. You could feel the palpable sense of anticipation over what promises to be a historic day... one RFK Jr. predicted on the campaign trail in 1968:
Things are moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years. There’s no question about it, in the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has. Prejudice exists and probably will continue to, but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.
40 years later, 2008... here we are, on the brink of that momentous occasion. Don't underestimate the value to our national pride, international identity and internal race relations the election of Obama represents. I'm in awe, to be quite blunt about it. Humbled to be a part of it.
Tonight, Obama speaks to 35,000 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. We're taking the kids. We want them to remember seeing the next president of the United States of America in their own city.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Make History!
If you're still undecided, here's what I encourage you to think about. In twenty, thirty, forty years - how would you like to look back on this election? Would you like to say that you voted for the first black president? Would you like to say you were a part of the ending of the Iraq war by your vote? Would you like to be able to say that you participated in the greatest presidential campaign effort in the history of America?
Barack Obama has given us a clear, well articulated plan of how he hopes to recover America's economic health, how he intends to protect our civil liberties, how he will bring a dignified close to the war in Iraq while also pursuing the terrorists where they live.
If you need that one nudge to decide between McCain and Obama, make history. Vote Obama.
Barack Obama has given us a clear, well articulated plan of how he hopes to recover America's economic health, how he intends to protect our civil liberties, how he will bring a dignified close to the war in Iraq while also pursuing the terrorists where they live.
If you need that one nudge to decide between McCain and Obama, make history. Vote Obama.
Simple Economics Differences: Talking Turkey
Check out the Obama Tax Cut Calculator here.
The following post is one way to understand bottom up tax cuts. It's very important that the false notions of trickle down are discredited because even as I canvass I routinely run into people who make far less than the $250K line, yet feel that Obama is going to tax them "some day" when they finally earn a lot of money. They are actually voting to increase their taxes now on their smaller income with the hope that some day they will earn more money and will then have a lower tax burden. Clearly that idea makes no sense, yet that is how effective the "fear of taxation" rhetoric of the Republican party has been!
Enjoy this little piece. I thought it was great.
Forwarded from the Obama email list:
A simple way to explain the difference and the effect of Barack Obama's middle class tax cuts and John McCain's continuation of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.
Under McCain 1 person gets a $10,000.00 tax cut
Under Obama for the same money - 10 people get $1,000 tax cuts
Net result under both plans the total tax cut = $10,000.00
Now McCain's 1 person and Obama's 10 people are thinking about buying a turkey.
McCain's 1 person because they can, would probably just go buy the turkey without giving it a second thought whether they got a tax cut or not - the result is the grocery store sells 1 turkey.
Obama's 10 people may consider buying a turkey a luxury but because of Obama's tax cut they decide it's a luxury they can afford and go buy a turkey - the result is the grocery store sells 10 turkeys.
Now lets look at the grocery store and the turkey. The store makes 1.25 on every turkey sold.
Under McCain the rich guy who got the $10,000.00 tax cut but who could afford to buy the turkey regardless, buys the turkey and the store makes $1.25
Under Obama the 10 people who got the $1,000.00 tax cut and who can now afford to buy their turkeys do so and the store makes $12.50
Because more people benefited from Obama's middle class tax cut the store was able to sell more turkeys and make more money. In addition since more people can now afford to buy turkeys - the store buys more turkeys from the turkey farmer who make more money. And since the demand for turkeys is up, the farmer can increase the number of turkeys he raises which means he'll buy more feed from the feed supplier who makes more money and on and on........
The net result is more of the middle class can afford to buy turkeys and more of the people who sell turkeys and feed make more money. Eventually enough people are making more money that tax revenues go up paying for the tax cuts and helping to reduce the federal deficit.
This is how the Obama plan grows the economy from the bottom up and pays for itself.
Under McCain, the Bush tax cuts remain in place and things stay the same. Only those who can afford to buy turkeys - tax cuts or not - buy turkeys which means less turkeys are sold at the store, less turkeys are bought from the farmer and less turkey feed is sold by the feed supplier. Since no one's making any more money than they had, revenues remain flat at best and no new or additional taxes are collected.
This means the federal deficit continues to increase straining the economy even further which cause the store to close, the farmer to loose his farm and the feed supplier to go bankrupt. But the rich guy still gets his tax cut and the turkey!
Under the McCain plan the only turkey you get is "more of the same" failed Bush economics.
The following post is one way to understand bottom up tax cuts. It's very important that the false notions of trickle down are discredited because even as I canvass I routinely run into people who make far less than the $250K line, yet feel that Obama is going to tax them "some day" when they finally earn a lot of money. They are actually voting to increase their taxes now on their smaller income with the hope that some day they will earn more money and will then have a lower tax burden. Clearly that idea makes no sense, yet that is how effective the "fear of taxation" rhetoric of the Republican party has been!
Enjoy this little piece. I thought it was great.
Forwarded from the Obama email list:
A simple way to explain the difference and the effect of Barack Obama's middle class tax cuts and John McCain's continuation of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.
Under McCain 1 person gets a $10,000.00 tax cut
Under Obama for the same money - 10 people get $1,000 tax cuts
Net result under both plans the total tax cut = $10,000.00
Now McCain's 1 person and Obama's 10 people are thinking about buying a turkey.
McCain's 1 person because they can, would probably just go buy the turkey without giving it a second thought whether they got a tax cut or not - the result is the grocery store sells 1 turkey.
Obama's 10 people may consider buying a turkey a luxury but because of Obama's tax cut they decide it's a luxury they can afford and go buy a turkey - the result is the grocery store sells 10 turkeys.
Now lets look at the grocery store and the turkey. The store makes 1.25 on every turkey sold.
Under McCain the rich guy who got the $10,000.00 tax cut but who could afford to buy the turkey regardless, buys the turkey and the store makes $1.25
Under Obama the 10 people who got the $1,000.00 tax cut and who can now afford to buy their turkeys do so and the store makes $12.50
Because more people benefited from Obama's middle class tax cut the store was able to sell more turkeys and make more money. In addition since more people can now afford to buy turkeys - the store buys more turkeys from the turkey farmer who make more money. And since the demand for turkeys is up, the farmer can increase the number of turkeys he raises which means he'll buy more feed from the feed supplier who makes more money and on and on........
The net result is more of the middle class can afford to buy turkeys and more of the people who sell turkeys and feed make more money. Eventually enough people are making more money that tax revenues go up paying for the tax cuts and helping to reduce the federal deficit.
This is how the Obama plan grows the economy from the bottom up and pays for itself.
Under McCain, the Bush tax cuts remain in place and things stay the same. Only those who can afford to buy turkeys - tax cuts or not - buy turkeys which means less turkeys are sold at the store, less turkeys are bought from the farmer and less turkey feed is sold by the feed supplier. Since no one's making any more money than they had, revenues remain flat at best and no new or additional taxes are collected.
This means the federal deficit continues to increase straining the economy even further which cause the store to close, the farmer to loose his farm and the feed supplier to go bankrupt. But the rich guy still gets his tax cut and the turkey!
Under the McCain plan the only turkey you get is "more of the same" failed Bush economics.
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