so for about, i don’t know, maybe 3 months now? i have been meaning to blog. i have even started a few posts. but every time i write something down, i get busy and distracted and the timeliness and all of my intentions are lost.
what i really want to get at here is – there is no excuse for my neglect of this blog. if the only goal is to initiate dialogue, the only necessary action is to say something. i need to stop editing and put some thoughts down.
so. this is a list of things i want to talk about.
1. the inauguration and the fact that the leader of this country is someone who agrees with me more than 75% of the time. how did that happen? how exciting that policy might soon support the important work that needs to be done? what doors are going to be opened for all of us? and what am i going to do with my anger if i can no longer direct it at the head of state?
2. between the individual amazingness of the election and the inauguration was the run-off. i was so disappointed by the results here in ga. more than that, i was surprised by the lack of mobilization. it was like everyone stopped caring after the general election. we were exhausted, i know, but we took such a step backwards from where we were just one month earlier. it was the kind of loss that makes one feel personally responsible, you know? i voted, but i did not do more.
3. happy anniversary roe v. wade. my celebration was most excellent and i heard jennifer baumgardner speak for a few minutes. she told a story about growing up in a home where she was taught to be pro-choice and pro-gay rights in a very detached, remote way. as in, abortion and homosexuality should be supported, but they won’t happen here. what i took away was the importance of reconciling our beliefs with our actual lives. i believe in that – in being open and honest and real and non-judgmental, even when we look at our own lives.
We’ve got a new President, and the White House will soon have a new hypo-allergenic, adopted, puppy mill-rescued canine playing on the grounds. Although determining what type of puppy to get Sasha and Malia is a task that will undoubtedly receive more scrutiny than his solution to the global economic crisis, President-Elect Barack Obama has substantially bigger fish to fry in the selection of educational institutions for his adorably sweet pre-Washington daughters.
A school for their daughters is probably the most difficult choice that Michelle and Barack will have to make in the coming eight (that’s right, I said it) years. Hopefully, when the family leaves the White House, Sasha will be 18 and Malia, 15. These girls will not only be learning some of the most important lessons of their life at their new school, but they will grow into young women. Thus, it is imperative that the President- and First Lady-elect read this review of the schools that the family should consider in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. As an educator and native of this city, I am certain that I can offer the Obamas the essential informed and unbiased opinion of the area’s educational institutions of all types: public, private, parochial, and other. Whether they listen is up to the omniscient intergoogleweb.
Despite Michelle Rhee’s efforts, the DC public school pickings are slim. Thus, we will definitely disqualify them for the running. Moreover, I don’t think that the Catholic and Christian schools in the area can hold a candle to the region’s independent schools, so that pretty much rules them out as well. Thus, in order of my increasing endorsement, here is what I feel are the Obamas’ best choices of schools for Sasha and Malia.
According to Sarah, there is a phone banker from our Aspinwall office who yesterday treated herself to a full size candy bar after every single sheet of calls she finished. (There are maybe 12 calls on a sheet.)
And speaking of candy, did you see this news story about the Pittsburgh resident* who denied candy to trick-or-treaters who were children of Obama supporters?
And speaking of Obama supporters…what a cast of characters Anne and I are working with in Etna, PA!
There’s 82-year-old Saul, a wheelchair-bound, oxygen tank-toting WWII veteran phone banker who gets saucy with the ladies in between calls. (He invited a 90-year-old canvasser (!) to have a seat on his lap.) Saul was the last volunteer to leave tonight; it took us and his wife (who has mobility issues herself) 15 minutes to get him into the van when he finally headed out. And he’ll be back at 10am.
between nursing school coursework, practical experience, the election frenzy, and my recent attendance at a statewide health student symposium, here are a few things i’ve been learning and concluding lately:
1. it’s bogus to call medical malpractice lawsuits the major factor in the rising costs of healthcare and health insurance. it is not in a lawyer’s interest to take on a medical malpractice lawsuit unless the payout promises to be really large, which is rare. the rise in insurance rates is mostly due to the poor economy and insurance companies having made bad investments like everyone else.
2. obama’s healthcare plan, which i thought was well explained in the third debate, is really genius in its option to buy into the federal healthcare plan. what this does is open the door to the option of a single payer system. mccain compared this to canada or england as if it were a bad thing. well, those systems have their problems, sure. but obama’s plan will let people decide if they want to move closer to a non-disciminatory single payer system, but in a very democratic, very american way, because we have to actually make the individual financial decision to do so.
WOW – which is what Barack said too! I was so proud of St. Louis on Saturday, when I was one of 100,000 people gathered at The Arch to hear Barack speak. Of course, it was exciting to see him (and hear more anecdotes about pie!), but it was the power of the crowd that really inspired me. It was a pretty joyful experience.
AND – I got to hang out with the folks from the Obama Mobile! These are some ambitious artists who are driving their prObama VW bus and original t-shirt art to every swing state before the election. They stopped in St. Louis this weekend, which brought my old roommate to town from NYC, and we had a blast! Fun art project for Obama.
A few weeks ago, at the end of “Camp Obama,” a two-day training in NYC, a couple hundred newly minted Deputy Field Organizers did a bit of reflection and shared our key learnings with the group. The idea was to recap and refresh before we all headed to the great swing state of Pennsylvania.
People wrote about everything from the nuts and bolts of voter contact (phone banking, canvassing) to the feelings of optimism that permeated the whole weekend.
Please note, however, that it was guest-scripted by Aaron Sorkin. I’m normally not a fan of Maureen Dowd’s writing – if you’re wondering why, you can read her book, “Are Men Necessary?” But I wouldn’t recommend doing so, it’s a big waste of time. Most of the time, I think Dowd is a pretty sorry excuse for one of the only women voices represented on the New York Times editorial page. But today is a great exception, thanks to her inviting Aaron Sorkin to write for her, and she deserves credit for the great idea to commission him to write it.
My friend, Nik, is driving nonstop across the country using only biodiesel next week. He is doing this for various reasons. Some of them are obviously noble, like spreading the good word about alternative energy sources. Others are fun, like the brazenness of taking on such a project/adventure. And others are economic, like marketing a specific brand of biodiesel fuel.
I have been thinking a lot lately about the intermingling of social responsibility and capitalism. It is not a topic I have ever internalized before – I entered the field of nursing because I felt called to direct service. And while my ideas span the macro, my work stayed pretty micro. But I recently had a discussion
Let’s turn our attention back to Barack, shall we? And maybe have some honest conversation about where he—not to mention the man behind the lipstick curtain—stand on the issues?
Jill Miller Zimon from Writes Like She Talks is posting a reason to vote for Obama and Biden every single day between now and the election.
What are your favorite other recent sources of news and commentary on the ISSUES and the CANDIDATES?
