from the ashes….

Within a few days of last week’s election (was it only a week ago???) I was delighted and moved to be involved in a seven way email correspondance with friends I have known since childhood. Long scattered from our haunts in Baltimore to many different places…New York, North Carolina, Washington, Texas, Colorado, New Zealand, and one of us still keeping the faith in Baltimore, Hon.

The emails flew fast and furious – over a dozen in the space of an hour, from all over the country and from half way around the world. “How was your election day?” “How are people reacting where you are?” “Isn’t it amazing?” “I miss you guys and love you and hate that we’re all so far away from each other…”

Now make no mistake. We keep track of each other — we always have, from notes written on notebook paper, intricately folded and passed in Latin class (yes, guys, I still have that box of notes from 10th grade….mwhahaha)…to letters written in our college days (not many but precious…) to emails and now facebook and skype and twitter and IM.

But the last time we had this kind of cluster of communication? September 11, 2001. And again this summer when the brother of one of our nearest and dearest was killed. Horrible. Tragedy, on a national scale and then on a deeply personal one, pulled us all together from wherever we were at the time.

But this is new and different (like so much these days…). Rejoicing together, expressing hope for the country, for the future. For each other. Telling stories and sharing excitement.

When I was working as a social worker in the U MD AIDS clinic back in 1993, someone gave me a slip of paper that lived on the bulletin board above my desk for years:

“Grief shared is halved.  Joy shared is doubled.”

It was true then, when I was watching the daily tragedy of illness and fear and stigma and death that came with AIDS.

And it has always been true with these dear, dear, lifelong friends of mine. We have celebrated weddings and babies and degrees and creative projects and Big Moves. And we have grieved together the loss of friends, of family, tragedies and disappointments.

It has taken me several days to get around to completing this post. Because I was so completely awed by the realization that the last time we all connected this way was a time of tremendous tragedy and fear and uncertainty. And now we were connecting in joy and hope and excitement. I couldn’t find words to express how profound that felt to me. 

May it be the case that *this* turning point in our country’s history begin to heal some of the pain and loss and fear of the last 8 years (and so many more years than that.) May we all have occasion, in this new time, to renew our faith in our country and in each other. May we have many many more reasons to celebrate than to mourn. And may we turn to each other in love, no matter what.

Read Full Post »

Guest Posting from My Mom the Community Organizer

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but they are not from you,
And though they are with you they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in a place of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You can strive to be like them,
but you cannot make them just like you.
—“On Children” by Kahlil Gibran, as interpreted by Sweet Honey in the Rock

————

I have learned many lessons from watching my mom, and from long, involved, sometimes serious, sometimes hysterically giggling conversations.  And. I have in some ways had the honor and challenge of raising her as much as she has raised me. Through those same conversations. Through sharing music and movies and books and ritual. And now, through sharing excitement and wonder and plain wondering about the state of the world and our country.

I’ve written a little in this blog about how excited I am to watch the enthusiasm of the young people in my life as the Obama campaign, and now Presidency, has begun to unfold.

And now I am just as thrilled to watch my mother rediscover something in herself long ago put aside. But rather than describe what I have seen happening, I will let her speak for herself…following is the email my mom sent out to friends and colleagues after I told her about President Elect Obama’s www.change.gov.  May we all continue to inspire each other, one generation to another.

———————————-

http://www.change.gov/learn/transition/

Dear Friends –

A half hour ago I picked up a phone message from my daughter Laurie, telling me to click on the link above, and then call her. I did both – and could say little when we spoke, other than to say, “I’m stunned” over and over again.

Like the President-elect, I started out in the working world as a community organizer, hired in 1980 into one of the few remaining job slots open under the then-expiring Federal jobs program. I was a newly-minted single mom with no work experience outside the home since a summer job in high school. Over 25 years I learned about power, partnership, voice, collective wisdom and strength, incremental and transformational change, from a legion of Neighborhood Watch volunteers, food pantry users and operators, elected officials and their aides, journalists and TV reporters, not-for-profit employees and board members, executives and middle managers and workers, and all manner of people wanting to make a difference and willing to participate in civic life.

Visiting the Transition Team website – a US government website – I felt like Rip Van Winkle: it seems like a 100 years since there was an opportunity for civil conversation, critical thinking, and creativity in the public arena. Certainly more than 40 years since I’ve heard any kind of call to service in civic life.
Whatever your political persuasion, please click on the link, and consider how you want to make your views and vision known to our President-elect’s Transition Team. This website is an amazing declaration of transparency in process.

Warmly,

Sara

http://www.ruscombe.org/alternativehealthpractitioners/seisenberg.html

Read Full Post »

For all of us who are wondering “What’s Next?”

If you miss the days (yes the days of earlier in the week…) of knocking on doors, making calls, getting out the vote, Working For Change…and were wondering what to do with all the energy and excitement generated by the campaign…www.change.gov

Here’s the first blog entry from the site. Yes, of *course* there’s a blog.

——————————————————————————–

Wednesday, November 5, 2008 04:09pm EST /

Change has come to America

Last night, President-Elect Barack Obama delivered the final speech of a presidential campaign that promised change in Washington:

Now the work begins to deliver on this promise by planning the agenda and priorities for the Obama Administration. As the President-Elect reminded the country:

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it. It also offers an opportunity to be heardabout the challenges our country faces and your ideas for tackling them. The Obama Administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things. President-Elect Obama reminded the country of our limitless potential when he claimed this victory:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

———————————————————————–

I cannot tell you how excited I am to see that our Community Organizer in Chief is committed to creating the same transparency and participation in government as he did in his campaign. How extraordinary. I am moved to tears and near hysterical hopefulness yet again.  Do I get to feel this way every day now?

Our President Elect wants to know about our ideas. He wants to engage us in service. He wants us to know what his policy agenda is and wants to know what we think about it and if we have ideas that could help. He wants us to know moment by moment what the process is as he selects his cabinet, as the transition from What has Been to What Will Be unfolds.

And now it’s a New New Day in America.  I’m going to bed now so I can rest up for tomorrow’s excitement. I might just have to get used to saying “God Bless America” on a regular basis.

Read Full Post »

Daring to Hope

I woke up this morning thinking of a Poem, “Merger,” by artist Judy Chicago.

And then all that has divided us will merge

And then compassion will be wedded to power

And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind

And then both men and women will be gentle

And then both women and men will be strong

And then no person will be subject to another’s will

And then all will be rich and free and varied

And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many

And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance

And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old

And then all will nourish the young

And then all will cherish life’s creatures

And then everywhere will be called Eden once again

I can’t recall a time that I haven’t gotten a little choked up at the recitation of this prayer. No matter how many times I say it, it never becomes rote for me, as can happen with liturgy we grow to know in our heads word for word, and then cease to know “by heart.”  This prayer, for that is what it is for me, I know by heart.

And so, today, without doors to knock on, or calls to make, without any more vote to get out today, this is what is on my mind and in my heart.

Kiddo and I did spend Election Day afternoon riding around the far flung Wake County ‘burbs, knocking on doors. Saying grinning, knowing Thank Yous to the folks who had already voted, encouraging folks who hadn’t voted yet to get to the polls and making sure they had all the information they needed about polling places and times.

It really was fairly uneventful — we were just visiting homes of people who had been previously identified as supporters of Barack Obama. So…no spirited political debates….no arguments or tension. Just navigating around back roads unfamiliar to both of us, Kiddo reading off addresses for me to feed into the GPS on my phone and looking out for the house numbers…sometimes, our feeling of excitement about the election and what was at stake was overshadowed by our feeling of triumph simply at finding the next house on the list….”Do you really think this is a road?” “That *can’t* be the house…let’s keep going.” (there was a Confederate flag out front…) “Oh – *here* it is! I hope someone is home!”

All in all, we learned the ins and outs of Kennebec Road and environs more than we ever thought we’d want to…we met some very cheerful, hopeful people. We left election day information in a lot of screen doors. I wasn’t sure Kiddo got the kind of excitement of the day I had hoped canvassing would give her.

But when we were sitting side by side on the sofa, watching Barack Obama speaking to All of Us from Grant Park on Tuesday night, I turned to her and said “You know, we helped make this happen.”

She turned to me and just grinned. A kid who knows she can make a difference. Maybe a kid who will celebrate her 18th birthday a year and a half from now by registering to vote.  Maybe a kid who will knock on doors and make phone calls again for the wellbeing of the people and the world around her.

But today, which after all is a Beginning, a kid who knows she did her part.  A little bit of Eden Once Again right there on the living room sofa.

Read Full Post »

still time to get voters to the polls in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado

Please go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/votercontact/landing and make some calls to encourage people to get out and vote.  I just spent the last several hours on the phone with folks all over Pennsylvania — lots of folks told me, with great pride, that they voted for Obama! I also left lots of messages reminding folks to get out and vote.

The Obama website makes it fun and very easy to make these calls and make a difference.

So if you’re home from the polls and too nervous and excited to “relax” and watch the returns, please pick up your phone and reach out to our fellow Americans out West — especially with the media’s temdency to call things long before the polls close, it’s really important to remind everyone that their vote counts!

Thanks, Everyone, for doing your part!!!!!

Read Full Post »

Get out the vote help needed in Media PA NOW!!! Door to door or Phone from home!!!

Just got home from canvassing in NC — have to work for a couple of hours and then I’ll be on the phones til polls close.  I got the following email from the Moveon.org folks about voter turnout in PA.  Please take a few minutes to log onto http://my.barackobama.com/page/votercontact/landing and make some calls encouraging newly registered voters to get out and vote? 

The Obama campaign’s plan for victory in Pennsylvania relies on a record turnout by newly registered voters. As of right now, many of them still haven’t voted, and the campaign needs more volunteers to get out the vote.
We’re too close to victory to leave this to chance. Please drop whatever you’re doing and go to the Media Obama office if you can. We’ve come too far to slow down now. Can you help out this afternoon?

http://my.barackobama.com/page/votercontact/landing

—————————-

And hot off the presses, a What You Can Do email from the Obama campaign:

There are still a few hours to make a big difference in this election.

Before the polls close in Pennsylvania — a crucial battleground state — here’s what you can do:
If you haven’t already — VOTE TODAY:

Find out where to vote
Call or email everyone you know and make sure they’ve voted.
Help turn out voters at a volunteer event near you:

Find the closest event
Go back to your polling location and encourage everyone to stay in line until they vote. Anyone who is in line before the polls close can cast their ballot, no matter how long the line.
If you can’t leave your house, get out the vote by calling voters:

Choose the state you’d like to call
The election in your state is going to be close — and you can help bring the change we need.

Make history right now by voting and helping others vote.

Thanks for everything you’re doing,

Obama for America

Read Full Post »

Just when I thought I couldn’t be more excited….

…16 year old Kiddo is joining me to knock on doors to get out the vote for Obama in Fuquay Varina, NC. She’s making me an Obama tee shirt even as we speak. Let’s hear it for an inspired Next Generation.

No one I’d rather be canvassing with.  As if I didn’t already have enough good reasons to vote and get out the vote.  K, her sister, and their friends, my little west coast nephews, and all the other kids I am blessed to have in my life….the Best Reasons to Vote. Ever.

Read Full Post »

DO NOT VOTE FOR DEMOCRAT FOR PENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL

 got this from my synagogue listserv and am forwarding it to you.
Please circulate widely and quickly.  Call folks if you need to.  In
our zeal to support Obama we must not blindly support all the
Democratic candidates.  The Democrat for Attorney General is rabidly
anti-immigrant.  According to two immigration attorneys from my
synagogue, he personally orchestrated anti-immigrant raids in the
Allentown-Bethlehem region and is using anti-immigrant policies as a
wedge issue.  We can not as Jews, and as people of conscience,
inadvertantly vote candidates like this into office.  So don’t vote
straight Democratic–sometimes splitting your vote is the right thing
to do.
Shoshana Bricklin
*************************************************************

A Democrat for Obama and Republican Tom Corbett?
(A reason to split the ticket) by Ken Trujillo

I am a strong Barack Obama supporter and I look forward to a
resounding victory in November.  However, I fear his coattails might
mean that Tom Corbett loses his bid for reelection.  In my opinion,
that would be a shame.

Having headed the campaign of Tom Corbett’s last opponent my decision
to support Attorney General Corbett initially struck some of my
friends as odd.  However, after discussing it for more than a minute,
every one I speak with comes away with the same view.  Tom Corbett has
been a fine attorney general and deserves to be reelected.  Just as
importantly, his opponent, Democrat John Morganelli, would be a
disaster.
On the merits, in endorsing Corbett, the Philadelphia Inquirer
recognized that he has completed his goals and has launched an
important corruption investigation in Harrisburg.  Similarly, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorsed Corbett, noting that “In addition to
the public corruption unit, Mr. Corbett created a child predator
section that has arrested more than 160 child sex-abusers and his
staff presents effective and age-appropriate educational programs for
adults and children on Internet dangers. He has continued
multijurisdictional drug prosecutions, long a staple of the office,
and he created a unit that coordinates efforts to fight fraud aim ed
at older Pennsylvanians.  His website is a useful spot to register for
Pennsylvania’s Do Not Call list, to lodge complaints against
unscrupulous businesses and to get advice to guard against identity
theft and on many other practical topics.”
Even his local newspaper, on the other hand, has rejected Morganelli.
The Morning Call said it looked for a reason to endorse Morganelli and
couldn’t.  http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-t.6642440oct24,0,4474680.story.
 Morganelli has made immigrant bashing a staple of his career.  So
much so that his endorsements are coming from the most radical
anti-immigrant groups.  For example, Mornganelli is touting his
endorsement by Pennsylvanians for Immigration Control and Enforcement.
 According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, this is a “‘nativist
extremist’ organization, meaning that they target individual
immigrants rather than immigration policies.”  Morganelli’s top two
crime fighting priorities on his website are to abolish parole for
violent felonies and “protect Pennsylvania from illegal criminal
aliens.”  http://www.johnmorganelli.com/.  All you need to do is
Google Morganelli and immigrants and you’ll see exactly what he is
about.  < /SPAN>

In evaluating candidates, Ed Rendell often asks “does the person have
a good heart and a good mind?”  As a good Democrat, I’ve considered
that test and in my opinion Tom Corbett passes and Morganelli fails.
That is why I will split my ticket and vote for Barack Obama and Tom
Corbett.

Ken Trujillo is a Philadelphia lawyer, the former City Solicitor of
Philadelphia and was the Chair of the Eisenhower for Attorney General
campaign in 2004

“Activism pays the rent on being alive and being here on this planet.”
–Alice Walker

Read Full Post »

voting info

Election 2008 Voting Information
( from MoveOn.org)

Today, November 4th, is Election Day! Remember to vote–not just for Barack Obama, but for Congressional, state and local candidates as well.
Where and when do I vote?

Find your polling place, voting times, and other important information by checking out these sites and the hotline below. These resources are good, but not perfect. To be doubly sure, you can also contact your local elections office.

* Obama’s VoteForChange site: voteforchange.com
* League of Women Voters site: vote411.org/pollfinder.php
* Obama’s voter hotline: (877) US4-OBAMA (or 877-874-6226)

What should I do before I go?

* After you’ve entered your address on either Vote For Change or Vote411, read the voting instructions and special rules for your state.
* Voting ID laws vary from state to state, but if you have ID, bring it.
* Check out all the voting myths and misinformation to look out for: http://truth.voteforchange.com/

What if something goes wrong?

* Not on the voter list? Make sure you’re at the right polling place, then demand a provisional ballot.
* If you’re voting on an electronic machine with a paper record, verify that the record is accurate.
* Need legal help? Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE
* Try to get video of the problem and submit it to VideoTheVote.org

Want to do more?

* Text all of your friends: “Vote Obama today! Pass it on!”
* Volunteer at your local Obama office. Find an office here or here.
* Make calls from home for Obama.

Now everybody go vote!!!

Read Full Post »

Today is the day – Vote!

No story to tell in this post. Just this — Please vote! The power you have today to make a difference in this world is beyond words. It’s all about action today.  Take that power, get to your polling place, and cast your ballot for everything you believe in, everything you ever hoped this country and this world could be, every person you care about for whom you want a world that is just and honorable, safe and beautiful.

Thanks!

Read Full Post »