Category: current events

I’ve been able to stay away from writing about politics for a while now, but I just can’t stop myself on this one. The whole Terry Schiavo case is crazy. It smacks of hypocrisy and pandering, and a poor brain-dead woman is caught in the middle. It gets even worse when you realize that the Right only seems to care about white people with money who face terrible end-of-life decisions. When it’s a poor black family in Texas, I guess the “culture of life” doesn’t apply (see Blog for America).\
How horrible is that? George W. Bush signed the bill in Texas – if you can’t pay, your loved one gets the plug pulled. They did it to a six-month old baby, whose parents still had hope. Terry Schiavo’s husband, and her doctor’s have no hope left. Medically, she’s not coming back. Yet, the Right goes apeshit trying to save a woman past saving, but lets a poor black child die. What does that tell you?\
Unless you bow your head in the same direction as our’s, none of these lofty ideals like the “culture of life” apply to you. If you happen to be poor, or a different color, we’ll put you to death, bomb your country into the stone age, let you waste away without any help and if you happen to go bankrupt, well, you’re screwed. If you’re white, and rich, you can declare bankruptcy without consequence, get tax breaks for offshoring, and profit from the deaths of thousands. What a country!

Here’s what I sent to the local papers… Apparently, my local delegate is quite the fundamentalist.\
To the Editor:\
Delegate Dick Black’s extremist agenda has reached a point where he is literally willing to throw the baby out with the bath water. He wants to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies, and then he wants to abandon the children they produce. How else can one interpret his latest bill (HB 2921) that would prevent certain families from adopting children?\
All indications are that children of gay parents leadnormal, fulfilled lives. The American Psychological Association has reviewed studies of children of gay parents and has concluded that “there is no evidence to suggest that lesbians and gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of gay men or lesbians is compromised in any respect relative to that among offspring of heterosexual parents. Not a single study has found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.”\
Thus, it seems that Black’s bill to prevent gays from adopting is nothing more than another mean-spirited attempt to doom parentless children to orphanages or a succession of foster families rather than allow them to be adopted by parents who will love and nurture them, while he requires mothers of unwanted children to bring them into the world.\
There are seven thousand children in Virginia awaiting adoption. He has no backing in science, as there are no credible studies he can cite. Delegate Black is using prejudice and junk science to keep those children from having every opportunity to find a loving home to call their own. He is preying on our hidden and unreasonable fears to further his extremist agenda, and trying to marginalize those that doesn’t fit into his narrow world view.\
Signed,\
Kevin Lawver

I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived- yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace. What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.\
And…\
bq. The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough- more than enough- of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success.\
All from John F. Kennedy. I guess he was wrong about the second one. We’re getting pretty good at starting wars. I wish we weren’t.

I really don’t want to write this, but I said I would. I read Ed Schultz’s Straight Talk from the Heartland over the past week or so. I was expecting a lot from this book, probably unfairly. Ed Schultz is a talk radio guy from North Dakota, and is apparently a rising star in the progressive talk radio world (it’s a small world, I know). Unfortunately, I’d never heard of him. But, from the info I saw before I got the book, it looked like just what I was looking for: a book about progressive values for conservatives. I’ve been dying for one, and it just doesn’t exist (that I know of… if you know of one, please clue me in). Books from authors on both sides of the ideological divide are usually cheerleading affairs for their own kind. From Al Franken to Sean Hannity, they’re not trying to convert anyone.\
I was hoping this was the one. It’s not. It’s so not, it’s not even a good cheerleading book. I didn’t learn anything new from this book other than “Big Eddie” has a healthy ego and played some college football. His writing style is probably the same as his speaking style: a Limbaugh-ian false modesty wrapped in short, punchy sentances. It works great on radio. In a book, it makes for painful reading.\
Like I said, maybe I’m expecting too much from this book, and this review is a reflection of my dashed expectations. But, at its core, this just isn’t a very good read. It takes a while to get started, and well, feels like it never really does. If you’re a listener of his show, you’ll probably like it because you can imagine him speaking. Actually, this would probably be a pretty good book-on-tape. But, compared to Al Franken or Joe Conason’s books (my two faves), this is junior varsity material.

Well, that was fun. Fun, as in not really fun, extremely stressful and heartbreaking. Congratulations to the winners, and a pat on the back for all the losers (including me). Before anyone starts thinking it, or assuming I think it, I don’t don’t think anyone “stole” this election. I think the GOP won it. I don’t like how they won it, but it was well within the rules and no dirtier than our side played it (from what I know now, you never know). I think everyone misjudged the fear that ran as an undercurrent of the election.

What have I learned from this election? It sucks to lose. It sucks worse to lose when you’re personally invested. I hate losing. I’m not good at it. Today has been horrible, but tomorrow should be better. I told Daniel this morning, “I’m sorry. I tried.” I did. I wrote here about why everyone should vote for Kerry. I volunteered, although not enough. I could have done more. Next time, I will.

Some good things happened because of this election. People who’ve never run for office ran, and some of them won. People who had completely checked out of the process woke up and voted. More people voted in this election than any in the last three decades. More people voted against Bush than have voted against any sitting president in history. Young people got involved in the process in record numbers, along with record numbers of minority voters. We, once again, have an engaged electorate. Hopefully, this means that some of the things politicians were able to get away with while the public was asleep won’t be so easy to pull off now (on both sides, I’m against chicanery in a bipartisan way). The more people watching and speaking up, the better.

As bad as I feel today, I’m more committed than I was yesterday. Spending those three hours at the polls yesterday was energizing, an experience I’ll never forget. I was a part of the process, however small. Our district went for Kerry, one of only seven in Loudoun County. I’m surprisinged at how proud of that I am, even though I had very little to do with it. Instead of going away and hiding, I’m going to get more involved. I’m going to do more, not less. Next time, I don’t want any doubts about what more I could have done to help.

I’ve been thinking a lot about activism, local politics and being part of a community – three things I’ve never really been involved in before. I’ve never felt like a part of something, like I belonged. I’ve written about that before in relation to Church, but I feel the same way about my community as well. Before living here, I’d never really lived anywhere long enough to put down roots. It’s time. It’s time to get involved. It’s time to stand up. Being an activist is a good thing. It means you’re active; you’re a part of a larger whole working for something you all believe in. It’s the only way things change. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I want to be a part of that group.

I just woke up, and apparently, the world’s gone crazy again. The one small consolation I can take from all of this is that our precinct went Kerry. A lone spot of blue in VA’s sea of red.

UPDATE: Another small consolation: even though I spent last week eating out in California, my blood pressure is way down, and I lost seven pounds last month. Again, it’s a small consolation, but today, I’ll take whatever I can get.

I wanted to get this down before the polls close, and would have done it sooner, but Jen had to go get her hair cut (looks fabulous, by the way), and Brian was cranky. I haven’t seen any exit polls, so this is the same prediction I made last week in California, and the same prediction I made to anyone who would listen.

Kerry is going to win, and it’s not going to be that close. He’ll be outside the “margin of litigation” in Florida and Ohio, and will probably take a couple surprise states like Arizona or Virginia and maybe Arkansas. He’ll get more than 300 electoral votes, and we’ll know tonight who the winner is.

There you go. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong; but, I believe this one. I’ve never felt more strongly about an election, and I actually got a little choked up after voting this morning, and then leaving the polling place this afternoon after volunteering. The Republican presence was almost non-existant, and they had no visible Get Out The Vote activities going on. The Democrats were mobilized, organized and dedicated, some volunteers getting there this morning at 5:30 and staying until 2. If we lose, it won’t be because we did anything wrong, or missed an opportunity.

Please go vote today. If you’re in Sterling, and you vote at the Farm Heritage Museum, I’ll be there from 12-2. I hope to see you there.

Go Kerry!!