Outrage and Sadness

I am very upset and angry about abortion provider Dr. George Tiller's assassination. He was a hero for women's reproductive rights and health, a hero to abortion providers across the country, and a warm and caring soul. The hypocrisy of his being gunned down by an anti-choice nut job is just overwhelming. I don't even know what to say beyond that other than I have the utmost respect and gratitude for doctors who provide this vital service to women across the country and the world. There are fewer and fewer of them, and their targeting is abominable.

I hope to attend vigils in the Bay area should they materialize. If you want to send a note to his family expressing your support and condolences, visit the Feminist Majority Foundation action alert page.

Work... Life?

When I was about to graduate high school, I had this depressing epiphany. Everything I do in high school, I realized, was done in pursuit of a great college experience at a great college. Then, I concluded, everything one does in college (at least academically) is in pursuit of a great job or great graduate school. But that's when it ended, right? Wrong.

I've entered the working world, the professional world, full speed ahead. My boss encouraged me to join the professional organization of fundraisers called AFP (the Association of Fundraising Profesionals). Not only have I joined, but I have joined a committee (the collegiate chapter - sounded like a good idea because I am so recently collegiate, and it feels more like a college club than it has any right to be) AND joined the mentorship program. I'm a little overwhelmed. Mostly because since I joined AFP, work has been insane. But the larger problem than stress is this: all of the professional advancement I am undergoing is causing me to think about it ALL THE TIME. As an example, while running today (yes, sometimes I exercise), I ran by a garage sale - and thought to myself, "I wonder what they do, I should go and take some business cards." Truly desperate, I am not. Truly INSANE, I am.

So I have decided to begin a new full-time career on the weekends of chilling out. Also, no more AFP extracurriculars for awhile. We all have our limits. This is my new one. And I will begin being more lazy right after sending an email to the guy at the Dartmouth alumni mixer I attended on Thursday... AHHHHH!!!

My brother would be so proud. That alone is enough to make me question my actions.

...And I'm Back!

There's internet working, so I figured I'd take advantage and update the blog during non-working hours.

I will admit it - I have a crush on Obama. He is getting more and more liberal, at least in my head - and his ideas outlined in his budget are top rate from that perspective. He's taking on healthcare reform, education reform, and ending our dependence on foreign sources of energy. He is the best. But here is why I think so - I had an epiphany today.

It's contrast. For eight years, we had Bush. We had defense spending, largely in the form of an unjust war, a widening of the gap between rich and poor via tax cuts that put nothing in the pockets of most, lots in the pockets of the few and the wealthy, and no progress on anything. We saw our rights disappearing before our very eyes. We had an increase of security at the airports. I saw guns - and not just any guns, machine guns- at JFK Airport. We had fear. Now, we have something different.

People are excited. Maybe it's too much excitement and some time in the near future we'll go back to ignoring the politics as it turns usual, but it feels like someone's turning the page and putting that chapter behind us. Appropriately enough, the person who is doing that is a reader - Barack Obama. He's so different. He's more pragmatic than I think I'll end up liking, but so far, his priorities are in line, and I LOVE the way he speaks. He is awesome- and he is oh so much better than what we are used to hearing.

Fareed Zakaria: "In Washington, when you want to increase government spending, it is called "investment," not "expenditure." Wasteful spending is spending - good spending is investment in the future." Touche.

One other thing on my mind is this: this lawsuit against the creator of the Obama "Hope" poster. He changed it into art instead of an AP photograph - so it's his now. I don't get how that couldn't possibly fall under fair use. He changed the colors, even changed the angle of the head - and transformed its purpose. If every street artist has to pay $5,000 to use that photograph (and believe me, I'm sure that is what it would be worth just to purchase the original copyright- because I know how much it costs to use the NY Times logo), that would put the kibosh on street art. We can't afford that. I'm worried the Supreme Court isn't on our side, the side of poor but creative. We'll see.

Alright, I'm done for tonight. Peace out.

Working Already? And DOING GOOD??

This guy rocks. He's been in office for three days, and already, he's signed an order to close Guantanamo, cleaned up ethics, and the best one right now, REPEALING THE GLOBAL GAG RULE!! How awesome is that?

He's making good decisions so far and moving quickly to do stuff - I'm impressed almost as much as I was emotional when he was inaugurated. Seriously, so proud, so happy, so... hopeful.

A New Year, A New Post

Well, I have been more than derelict in my blogging lately. We have this problem in our apartment... the internet cannot find us there. It is very sad indeed. Thus, here I am, sitting at work after hours and writing a blog post.

Anyway, Happy New Year to the reader - I'm channeling Car Talk's hosts, Click and Clack because I noticed I only have one follower of my blog. California January weather officially wins. I haven't put on more than a sweatshirt so far this winter, and it's only going to get warmer. Even while we were running to catch the fireworks at midnight on the Embarcadero in San Francisco it was warm! Perhaps it was just me running that made it warm, but it couldn't have been very chilly if I had to peel my clothing off upon the return to my friend's place to sleep that night. This was the best New Year's celebration I had ever had. Yes, there was drinking, but there was also stimulating conversation and discussion. It was not all revelry, but it was fun.

Still searching for a full-time job for the "missus," but all in all, we are happy. My parents are coming to visit the Bay Area for the first time (ever for my mom, in 40-odd years for my dad), so I am trying to come up with interesting travel plans to keep them busy and happy. It won't be too hard because I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country.

Work is good. As can be expected in a workplace full of women, there is never a dull moment, and rarely a moment goes by without some degree of drama. Today was almost entirely drama-free, however, so hooray for small miracles. I sat upstairs, all by my lonesome, while employees with whom I have little contact scurried around the building unseen and largely unheard, and I worked my bum off. Now I am satisfied, no longer stressed, and barely ahead of the curve. Every day is a struggle for me to take things slower and do them better, but this is my cross to bear and I am glad to be employed.

What else can I say? Saw The Last King of Scotland on Tuesday and had nightmares about it. Yesterday, I watched the gf cry during Charlie Wilson's War. We had both had wine and were upset about the state of the world and the universality of hate. Why, truly, can we not all get along? Tomorrow, The Savages arrives, and I will have to watch that by myself, for the gf is not yet at the point where she can be at peace with a movie about nursing homes. This past weekend, we received Don't Mess with the Zohan, which I encourage you all to see. It is an entertaining, if not somewhat crude, take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And it's very funny. Perhaps now is not the best time to watch it - or maybe it's just the right time, I'm not sure. I'll let you be the judge. All in all, to sum up: Netflix is awesome.

Finally, here is a photo (from the NY Times) for your thoughts. Think - I dare you.

It's Never Too Late... Or Is It?

I hope you all read this blog post. Mostly because I don't think anyone is, but especially for this post.

I found this positively HILARIOUS video mini-musical about gay marriage created by tons of Hollywood actors and very clever directors. It is amazing... but I wish they had done it like 4 weeks ago. Then we could have all moved on with our lives. It stars Jack Black as Jesus, Neil Patrick Harris as himself, and hippies doing battle with religious zealots in the form of actors and actresses from Saturday Night Live, the West Wing, and of course, Dewey Cox. I hope you all enjoy it!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Studs Terkel and This American Life

I am listening to a This American Life episode with Studs Terkel interviews. He was adept in getting great stories from people. This particular episode is dealing with the Great Depression, his most famous topic. The production was "A Gathering of Survivorsr: Voices of the Great American Depression."

One of the last women he interviewed was talking about how she found out President Roosevelt had 80 cufflinks; some ruby, some emerald, some diamond. How could one person have so much while so many people are starving, she thought. Amazing. There are so many people like that out there, that feel that way, especially now, and yet socialism is still a bad word. "Sharing the wealth" is such a bad thing.

I think it was the same woman who was later talking about how she came to understand that Black people were the same as White people. She said that after the Great Depression, there was a lot of propaganda dividing Americans. Yeah, you all went through all this terrible poverty, but you're white, so you're better. One of her realizations was of gender. She saw a huge white man slam the door in the face of a grocery clerk, a black woman, as she took his groceries to his car for him. She cursed him off, and it was one step towards this realization that a certain kind of people aren't different or inferior or superior than another kind.

I love This American Life. I cannot help thinking that if more people listened to this show, we would live in a different world. Maybe that's not true. Maybe people could divorce what they hear from what they live. But maybe, just maybe, it would make one person change their behavior towards those less fortunate or in positions where they have no power to change their situations, controlled by a machine much larger than themselves.

Maybe that will be one of the lessons of this "minor" economic downturn. People are losing their homes, their livelihoods, their cars... do you think that they will realize that the important thing to do is to stick together?