So the big joke at our staff meeting today is that our boss has to go to diversity training. Again. For the 3rd time. And he swears it's not remediation - it is just how often they have it.
I don't know how our group could not be considered diverse - we have a Greek-Canadian, a Russian, a Texan, a Chicagoan, and me.
Diverse group, huh?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sore tooth
Why do teeth randomly hurt? I woke up this morning and the left side of my face freaking hurt! I suppose when it is raining and thundering and lightning like it was last night, maybe I crunch my jaw together or something.
All I know is if I bite together it does NOT feel nice. I suppose a moratorium on eating for a day wouldn't hurt me. Ok, it definitely wouldn't hurt me.
In any case, it makes for an uncomfortable day.
All I know is if I bite together it does NOT feel nice. I suppose a moratorium on eating for a day wouldn't hurt me. Ok, it definitely wouldn't hurt me.
In any case, it makes for an uncomfortable day.
What's my obligation?
I am heartsick about the possibility the direction of this country will continue down the same path as it has for the last seven years. Quite frankly, we cannot afford to have that happen. The economy is in the tank, we are in a war that is unwinnable, heathcare reform has not happened, and the best education policy that has come out is No Child Left Behind.
But how much can one person do?
At the very least (and most), VOTE.
Talk to your neighbors and friends.
Support Get Out the Vote efforts and register new voters.
Door knock with flyers and personal stories.
Send money if you choose.
The only way change can be had is if Americans support that change with a vote for their candidate.
But how much can one person do?
At the very least (and most), VOTE.
Talk to your neighbors and friends.
Support Get Out the Vote efforts and register new voters.
Door knock with flyers and personal stories.
Send money if you choose.
The only way change can be had is if Americans support that change with a vote for their candidate.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Yard work
Photos!
Before
In process, with roots being pulled
After!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!! Thanks Jeff and Lois, things look great!
Before
In process, with roots being pulled
After!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!! Thanks Jeff and Lois, things look great!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Voting Part I
Today is primary day! In Minnesota anyway. Although there is not much to vote on I still feel it is my civic duty to vote. And it will feel nice to check the box for Al Franken.
It will also be a good practice run for November since I am not 100% where to go, or how busy it will be, or how long it will take.
Hopefully I will also receive a sticker.
It will also be a good practice run for November since I am not 100% where to go, or how busy it will be, or how long it will take.
Hopefully I will also receive a sticker.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Pulling & Planting Trees
YAHOO! Jeff and Aunt Lois have been working soooo hard since Friday - check out everything that's been done!
3 arbovitae trees are cut down, roots cut, stumps pulled [thanks neighbors!], and disposed
10 wheelbarrows of rocks moved to the back,
5 trees purchased at Gerten's,
1/2 cubic yard of topsoil and 1/2 cubic yard of Western Red Cedar purchased,
2 trips to Menards and 1 to Home Depot,
3 new trees planted - Prairiefire Crabapple, Autumn Blaze Maple, Ruby Red Maple
Things are looking great - photos are forthcoming once I get them off the camera. I feel extremely lucky that while I was sick, at a retreat, and at work, these 2 have done so much great work!!!!
3 arbovitae trees are cut down, roots cut, stumps pulled [thanks neighbors!], and disposed
10 wheelbarrows of rocks moved to the back,
5 trees purchased at Gerten's,
1/2 cubic yard of topsoil and 1/2 cubic yard of Western Red Cedar purchased,
2 trips to Menards and 1 to Home Depot,
3 new trees planted - Prairiefire Crabapple, Autumn Blaze Maple, Ruby Red Maple
Things are looking great - photos are forthcoming once I get them off the camera. I feel extremely lucky that while I was sick, at a retreat, and at work, these 2 have done so much great work!!!!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Continued seething
I am still amped up about the attacks the Republicans made on community organizers.
About the only thing that has calmed me down is the idea they are digging their own hole by alienating normal people who want to make a difference.
This article sums up what I am feeling:
Community Organizers Put Country First
The Republicans have made it clear where their focus is this week with their convention slogan, "Country First." With the abundance of flags, chants of "USA, USA" and tributes to those in the military, they have been laying it on thick, which is traditional at GOP conventions. Sen. John McCain often has talked about the need for Americans to dedicate themselves to service, namely military, and he is on the money.
But a line of attack that was used consistently Wednesday night by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin calls into question whether community organizers put their country first. Palin focused on the issue in order to attack the Obama campaign for offering up Obama's community organizing work to counter her experience as mayor and governor. But when you examine Giuliani's and Palin's community organizer jabs — and the subsequent laughter by the Republicans in the Xcel Energy Center — the Democrats could have an opening.
After praising Palin's speech, I said Republicans can expect the Obama-Biden camp to seize on that point.
This morning, I read an e-mail from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who incorporated the community organizer argument into a fundraising appeal. Republican operatives I talked to said the lines were brilliant and that community organizers don't play to the GOP's strength. I disagree. And so do the many folks who have sent me angry e-mails. They include white Republicans, black Democrats and people from Small Town, USA, and Big City, America.
At a time when Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, trying to get by after layoffs, lacking health care, and facing pressing environmental issues, it's ludicrous to slam people who aren't asking the government for handouts but are doing what they can to make their neighborhoods and cities better.
I think of my parents. When I was a child growing up in the Clinton Park neighborhood in Houston, my parents were just regular folks trying to raise their five children (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin). They were always present at our local elementary school (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin) and were involved heavily in our church.
But our neighborhood was dying. Drugs were ravaging it. Older homeowners were dying, and their children didn't want to live there, so they began renting to people who really didn't care.
We saw abandoned homes, weeded lots, no sidewalks, a park falling into disrepair, and a senior citizen center shuttered. So my parents joined several neighbors and decided to form a civic club. Others called them crazy for trying to advance their ideas, but they didn't give up.
They enlisted their children in passing out fliers and putting up signs notifying people of the monthly meetings. Only a few folks showed up, but they kept going. And going. And going. And going.
After months and then years, we began to see progress. Stepped-up police patrols. Crack houses raided by the Houston police, DEA and FBI. Abandoned houses torn down. Weeded lots cut. More heavy-trash pickup days. New streetlights. New sidewalks. New sewer pipes. A refurbished park.
Bottom line: These average, low- to middle-income people didn't have political power. They focused on people power. They organized a community to take action.
So when Giuliani and Palin mocked community organizers, they didn't just toss a barb at Sen. Barack Obama; they also were demeaning Reginald and Emelda Martin. They were degrading the women who fought for their rights. They dissed labor activists and immigrant-worker activists, such as Cesar Chavez. They dismissed those in the civil rights movement, folks from small-town America who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They thumbed their noses at the Nelson Mandelas of the world, who want better lives for their children.
It would have been perfectly fine for Giuliani and Palin to say Obama's community organizing days don't amount to enough experience to qualify him to be president. But when you openly laugh at and mock those hardworking Americans who are in the trenches every day, then you really don't care about "Country First" or service.
Will this be a major deal or a ripple? Likely the latter. But the one thing I know about community organizers is that they know how to organize communities. And if the McCain-Palin ticket wants to win, it better not slap those folks it will need to organize voter registration drives and pool systems to get folks to the polls.
Community organizers always are told they can't do certain things or are dismissed as meaningless. Yet they often have the last laugh.
Rudy, Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain might want to remember that.
Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN contributor and the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
http://www.creators.com/opinion/roland-martin.html
About the only thing that has calmed me down is the idea they are digging their own hole by alienating normal people who want to make a difference.
This article sums up what I am feeling:
Community Organizers Put Country First
The Republicans have made it clear where their focus is this week with their convention slogan, "Country First." With the abundance of flags, chants of "USA, USA" and tributes to those in the military, they have been laying it on thick, which is traditional at GOP conventions. Sen. John McCain often has talked about the need for Americans to dedicate themselves to service, namely military, and he is on the money.
But a line of attack that was used consistently Wednesday night by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin calls into question whether community organizers put their country first. Palin focused on the issue in order to attack the Obama campaign for offering up Obama's community organizing work to counter her experience as mayor and governor. But when you examine Giuliani's and Palin's community organizer jabs — and the subsequent laughter by the Republicans in the Xcel Energy Center — the Democrats could have an opening.
After praising Palin's speech, I said Republicans can expect the Obama-Biden camp to seize on that point.
This morning, I read an e-mail from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who incorporated the community organizer argument into a fundraising appeal. Republican operatives I talked to said the lines were brilliant and that community organizers don't play to the GOP's strength. I disagree. And so do the many folks who have sent me angry e-mails. They include white Republicans, black Democrats and people from Small Town, USA, and Big City, America.
At a time when Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, trying to get by after layoffs, lacking health care, and facing pressing environmental issues, it's ludicrous to slam people who aren't asking the government for handouts but are doing what they can to make their neighborhoods and cities better.
I think of my parents. When I was a child growing up in the Clinton Park neighborhood in Houston, my parents were just regular folks trying to raise their five children (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin). They were always present at our local elementary school (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin) and were involved heavily in our church.
But our neighborhood was dying. Drugs were ravaging it. Older homeowners were dying, and their children didn't want to live there, so they began renting to people who really didn't care.
We saw abandoned homes, weeded lots, no sidewalks, a park falling into disrepair, and a senior citizen center shuttered. So my parents joined several neighbors and decided to form a civic club. Others called them crazy for trying to advance their ideas, but they didn't give up.
They enlisted their children in passing out fliers and putting up signs notifying people of the monthly meetings. Only a few folks showed up, but they kept going. And going. And going. And going.
After months and then years, we began to see progress. Stepped-up police patrols. Crack houses raided by the Houston police, DEA and FBI. Abandoned houses torn down. Weeded lots cut. More heavy-trash pickup days. New streetlights. New sidewalks. New sewer pipes. A refurbished park.
Bottom line: These average, low- to middle-income people didn't have political power. They focused on people power. They organized a community to take action.
So when Giuliani and Palin mocked community organizers, they didn't just toss a barb at Sen. Barack Obama; they also were demeaning Reginald and Emelda Martin. They were degrading the women who fought for their rights. They dissed labor activists and immigrant-worker activists, such as Cesar Chavez. They dismissed those in the civil rights movement, folks from small-town America who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They thumbed their noses at the Nelson Mandelas of the world, who want better lives for their children.
It would have been perfectly fine for Giuliani and Palin to say Obama's community organizing days don't amount to enough experience to qualify him to be president. But when you openly laugh at and mock those hardworking Americans who are in the trenches every day, then you really don't care about "Country First" or service.
Will this be a major deal or a ripple? Likely the latter. But the one thing I know about community organizers is that they know how to organize communities. And if the McCain-Palin ticket wants to win, it better not slap those folks it will need to organize voter registration drives and pool systems to get folks to the polls.
Community organizers always are told they can't do certain things or are dismissed as meaningless. Yet they often have the last laugh.
Rudy, Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain might want to remember that.
Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN contributor and the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
http://www.creators.com/opinion/roland-martin.html
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Community Organizing
I am still sick, so I hope my logic is somewhat sound - here is my question: How can Republicans possibly find fault with community organizing? Community organizers are responsible for things like food shelters, employment agencies, mental health facilities, urban housing, neighborhood clean ups - basic and 2nd level needs that affect ordinary Americans every day.
How can that be an un-noble thing? It takes a lot of leadership, skill, and influence to organize regular people, mostly volunteers, to donate their time and money into effective organizations that help the greater good.
I don't like this negativity that McCain is trying to push toward community organizing - bark up another tree.
How can that be an un-noble thing? It takes a lot of leadership, skill, and influence to organize regular people, mostly volunteers, to donate their time and money into effective organizations that help the greater good.
I don't like this negativity that McCain is trying to push toward community organizing - bark up another tree.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Still sick
Too...sick...to...post...
Sorry faithful readers, please hang in there and check back tomorrow!
Sorry faithful readers, please hang in there and check back tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Germs not allowed
Our household is sick. First Jeff on Tuesday, then me on Saturday night. What a way to spend Labor Day weekend.
Mom, Dad, Amy and I did stimulate the economy by shoe-shopping on Sunday, and then hitting the Renaissance Fair. It was really fun (more on this later)! But by the time I got home I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the sofa and sleep with a Kleenex box.
So I am posting, but only a little as I seriously feel terrible.
Maybe more later...
Mom, Dad, Amy and I did stimulate the economy by shoe-shopping on Sunday, and then hitting the Renaissance Fair. It was really fun (more on this later)! But by the time I got home I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the sofa and sleep with a Kleenex box.
So I am posting, but only a little as I seriously feel terrible.
Maybe more later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)