babyboomerette

Glory, Glory Hallelujah . . .

There were few dry eyes in the nation (for anyone who truly cares about America) on Tuesday when our 44th President took office.  It wasn't just because he is our first African-American president - though this is something we can all be proud of.  It was because of all this bright, hopeful, principled man represents - he represents the BEST in all of us.

President Obama (how lovely to write those words) calls to each of us to create our own world, contribute in our own way to building a better country.  He assigns responsibility on himself, and rightfully, on us, as to what the outcome of the current situation - economically, politically, spiritually - will be for America.

He's been president a little over 48 hours and hit the ground running.  After dancing all night with the most elegant first lady since Jackie (one who's already up to much more than redecorating the White House), he got into the Oval Office and began his day by making phone calls to Israel and Palestine, then announced the toughest lobbyist restrictions in history, before going on to about a dozen other things.

Today he gave the order to close the doors of one of America's most shameful sites, Guantanamo.

Tomorrow, who knows?  Already it's a challenge keeping up with The O Man. 

I love that.

This is another of those times when my heart is too full to say anything more, except repeat what someone from North Carolina said in the newspaper yesterday . . .

"Rosa sat, so Martin could walk . . . Martin walked, so Obama could run . . . Obama ran, so our children could fly."

Yes they did. Yes we can.

God Bless America.

Passing the torch . . . until it's time to pick it up again

Last Sunday morning my friend Barb and I jumped up and down in our motel room in Cortez Colorado as Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama!  (He also soundly put the McShame/Palin campaign in their place which made me love him even more.)  To hear a devout old Republican soldier and FFB (former friend of Bush) take a stand for the man we were spending our weekend campaigning for was sweeter than hot syrup on pancakes!

We then went took ourselves to Pippo's, ate a huge celebratory breakfast and started up one street and down another knocking on doors.  It was a beautiful autumn day and many people were not home but we had a few fascinating conversations.  Some people were still undecided, still carefully gathering information, asking questions, pondering how they would spend their vote - because that is exactly what it is like for people in swing states like Colorado - their one vote is as precious as gold, its worth rising daily for the next two weeks.

One of the wonderful things about this election (which at this point does feel as though it has been going on for most of my adult life) is how seriously people are taking it, the huge increase in registrations, the understanding that this next president will change our lives - for better or worse.

Something else I've loved seeing is the youth and vigor of Obama's campaign.  True, we voluteers were of all ages, but the Obama coordinators and leaders I've worked with have been young enough to be my children (had I had any) - and they are just like the kind of children I would have hoped to have had - passionate, intelligent, energetic, working hard to do the right thing. 

I've not gotten anywhere near my thousand call goal for Obama.  But I did get close to 400, went to Colorado twice (Barb and I canvassed in Grand Junction two weeks ago) and feel good about my work in the Nevada caucus last February (I'll never forget pleading with two undecideds in the room who thought they were for Obama over Clinton but weren't quite sure - "just help us get this far" - and they did.)

For now I'm passing the torch - to those "kids" I mentioned - and to anyone else who hasn't taken a turn at it - and feels called to get the vote out for the best man for America. 

Barack Obama got me to do something no one else, not even John Kennedy, got me to do in my whole life - work hard for the man who should be president.  That's another thing I'm grateful to him for.

Yes, for now I'm passing the torch . . . but in these last few days, should I feel the flame is dimming, I'll pick it up again . . . and will be ready to take it up for good in January.

One call at a time . . . 'til I get to a thousand!

(Warning: This entry includes OVERUSE OF ALL CAPS.)

I suspect, I hope anyway, that I'm preaching to the choir when I write that I have never been more DISGUSTED in my life with anyone politically, okay - except for George Bush, okay except for Richard Nixon - oh never mind - than I am with John McSHAME. 

The only thing worse than trying to use a national economic catastrophe to further your political interests by parachuting into Washington to "save the day" and bringing things to a screeching damn halt - is this IDIOTGIRL PALIN, that McSHAME has put America at the very real risk of having as President - a walking gimmick as opposed to a qualified woman (like Christine Todd Whitman, Olympia Snow, etc.)- a woman so stupid that her interviews don't have to be re written in order to be parodied by Tina Fey on SNL, just repeated - word for word! I kid you not!

If for some reason, ANYONE reading this doubts how very possible it is that this Twitt might be president, please note that McSHAME has REFUSED to release his medical records.  (It's beyond me why the government doesn't require it.)  As a melanoma survivor (8 years ago) I can verify that each time there is a relapse (he's had THREE!) your chances increase significantly of being killed by it.  Oh, and he's also the oldest damn man who's ever inched his walker toward the Oval Office as well!

Okay, thanks for letting me share, as we used to say in the 60's.  A little ranting once in a while is good for the soul.

But out of darkness can always come light.  And the light for me came yesterday when I finally decided to GET BACK ON THE PHONE FOR OBAMA - WHO I WOULD STILL BELIEVE IN AS THE BEST MAN, THE BEST PRESIDENT, THE BEST LEADER - Even if - Palin actually could speak an intelligent sentence or McSHAME care more for the country than he does himself.

I have already sent out emails begging EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE to make just one phone call, get just one vote on Obama's behalf, but I've decided to set the bar for myself super high - not the kind of bar I will later hang myself on - but one I can work and aspire toward - one that will make me sure that I personally have done everything possible to get Obama elected.

Starting yesterday, I began working myself toward the goal of one thousand calls on behalf of the O-Man!!  Yep, the Texan in me is showing, we always do believe we can hit a gusher or climb a mountain barefoot.

Yesterday I made 35 calls, but many of them were disconnected, etc - I did manage to snare 2 votes, however!  And I figure that the disconnects I reached saved another volunteer from wasting their time.  www.mybarackobama.com has a super easy to use phone bank (hint, hint) which has you press a button to show the response you got, whether a phone was working, etc etc - that way volunteers don't keep calling the same people again and again.

I don't know if I'll make my thousand or not, but By God (And Country) I'll try to be on the phone everyday from now until election day! 

The reason I'm blogging about this is to help me hold myself accountable - to not go back on the tough promise I've made to myself - and now - to you as well.  Anyone who reads this can act as my witness. And I'll give call counts from time to time to tell you how things are going.

So!  Here I go - as far as I can go!

And yes, I admit it barefaced (as we say back in Fort Worth) I hope this might inspire you to go along on the ride with me -  for just a call or two!

Celebrating the making of history . . . and so much more!

Honestly, I can't think of the right headline for this entry . . . nothing seems big enough or right enough - my heart is still too full.

It's late Thursday evening, two days after Barack Obama made it all the way to becoming the first ever African-American presidential nominee. 

I don't want to wait any longer to comment on this amazing and historic happening, but really this is one time when I feel least able to articulate all the emotions that I have.

So. Let me, for once, keep it simple.

I am so proud of Obama.

I am so very proud of America.

I have such hope now for our country and the world.

So pleased to be the nominee . . .

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you didn't talk about it?  In this case I haven't written here before about something that happened to me last week, a part of me wanting it so much that I superstitiously didn't want to "jinx it."

But what the heck, I can't keep my mouth shut, no matter what does, or doesn't happen.

Any of you reading this are well aware of how MUCH I believe in Barack Obama and the positive difference he could make in our country and the world.  Just recently I said to HoneyBunny that I couldn't imagine anything more exciting than going to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.  To see history being made, to see Barack nominated (which seems more possible every day), Wow!! How amazing would that be.

Last week, the phone rang and it was Obama Headquarters calling me from Chicago.  They'd heard about my work for the campaign in Nevada a couple of months ago and wondered if I "would be interested in being a delegate to the national convention."  I am quite proud of myself since I didn't begin shrieking uncontrollably.  I remained calm, asked some questions.  And did not shriek until after I had hung up the phone.

Now, this is by no means a slam dunk.  Though I've submitted my application to Utah Democratic HQs in Salt Lake and will attend a local Dem meeting this week in Moab, the big thing is that I have to go to the state convention May 9th and campaign my booty off to have a chance at one of the four positions I'm eligible for (which is as it should be.) 

And I. Am. Going For It!!! 

Now I know how an Oscar nominee feels when she says she's "just so thrilled to even have been thought of!"  Yep, I really am thrilled, actually dumfounded that the Obama people thought of little 'ol me.  But what I really want is to make it all the way to Colorado, and shriek to my heart's content as The O-Man becomes the nominee.

And so moved, even as the tinest of tiny cogs in the whole works, to perhaps be part of the process of history being made.  Of tides being turned.

GoBama! GoBama! GoBama!

Obama . . .

I've just now gotten here to post this week, or I would have ask you to do this sooner . . .

If you've somehow missed even part of the perfectly brilliant speech that Barack Obama gave earlier this week, dial up a video link and watch/listen to him.   In speaking out regarding the fiery rhetoric of his former pastor/mentor Rev. Wright, he did so much more than just watch his own back. He opened up a dialog for ALL of us regarding the dirty little secret that's right out in the open for every American - the racial divide that we still haven't gotten beyond.  And in the process, he refused to do what so many other politicians would have done, he did NOT throw a man who has been a mentor and comfort to him under the bus, he disowned the sin and not the sinner, as Evangelicals like to say.

He said so much, so much more eloquently than I can, that I won't repeat it all here, but hope you will do yourself the favor of watching or reading the speech. 

Listening to him, I knew that THIS speech was the perfect bookend for one of the most loved and quoted speeches ever made . . . it began . . . "I have a dream . . . "

Political junkie . . . the mini series

My name is E. J. and I am a political junkie.   There, I've admitted it.

It all started years ago when I was doing political talk radio on a small station in Athens, just outside Atlanta GA.   I devoured three newspapers every morning (this was pre internet) and learned alot fast because if you are on the air and Don't know what you're talking about, you sound as stupid as our current president.

The years went by.  I moved to Boston, then to Utah (YES, let's really talk about a red state.) I took an interest in the goings-on, never missed a vote.  The second vote for W. when the Supremes dissed the Will of The People 'bout broke my heart.  For the past eight years, I've pretty much just waited it out, like most of my friends, gave MoveOn a bit of cash, signed their petitions and waited some more.

But a few months ago, when the O-Man's hat got thrown in the ring and America seemed to rise, rumbling from its slumber, so did the sleeping political junkie within me.

In almost 60 years, I've never worked for Any political candidate but now I can't seem to stop working for Obama.  I was on the ground for him in Nevada.  I was on the phone for him here in Utah, then over in Wisconsin.  And you can be damn sure I'll be on the phone to my home state of Texas before this day's over.

But last night I began to realize that I. Am. Out. Of. Control.  HoneyBunny (at least we're both addicts) and I stayed glued to CNN and the latest primary returns.  When Obama won Wisconsin we screamed our heads off like it was the Super Bowl!! We flipped between MSNBC and CNN until exhausted, we went to bed.  Then got up a half hour later because we just had to know what was happening in Hawaii - still no news.  At some point in the middle of what was left of the night, HB got up to pee and went on to his office where he checked the internet.  Yep, we'd won Hawaii!!!  So, of course, then I couldn't sleep for sheer happiness the rest of the night.

Today at 7AM, while HB and Beatty-The-Wonder-Dog still snoozed I HAD to get up to channel surf between all the news stations and hear again what I already knew.  That's when it occured to me I had the making of a mini-series about a woman who is found dead in front of the TV, the remote control clutched in her cold and clammy hand.

Here's the worse part.  I don't wanna be healed.   I am now planning our social life around the rest of the debates and primaries - believe me when I say we Do Not leave the house when The Next Thing is happening.

I've already planned our "Debate Menu" for tomorrow night.  Homemade chili exhumed from the freezer, served with the last of the now very broken tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag.  If my luck holds, HB will warm up the chili, put the bag of chips on a tray and bring it into the den where the junkie sits, leaning toward the TV screen, her fingers twitching around the remote.

Darkness . . . but still a light shining

Things are looking better and better for the O-Man.  And the brighter his, and OUR, chances shine, the darker Billary's plans become. 

Let it be understood that I am NOT FOR him in order to be against her.  I am for Obama because of his well thought out policies, his refusal to support the war, his integrity, his plans to reach across the aisle in Washington with a hand instead of a slap and the sheer force of inspiration he provides in order to get people UP out of their seats - to vote, to make a difference!

How it saddens me that our first solid woman candidate for president is such a double talking, lie telling, manipulating jerk, who will do ANYTHING, yes, ANYTHING TO WIN, even if it means dismissing the voice of the voters.

I saw this up close and personal when I was on the ground at the Nevada caucuses.  Her people tried to turn away those in favor of Obama by telling them they didn't have the proper ID to participate - when no ID was required.  Honestly, if I hadn't seen the frantic emails and heard the phone calls from Obama HQers, I wouldn't have believed it.

But now we ALL can believe it.  We can ALL observe how a woman who MADE A PLEDGE not to campaign (then went to Florida "for sun") - and not to have the Michigan and Florida delegates included in the count at the convention, suddenly - when there is serious competition - wants them to be included.  Even Michigan where Obama was not even on the ballot.

PLEASE GET THIS. IT'S NOT JUST OBAMA THAT HILLARY WANTS TO SILENCE.  IT'S YOU AND ME, GIRLFRIENDS!!!  SHE HAD RATHER YOU NOT HAVE A VOTE THAN TO VOTE AGAINST HER!!! HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM GEORGE BUSH??????   OR ANY OTHER DICTATOR IN THE WORLD????

And YES, I know that readers hate it when writers use ALL CAPS - but I am not going to be a hypocrite and apologize - if you could hear my voice right now you would hear it yelling in anger at this woman who is ready to betray us all - as she has when she voted for the war, as she does when she sends her husband out to do her racial dirty work, as she does when she wants the people in Mich and FL who didn't vote to be silenced.

Okay.  I'm calmer now.  That helped.  I will feel even better after I get back on the phone and start calling women in Wisconsin and asking for their vote.  One call at a time, one vote at a time - for a different kind of candidate who wants YOUR VOICE to be heard.

Hope Monger indeed . . .

Poor Lil' Bill . . . when he slammed Obama for his "fairy tale" of hope and change a few weeks ago, he got more than he bargained for . . . tonight after sweeping three more states plus the Virgin Islands, the O-Man gave another inspiring and uplifting speech . . . admitting that he IS indeed a "hope monger!"

It's enough to make Bill and Hillary dissolve in tears.  For the camera of course.

SUPER Tuesday . . . Mother, Daughter time . . .

I wake up this morning with a teeny knot in my tummy - not a huge can't-breathe-OMG-knot such as one has when contemplating leaving home -  or trying on swimsuits - a sharp sweet little knot of excitement . . . and hope. 

Today's the day that could turn the tide further away from the Same Ol' Shit in Washington to a ray of light, the beginning of a new beginning.  Please God or Love or Allah or Whoever's-answering-the-phone-at-the-moment let us get further down the road toward Obama . . .

This is a night when normally HB and I would be glued to the television together - as we were last week for The Last Debate (as CNN kept ponderously calling it.)  We had friends over for nachos, wine and beer and made a party out of rooting for the O-Man and booing Nixon, er I mean Hillary.

But tonight I'll be down in Fort Worth with "Muth" AKA Mother (Muth being a term we coined years ago, both grinning over a private joke.) Tomorrow I will be doing what so many million BBers do - taking care of a parent.  We'll be spending a long day in a doctor's suite while she has a couple of pretty invasive procedures - neither of which I will discuss here out of respect for her privacy.

We've spent so many many days in our lives together doing mother daughter things from the time I was a tiny girl  . . . playing in the park, shopping, having lunch, taking trips together - in the car/train when I was young - on airplanes after I became a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines. 

I took her on her first airplane trip - flew home to Fort Worth to take her back to Atlanta, first class, for the pleasure of seeing her eyes shine with excitement as mine must have at one of the great birthday parties she used to give me.  The day after that it was raining in Atlanta, so I flew us to Miami for the day to shop - she couldn't believe we were doing it and neither could I.

A few years later she went to London with me and I still have a picture of her taken on a trip down The Thames, her face lit with the pleasure and amazement of the moment.

But I could take her on trips all over the world for the rest of her - or - my life and never repay all she's given and still gives to me.  She bestowed on me the three greatest things any mother can Ever grant a child - the knowledge that I was truly loved; the belief in something bigger than myself; a belief in myself.  As I write this I can literally hear her voice in my ear saying "You are so loved" and "You can Do Anything, Have Anything you want as long you want it bad enough and will work hard enough to get it." 

She also, when I couldn't master it in my first grade school room, bought the books the school wouldn't let me borrow to study at home - and taught me to read herself . . . changing my life again with the deep love of reading - and writing that give my life a large part of its meaning . . .

So. Tonight Muth and I will be rooting for the O-Man, dissing Billary and doing what we do best together - watching each other's back and dealing with whatever's in front of us - a political race or a doctor's diagnosis.  I Love U Muth - Boomerette in Perpetuity!