Yes we can! Yes we did!

I am still on cloud nine!!! I just came from our post elections meeting for my counties Democratic Party.  We have been busy partying the last two nights so we waited till tonight to review how everything went.    I am having coffee with some of my friend's before heading home and just needed to post.  I am finally able to put into words what Tuesday meant and means to me.

I have been a registered Democrat since I was 18 and extremely proud to say a Socially Liberal Democrat since I was 21.  This is the first election that I have truly been excited about.  I have always enjoyed working campaigns but this time it just felt different. This time working at Democratic HQ for our county there were more younger people volunteering than older people.  The Young Democrats of our county got a lot of new members also more and more were proudly also wearing the sign of Socially Liberal.  For those few of us Liberals who were out numbered by the Conservative Democrats we finally had a truly Liberal Democrat running for President.  In 2007 Barack was considered the most Liberal of all the Democratic Senators. 

I spent this Tuesday as I have every Election Day since I was 21 heading to work at the poles at 5 am.  For the last 8 years I have been a pole watcher. Being a pole watcher you observe the Election Day procedures at your assigned pole and make sure that everything is done fairly.  People who know me give me a hard time that once again the Democrats are not gonna pull it off. I just smile and tell them if they were smart they would step up and help make history.  They would laugh and tell me to take my Liberal but home.  Funny how people can make the word Liberal sound like a swear word.  I just kept drinking Starbucks saying prayers, kept my fingers and toes crossed, checked CNN on my cell phone.   

Finally it was over and time to head back to HQ and wait for the results. We all just hung out eating, watching the results and finally we get the call from the State Demo HQ we carried Ohio.  Then at 11 CNN called it! WE DID IT!!!! WE WON!!!!

 I am most proud of my Southern family.  My momma and her brothers all were raised in the deep South and all of them voted for Barack.  My momma said the spinning noise is her daddy spinning in his grave.  They never thought they would see this in their life time and all are in their 80’s but each have told me they are proud to have voted for him.  Even though Louisiana went red.

 I hope that when I am my momma’s age I will still be working on campaigns and I will be able to tell the young people I worked on the Obama campaign and that we will have elected more than one man and hopefully several woman and several different races the White House.  Which reminds me maybe we need to give it a new name? Just a thought.

  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”  Another is “We the People of the  United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union.” We are still sadly a long way from this to truly mean that everyone in this country is created equal and is treated equally or that we are a Prefect Union but we took the first step towards it.  After Tuesday anything and everything is now truly possible. 

All Souls

by

Edith Wharton's

I

A THIN moon faints in the sky o'erhead,
And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead.
Walk we not, Sweet, by garden ways,
Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays,
But forth of the gate and down the road,
Past the church and the yews, to their dim abode.
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight.

II

Fear not that sound like wind in the trees:
It is only their call that comes on the breeze;
Fear not the shudder that seems to pass:
It is only the tread of their feet on the grass;
Fear not the drip of the bough as you stoop:
It is only the touch of their hands that grope--
For the year's on the turn and it's All Souls' night,
When the dead can yearn and the dead can smite.

III

And where should a man bring his sweet to woo
But here, where such hundreds were lovers too?
Where lie the dead lips that thirst to kiss,
The empty hands that their fellows miss,
Where the maid and her lover, from sere to green,
Sleep bed by bed, with the worm between?
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight.

IV

And now they rise and walk in the cold,
Let us warm their blood and give youth to the old.
Let them see us and hear us, and say: "Ah, thus
In the prime of the year it went with us!"
Till their lips drawn close, and so long unkist,
Forget they are mist that mingles with mist!
For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night,
When the dead can burn and the dead can smite.

V

Till they say, as they hear us--poor dead, poor dead!--
"Just an hour of this, and our age-long bed--
Just a thrill of the old remembered pains
To kindle a flame in our frozen veins,
A touch, and a sight, and a floating apart,
As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart--
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight."

VI

And where should the living feel alive
But here in this wan white humming hive,
As the moon wastes down, and the dawn turns cold,
And one by one they creep back to the fold?
And where should a man hold his mate and say:
"One more, one more, ere we go their way"?
For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night,
When the living can learn by the churchyard light.

VII

And how should we break faith who have seen
Those dead lips plight with the mist between,
And how forget, who have seen how soon
They lie thus chambered and cold to the moon?
How scorn, how hate, how strive, wee too,
Who must do so soon as those others do?
For it's All Souls' night, and break of the day,
And behold, with the light the dead are away. . .

-THE END-

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."

Amid the tragedy of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968, an extraordinary moment in U.S. political history occurred as Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy, broke the news of King's death to a large gathering of African Americans in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because...

I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.

For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much.

Robert F. Kennedy - April 4, 1968

Just two months later, Robert Kennedy was gunned down during a celebration following his victory in the California primary, June 5, 1968.

City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio April 5, 1968

Mr Chairmen,Ladies And Gentlemen

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lost their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

I am feeling very passive and thoughtful today.  I have spent the day reflecting this past year.  It has had more good than bad.  I have been wrestling with acceptance. I have learned this lesson yet again.  It is a lesson I seem to keep relearning.

The more I fight and struggle with what is happening in my life the more I am unhappy and miserable.  I just finished a class on Conflict Resolution to finish my Psy degree.  By the way it is finally done. YEAH!!!! I have learned more from this class than I did from all my classes for my Social Work degree and now my Psy degree.

 
I learned that by being in conflict with my life, angry over things that are really beyond my control I am being in a sense violent with myself.

 
I am a passive person.  I always have been.  I have always avoided conflict, for me to get angry with someone is rare.  I do not believe in violence.  I  tend to avoid defensive people.  First there is no reasoning with them.  They do not truly listen to those around them.  They will tell you they are listening but they do not hear what is being said.  Second they will never be wrong even when the truth is staring them in the face. 

 
We had to read works by Mohandas Gandhi.  I toughly enjoyed him.  His beliefs inspired some of my other favorites: JFK, RFK and MLK.  All who taught change by non-violent means.  That peace first begins with the person themselves.

 
My conflict resolution is that I must learn to accept the things that I can not change and the wisdom to know the difference.  I must work everyday to focus on my inner peace and happiness.  

• Think off-center.

• One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

• Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

• May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.

• Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

• I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven't tried that for a while. Maybe this time it'll work.

• I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me - they're cramming for their final exam."

• I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

• If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.

• Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.

• Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.

• The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept.

• The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.

• Weather forecast for tonight: dark.

• When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat.

• Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

• Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

• Why do croutons come in airtight packages? It's just stale bread to begin with.

• May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.

• I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

•  What year did Jesus think it was?

• Swimming is not a sport; swimming is a way to keep from drowning. That’s just common sense!

• What if there were no hypothetical questions?

• You know what no one ever talks about anymore? Pussy farts.

• We have to declare war on everything. We have the war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on litter, the war on cancer, the war on drugs. But did you ever notice, we got no war on homelessness? You know why? There's no money in that problem! No money to be made off of the homeless. If you could find a solution to homelessness where the corporate swine and the politicians could steal a couple of million dollars each, you'd see the streets of America begin to clear up pretty god-damned quick, I'll guarantee you that!

• In the unlikely event of a water landing . . ." Well, what exactly is a water landing? Am I mistaken, or does this sound somewhat similar to CRASHING INTO THE OCEAN!?

• ..the baby boomers: whiny, narcissistic, self-indulgent people who's simple philosophy: 'GIMME THAT! IT'S MINE!'...these people were given everything, everything was handed to them, and they took it all, sold it all; sex, drugs, and rock and roll and they stayed loaded for 20 yrs and had free ride, but now they're staring down the barrel of the burnout, and they don't like it, they don't like it so they've become self-righteous, and they wanna make things hard for young people, they tell em abstane from sex, say no to drugs, as for Rock and Roll they sold that for television commercials a long time ago, so they an buy 'pasta machines', and 'stair masters', and 'soy bean futures'. you know something, they're cold, bloodless people. It's in their slogan 'no pain, no gain', 'just do it', 'play it hard', '***** happends, deal with it', 'get a life!'. These people went from 'do your own thing!' to 'just say no!', they went from 'love is all you need' to 'whoever has the most toys, wins!', and they went from 'cocaine' to 'rogaine' and you know something, they're still counting grams, only now it's fat grams! and the worst of it is we have to watch the commercials on tv for levis loose fitting jeans and fat ass docker pants because these degenerate, yuppie, boomer ***** suckers couldn't keep their hands off the croissants and the 'Haägen Dasz' and their big fat asses have spread all over and they have to wear fat ass docker pants. ***** these yuppies, and ***** everybody now that I think of it.

• One great thing about getting old is that you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you’re too tired.

“Most people think life sucks, and then you die. Not me. I beg to differ. I think life sucks, then you get cancer, then your dog dies, your wife leaves you, the cancer goes into remission, you get a new dog, you get remarried, you owe ten million dollars in medical bills but you work hard for thirty-five years and you pay it back and then -- one day -- you have a massive stroke, your whole right side is paralyzed, you have to limp along the streets and speak out of the left side of your mouth and drool but you go into rehabilitation and regain the power to walk and the power to talk and then -- one day -- you step off a curb at Sixty-seventh Street, and BANG you get hit by a city bus and then you die. Maybe.”  Denis Leary quotes

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked
"How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 2 to 5 pounds.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight,but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued,

"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can."

So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.

Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today...I did

"Worry looks around, Sorry looks back, and Faith looks up!"

Cult of Personality

Living Colour

 
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I’ve been everything you want to be
I’m the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.
I’m the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
I’m the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your god’s name
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I’ve been everything you want to be
I’m the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.
I’m the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
I’m the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I’m the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don’t have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your god’s name
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality

Death, Be Not Proud

John Donne

I am doing better. I can still see out of both eyes!!! : ) I still fear that when I go to sleep at night I will not be able to see when I wake up in the morning.  I am working on this with my therapist.  Will hopefully be past this by DC. 

 
I still have the numbness and tingling in my right arm especially in my hand. I can still use it, it just takes it longer to respond. Doctor seems to think that the nerves are damaged and will take a while for the them to heal.

 
It makes it hard for me to type on a regular key board. I am worn out at the end of day at work from using the key board.  I can thankfully use the key board on my slide phone so I am able to access face book,   email and of course texting my new love. I can now access live journal on my phone also. If it was not for my phone and being to access these to communicate I would be going crazy. 

 
I have been reading the thread it is just too frustrating to try to type with my left hand. I am a righty and that is the arm that is fraked up. I miss everyone and working hard to get well enough for DC.  One of the nice things about stress and anxiety I am loosing weight even on the Cylon medication. 

 
My insurance will not approve the Remicade (the medication Syl is on and she suggested I give it a try) even though my doctor was willing to try it.  They want me to try Prednisone, Methotrexate and Benicar first.  I started them today.  I also started Levoxyl for my thyroid. From one Cylon med to 4! Oh well as long as it works.