Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can’t see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.
So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can’t see.
It’s up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There’s so much to be thankful for.
Look beyond ourselves
There’s so much sorrow
It’s way too late to say
I’ll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth
It’s so long overdue
So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And every day we hope for
What we still can’t see
It’s up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There’s so much to be thankful for.
Even with our differences
There is a place we’re all connected
Each of us can find each other’s light
So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day we hope for
What we still can’t see
It’s up to us to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more
For starters I am going to suggest that the new puppy promised to Sasha and Malia Obama come from a no kill shelter or local pound. Considering there are thousands of dogs needing rescue this would be a great opportunity to show Americans that change is really here. Instead of getting some highly bred big money dog it could be a pup that needs rescuing. A great example of change. Rescuing those in need.
Lots of Americans need some kind of rescue right now. There are homeless folks who lost their houses in the mortgage fiasco of 2008. Families with sick kids that can’t afford to get proper medical care. Jobless folks in this time of high unemployment. A huge amount of our young people stuck in a foreign country fighting a people who didn’t do anything worth dying for. That war is based on lies and deceit so the troops need to be rescued from the insanity.
How does a guy like me get to talk to President Elect Barak Hussein Obama? It’s easy now. I found the website for The Office Of The President Elect today. One of the pages there gives you a link to write your concerns and ideas. Now it’s up to me to write. Oh…you too.
it occurred to me that i miss loving my country. there was a time when i would stand for the national anthem and recite the pledge of allegiance and a lump would form in my throat- and i would tear for a moment. because i believed that america was a land of freedom and democracy and that we were a light for the world. i believed in what i had been told that we believed in- freedom for the poor and weary and the folks who needed asylum. suffice to say that disillusionment is an understatement. i have been cynical for so long- and i am under no illusions of the democrats being 100% better than the rethuglicans- that it is not easy for me to think that there might be any end to the darkness we have been living under. the row ahead is going to be a tough one to hoe that’s for sure. but obama is saying the right things- and he genuinely and sincerely seems to mean what he says. i don’t always agree with the end decision but i respect how he got there. i am fighting the stirrings of hope- but i want to feel like michelle obama and be proud of my country for the first time in my adult life. change.
“So then. I say we’re being asked, right now, to understand that there are, in fact, two fundamental kinds of history. The first is the most common, the type we’ve grown pathetically used to, the type that soils the spirit and stabs us in the back as it takes down office towers and induces war and misprision and wallows in nearly unbearable quantities of fear. We get that a lot.
The second kind is perhaps the most rare of all. This is the history that comes around only once or twice per generation, that emerges from somewhere deep and urgent to move us forward; it’s a kind that invites growth and sparks surprisingly constructive feelings in everyone and everything it touches. Do you recognize that kind? Right. Me neither. Until now.
And now here it is, in the form of this Obama fellow, this rare and extraordinary flavor of history, this impossible thing, right on our doorstep, awaiting our vote, merely asking us if we’re ready. Are we?”
There’s a lot of vim and vinegar being slung around the internets, today. It’s like there’s a hot political race going on…wait…my bad!
Part of the reason for all the fire and brimstone, methinks, is due to the lack of truthiness from some quarters (I won’t say where. I will say it starts with a letter that rhymes with the letter “b” and the name rhymes with the word “sailin’”).
In today’s Ten Post Round-Up I will try to dig out the truthiness, if for no other reason than I have a policy of truth when it comes to staying informed and on top of the issues.
Politics 101: When speaking publicly, it is probably best not to “stretch the truth”.
there are people in this country who are decent people. and they are white. there are people in this country who are decent people. and they are black. my fondest wish is that these two groups of people could sit down and find common ground and work together to fix this country- and this world. i still have dreams- i am a cynic- not a pessimist what brought these folks together during the civil rights movement? and why won’t it bring them together now? there has been much talk about reverend wright’s sermons and remarks- and how this is proof that he (translate black people) hates america. and white america gasped and fanned themselves with their handkerchiefs against the oncoming vapors. ‘i do declare!’
many of us in the white community get our feelings hurt or get defensive by the anger because we are ‘good people’. we ask ourselves- ‘how can we find common ground if black people won’t recognize we are trying?’ we say to ourselves- ‘how can we sit around the campfire together and sing kumbaya when they have such an attitude about everything?’ and i say- we can’t. we can’t because you know what? these folks have their anger and resentment and their feelings are theirs. we pooh pooh off the past- saying that we have made progress and that they should be grateful for the opportunities afforded them. i say- you are part of the problem- still.
my blog’s name is life’s journey- and with good reason- i am on a path of learning. some things i learn, i am sure, are no brainers to other folks who perhaps are more enlightened than i. i have been called ‘gullible’ and ‘naive’ on occasion- yes, i know it’s hard to believe sadly, it is true. i am a mid- thirties, middle class white woman- who grew up poor but grew up white. i have lived in rural and semi-rural settings my entire life and i have grown up without much ethnic diversity. sorry folks- white europeans are all pretty much the same in my mind. we had our irish parades and polish parades and we thought that was diversity. so- i am not making excuses- just putting a little background out there. in my high school- i think we had one boy whose parents came from taiwan and perhaps half a dozen african-american kids. that’s it. diversity was measured in how pale a shade of white you were. black folks lived on the east side and everyone else lived in the other three directions.
i have been thinking quite a bit about blogging lately. i haven’t blogged as much as usual because i have been sick, so i guess it opened up the ole’ cranial waves to thinking instead of typing without thinking there are millions of blogs out there. literally. any blogger with their salt knows this- because we all sign up with technorati and that’s where we start- rank 2,389,343- or something like that anyhoo- i have been blogging personally for over 2 years now and so i guess i am old hat. most of us had no idea what we were doing or what we should write about- but we found our voice. it isn’t easy to sit down at the keyboard every single day and beat out eye opening, informative posts consistently- so i don’t even try but there are many who do. what has amazed me is the online collaboration between bloggers who have never set eyes on each other in ‘real life’ and the group blogs and forums that spring up around those collaborations. a brotherhood and sisterhood of folks blogging for a cause. folks from around the globe blogging together and reaching out and getting to know each other and each other’s culture. it has been an amazing experience for me- and eye opening as well. from soldier’s blogs in iraq to bloggers from iraq, gaza, malaysia- with the click of a mouse, we can see pictures and read real stories from real people. we can commiserate and share stories about politics, religion and other points of view. never has the world seemed smaller. it highlights the differences in cultures for sure, but what i have noticed is how alike we all are. we are all human beings with families who love and hate; get annoyed with each other; want garbage removal and running water- care where our food comes from. there are left leaning folks in other countries just as there are right wing folks- and the bottom line is- we are all people underneath the culture.
William Rivers Pitt graciously allows us to reprint one of his fine articles. You can read his posts at TruthOut.org~Dusty
I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. - George Carlin
Change, right?
That’s been the big buzzword since the middle of December or thereabouts. While the last days of 2007 bled away one by one, and as the pre-Iowa political bedlam became loud beyond endurance, “change” was the word on the lips of every candidate. One could not swing a dead cat by the tail in Ames or Des Moines without swatting campaign literature pledging “change to come,” but only if they got the votes.
Giuliani described himself as an “agent of change.” Clinton talked about needing experience in order to be able to bring change. Obama fairly waxed rhapsodic on the topic, setting the pre-caucus benchmark late in November by using the word four times in one sentence. Romney vowed to bring change to Washington, DC. Even McCain and The Artist Formerly Known As Thompson were grudgingly forced to work the word into their speeches after a while. It was everywhere, and any credulous folks in the crowd must have gotten to a point, after hearing it so often from so many candidates, where it felt safe to assume “change” was really coming no matter who wins come November.
“Change.” Let’s talk about that word, and what it involves. Certainly, making change in America’s domestic and foreign policy priorities is a necessary activity. Consider …
Hat tip to Dusty for getting this information out.
The SDS is waking up after a 40 year nap. Pat Korte, a sophmore at The New School in Greenwich Village, is a co-founder of the newly revived group. He feels that the new incarnation of SDS benefits from hindsight: the original SDS was highly factionalized and eventually fell apart because of that factionalization.
For starters I am going to suggest that the new puppy promised to Sasha and Malia Obama come from a no kill shelter or local pound. Considering there are thousands of dogs needing rescue this would be a great opportunity to show Americans that change is really here. Instead of getting some highly bred big money dog it could be a pup that needs rescuing. A great example of change. Rescuing those in need.
there are people in this country who are decent people. and they are white. there are people in this country who are decent people. and they are black. my fondest wish is that these two groups of people could sit down and find common ground and work together to fix this country- and this world. i still have dreams- i am a cynic- not a pessimist 
what brought these folks together during the civil rights movement? and why won’t it bring them together now? there has been much talk about 
my blog’s name is 
i have been thinking quite a bit about blogging lately. i haven’t blogged as much as usual because i have been sick, so i guess it opened up the ole’ cranial waves to thinking instead of typing without thinking 
but there are many who do. what has amazed me is the online collaboration between bloggers who have never set eyes on each other in ‘real life’ and the group blogs and forums that spring up around those collaborations. a brotherhood and sisterhood of folks blogging for a cause. folks from around the globe blogging together and reaching out and getting to know each other and each other’s culture. it has been an amazing experience for me- and eye opening as well. from 
