The Importance of Obama's Election

Martin Luther King, Jr. went to the mountain top and looked over into the Promised Land. Last Tuesday, Barack Obama was elected to be our Joshua. Someone to restore hope in the democratic ideals of America and lead us into uncharted territory.
The historical nature of the election reveals a number of things about the state of our being as a society. First, Obama is truly a man of the people. Half black, half immigrant...he was raised on the fundamental American value that you can be anything if you work hard enough. Barack Obama takes away everyone's excuse to fail.
Cynics had come to believe that only the richest Americans, or those who had their support, could seek, much less win the highest office. Obama showed us how to use technology to start a grassroots movement that could raise more money than any major party fundraising machine ever imagined.
Naysayers and cynics are the losers in this election. The people have shown us that democracy does work. We have seen the failure of fear and division. Perhaps now we can see government used to solve America's problems. The major parties will have to give up campaigning on the issues and begin implementing the solutions if they want to win re-election.
We seem to understand now that people of the world are more alike than the small differences that appear to divide us. The survival of the planet is as important to Europe, Asia and Africa as it is to us.
Hopefully,we are about to learn that we are not what we buy. "Go shopping" isn't the answer to our economic problems. We are going to be asked to serve and to sacrifice and Americans are going to be good at both.
We let the lights go out in the shining city on the hill for eight years. Tuesday night in Grant Park there were no fireworks, but the lights came back on in the eyes of the people in the park and were bright enough to be seen around the world.
Barack Obama already has the means in place to communicate directly with the American people at Change.gov. We don't have to have our information filtered through the bias of a cable news outlet. He will open the doors and welcome Americans into the Oval Office and the decision making process. Obama won't be the decider, he will be the implementer.
The United States can only have one president at a time, and George W. Bush is the man until January 20. But Obama is running a transition that appears to be as well thought out and hardworking as his campaign. We have a chance America. We have been pulled back from the brink of self-destruction. I am so thankful and relieved to know that all appearances to the contrary, we are not sheep. We will not be deceived into an authoritarian state. We still believe in our country's core values and we still hope for the future.

A Few Good Things

The election is over...Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States on January 20, and that is a good thing. I have the feeling that I've missed some of the sense of goodwill and rejoicing that has gone on in other parts of the country. I am, after all, in Texas, and the underground website in my neighborhood was predicting rioting after the election was called for the African American.
I sincerely could not believe some of the things that came out of the mouths of students in my school,people that I work with and friends of long-standing. What are these people so afraid of? And how can they not see the intelligence and capability of this young man?
I was only ten when JFK was elected, and this must be what all the people who got involved in politics and government felt at that time. It is a sense of destiny, of a movement that is bigger than one person, far more powerful than the man himself. This is what they are talking about when they say his election is transformational. I hope they're right, because a transformation would be a good thing for America right now.
Miss Munchkin the Halloween Bear was here last weekend. She is six months old now and cuter than ever. She didn't go trick or treating. In fact, her costume was on only long enough for a picture...it was far to warm for bears this Halloween.
We had a wonderful time because the kids didn't try to visit everyone . They came for a visit with us,and next time they'll come for a visit with the in-laws.
The weather turned really chilly last night. About time, it is November. So I finally got in the closet and got out the sleeveless stuff and made room for the sweaters. I'm glad that job is done...I used to be a very neat and organized person, and now I make these big messes that eventually have to be dealt with.
The second six weeks ended Friday. I don't have anything positive to say about this class. They are pretty much a lot of narcissistic whiners. They all want to make the highest possible grade, but they don't want to learn anything. They have no intellectual curiosity, and no tolerance for hearing anything they don't want to hear. No, for example. They aren't very likeable,and isn't that a sad thing for a teacher to think? So, the good part is that in only six weeks, they'll be going off to someone else's class for the second semester. Yay!
The time has changed, we fell back last weekend, and now I go to work in the light. All week I felt that I was late for work. Then at 4:30 it begins to feel very late. But it also feels cozy and like Thanksgiving is coming.
In preparation for the holidays, I've gotten up every morning this week and done Walk Away the Pounds before getting ready for work. Well, okay... I skipped Wednesday morning, but I had to watch the morning after the election reports on Morning Joe. I did one mile the first day and two miles every other day, and in honor of it being Saturday, today I did the three mile walk. Ain't that somethin'?
I just sat down here to RSVP an invitation and didn't intend to spend this much time, but when there are so many good things, you need to write them down.

Two Days

Only two more days and it's all over. The election is almost here. I've already voted. Everyone in my family has already voted. That's 9 votes that Barack can count on if the GOP doesn't file a lawsuit.
It has been exciting and I hope it means that our broken government can be fixed and the political process has been taken back from the Rove/Clinton divisive gridlock that has made everyone cynical about government in America. I know that it doesn't have to be that way. Tom DeLay and Newt Gingrich can crawl back under their rocks, the authoritarian shift may be stopped. The unitary executive may be disbanded.
We had a wonderful two days with the MP and her folks. We had baby's first Halloween, the November birthdays and the clash of the Horns and Red Raiders, which was the only low moment of the weekend. UT ran out of steam and let the Raiders stop their winning streak and topple their number one ranking.
We had a house full of company all weekend with the old school chums stopping in on Saturday to show off offspring and the family getting together Saturday night to celebrate all the November birthdays. It was fun cooking Mrs. Massey's chicken spaghetti for the birthday dinner. We learned that you don't want to use Betty Crocker's carrot cake recipe. It isn't carrot cake at all. It was okay because it was spice cake,which goes with Fall and everybody likes cream cheese frosting, but it sure isn't truth in labeling to call it carrot cake. After the rum cake fiasco and now the carrot cake flop, my reputation is getting tarnished. Maybe I can redeem myself at Thanksgiving...if all else fails, I did buy a cheesecake from the drill team fundraiser at school.
Speaking of which, I guess I'd better think of preparing to go back to work tomorrow. The past two days have been so busy and satisfying, I haven't had a thought for work.