FOUR DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
“There is a marginalization of people who deeply believe in peace in this country. And I would say, that those people are not the fringe minority — are not the silent majority — but the silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media. And that has got to change.”
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the co-founder, executive producer and host of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on more than 450 public broadcast stations in North America.
It’s not that she was arrested at the RNC. That’s not why I’ve added her to Project Inspiration. It’s that she embodies the best in her profession – she’s hard working, smart, and has the courage to tell the truth. The world needs people like Amy Goodman who do what she does.
In doing my research tonight, I’ve encountered quite a bit of fancy three syllable hate speech about Amy. And I guess I’m not surprised. Despite the fact that there is a band of small minded loons who are afraid of her, I maintain that Amy Goodman does good work.
I cling to the little I know about Rwanda and modern genocide: the voices coming out of our appliances communicate ideas that get into our minds and affect our actions. The voices do have power.
I choose to listen to Amy Goodman. I choose the truth. I choose peace.
FIVE DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
“For the measure of our compassion lies not in our service to those on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them.”
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: Father Greg Boyle
Excerpt from Fr. Greg Boyle’s 2005 Loyola Marymount University commencement address:
“It is the privilege of my life to have worked for the last two decades in Boyle Heights and to watch thousands of men and women gang members to walk into our office at Homeboy Industries seeking hope of a first chance or a second one. Seeking employment, counseling, a variety of services of free tattoo removal. We removed 1,200 tattoos last year on the premises so if anyone in the class of 2005 needs this service, see me afterwards. We run five businesses where enemy gang members work side-by-side with each other. Our newest one opened up April 14. It’s called Homegirl Café and Catering. A bunch of homegirls working with each other have records and tattoos. Waitresses with attitude. We’re working on that.
“The day after it opened, I got an anonymous voice mail, hate mail. Over the last 20 years we’ve been accustomed to that at Homeboy Industries. Death threats, bomb threats, hate voice mail. In fact at one point we were thinking of changing our after-hours message to ‘Thank you for calling Homeboy Industries. Your bomb threat is important to us.’
“So I got this anonymous message. The woman was quite upset. She said, ‘I hate the fact that you named this restaurant ‘Homegirl Café.’ What a disgrace. We hate Homeboy Industries. You’ve brought dishonor to the city.’
“It’s an idea that’s taken root in the world. And it’s at the root of all that’s wrong with it. The idea is that there are some lives out there that matter less than other lives. Martin Luther King said of the church what could well be said at this moment of you and of this institution, LMU is not the place you come to, it is in fact the place you go from. To stand against forgetting that we belong to each other.
“Mother Theresa diagnosed the world’s ills correctly I think when she said our problem is that we’ve just forgotten that we belong to each other. You stand against forgetting, you stand against the idea that there are some lives that matter less than other lives. You leave this place not just to be men and women for others. That’s just the beginning. That’s not the goal. Jesus wasn’t a man for others, he was one with others. There’s a world of difference in that. You see yourself connected to those over on the margins and left out. You stand against forgetting that we belong to each other.”
SIX DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: David Rovics
I learned about David yesterday morning, right around the time Barack and 9,000 voters were getting rained on in 41-degree-Pennsylvania. Fahrenheit, baby. It took a lot of surfing, but when I found a site called “Americans Who Tell The Truth”, I knew I was in for many treats. Among them, David Rovics – the artist I’ve been looking for.
To quote Alex Bainbridge, “David Rovics is one of the best political songwriters in the English-speaking world today. His songs are a powerful musical challenge to the status quo. They are so effective because they are both politically sharp and contain beautiful poetry.”
David says in his bio, “It took five years to write the songs on We Just Want the World. But by around ‘98 they started coming more predictably, due to nothing more mysterious than a combination of effort, practice, and an open heart. And lots of speeches by George W. Bush.”
Does that mean that if Barack wins, David’s music is going to suffer? Nah, he’ll probably just write more songs for his daughter. . . his children’s album is completely smile inducing.
Thanks, David!
Pause
I can’t do it. I can’t do a full moratorium on Obama posts.
Look at these people in the cold rain. 9000 strong.
Look at them.
This is history. We’re sitting right at the edge of history.
“If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts, if we’re willing to reach down deep inside us, when times are tough, when it’s cold, when it’s rainy, when it’s hard – that’s when we stand up, that’s when we reach for a better future. And if all of you are willing to be just as determined as you are today, if all of you go out on election day, if all of you get your friends and your neighbors, your co-workers, if you are determined to bring about a better America, then I promise you this, we will not just win Pennsylvania, we will win this general election and you can I together, we’re gonna change this country and change this world.”
– Barack Obama, today in the rain
SEVEN DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
“If the women in Congo can dance . . . who are we to give up hope?”
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: Zainab Salbi
In 1993, at the age of 23, Zainab had heard news reports about the refugee and rape camps in Croatia. ”I looked everywhere, but there was no organization that existed to help these women.” She and her husband decided to skip their honeymoon and instead use the $2000 they had saved for the trip to find a way to help. This was the birth of Women for Women International.
The organization has now served 153,000 women in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Sudan. It has empowered survivors of war to move toward economic self-sufficiency with a year-long program of direct aid, rights education, job skills training, and small business development. More than 246,000 women in 58 countries have signed up as donors, supporters and sponsors, who exchange more than 100,000 letters a year.
The Washington Post says “Salbi’s vision is that by strengthening women, her organization [Women for Women International] can help rebuild communities and nations.” Sister to sister, from one woman to another, one kindness at a time, peace can grow. Zainab says it better in the video clip above.
Oh, and she’s an author, too. Brilliant!
EIGHT DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: Dr. Muhammad Yunus
I first heard of Dr. Yunus sometime after 2006 when he had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “efforts to create economic and social development from below.” If you haven’t heard of Dr. Yunus, that description doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the way his life’s work has positively impacted so many people.
From the Nobel Committee announcement, “Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.”
In a 2005 speech Dr. Yunus said, “. . . .each individual person is very important. Each person has tremendous potential. She alone can influence the lives of others within communities, nations-within and beyond her own time. Each of us has much more hidden inside of us than what we have had a chance to explore so far. Unless we create [an] enabling environment to discover the limits of our potential–we will never know what we have inside of us. [This program] has given me an unshakable faith in the creativity of human beings. That leads me to believe that human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty. They suffer now and did in the past because we turn our mind away from the issue.”
NINE DAYS TO THE U.S. ELECTION
Project Inspiration Honoree of the Day: Dolores Huerta
Even though there are at least six schools in the U.S. named after Dolores Huerta, an hour ago, I didn’t know who she was. As a young teacher in California, “she could no longer bare to see her students come to school with empty stomachs and bare feet, and thus began her lifelong journey of working to correct economic injustice.” She led the Stockton Community Service Organization until 1962 when, at the age of 32, with co-founder Cesar Chavez, she started the National Farm Workers Association (now the UFW).
Reading her bio brings a big smile to my face, ”At age 78, Dolores Huerta continues to work tirelessly developing leaders, advocating for working poor, women and children. Dolores Huerta is currently the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. She travels daily speaking to students at Universities and organizational forums, impacting others on issues of social justice and public policy.” Check out her Foundation’s recent victories.
Wow.
Project Inspiration
Nine days until the election. Heat’s on. I need a diversion. And I’ve got a good one. I’ve decided that today, and over the course of the next eight days, the best use of my blogging energy would be to write about incredible people who are gracing our lives with theirs. People who are on the planet today, enriching it with deliberate acts of intelligence, love, courage and integrity. People whose names are neither Barack nor Michelle Obama.
Why? Because I was watching Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) performing Peace Train on youtube last night. And as I moved to the rhythm, waving my arms above my head, as I began to daydream about the ecstasy I will likely feel if Barack Obama possibly becomes the president-elect in less than 2 weeks, I realized that I needed to avoid feeling desperate in the coming days.
When I heard Yusuf sing, “Out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train,” it occurred to me to focus on 9 different people who bring light to the world. After all, no matter who the U.S. president is, the peace train perseveres.
Some rules for my little inspirathon:
- One hero per day for the 9 days leading up to the election.
- No household names like Oprah or Angelina.
- No people who have been mentioned on this blog before.
- Selections must be currently alive.
- The list is in no particular order.
Okay, so, after a year of fairly regular blogging, most of the people I think of as being inspiring – who remain in the flesh – have already been mentioned in previous posts: Marianne Williamson, Ishmael Beah, Kathrine Switzer, Wayne Dyer, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dick and Rick Hoyt, Firoozeh Dumas, Tony Robbins, Taryn Hughes, Peter Singer, Jackie Chan.
When I set out to do this, I had only one of my nine honorees in mind. I went on faith that some positive web browsing would lead me to the other eight. I began my search by googling the words: most admired humans alive today. The #1 result was “Marge Simpson Named Most-Admired Mom” from People.com. While I agree there is no measure of the joy The Simpsons have brought to the Milky Way Galaxy, this was not what I had in mind. I’d have to look harder.
I hope you’ll be as inspired by the results as I am.
Country First!
“The McCain campaign reported paying $13,200 in September to celebrity makeup artist Amy Strozzi, who works on the reality show “So You Think You Can Dance.” She was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October, nearly double what the campaign paid McCain’s foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, according to a filing report.” – From Associated Press 10/24/08.
After all, what’s so important about foreign policy when you’ve got wrinkles to hide and luscious venison-eating lips to decorate. I’ve got an idea, hey John & Sarah, while you’re getting your make up done, why don’t you think about this:
“Unemployment claims, already well into recession territory, are rising even faster than expected, leading economists warn . . . that the worst is yet to come. As the Labor Department released bleak new numbers on the job market, Goldman Sachs, Chrysler and Xerox all announced they were cutting workers by the thousands, adding to the woes of an economy beset by tighter credit and wobbly banks.” – From Associated Press 10/24/08
p.s. I don’t think the growing population of hungry American children want the RNC’s donated clothes.
A New Commute
I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” with my women’s group. And because I’m the so-called “leader,” I’m also attempting to follow the Oprah/Eckhart web class and workbook. If you’re thinking, “That ended last spring”; the webcasts are still available online.
So yesterday I tried an exercise while driving to work. My intention was to be mindful for as long as possible. I turned off the radio. I left the phone alone. I tried just being present with the sights and sounds. I even tried to strip the names of things out of my mind.
It was my best effort at “not thinking”. When my mind wandered to pondering a situation, I would say, “That person isn’t here now, so you’re using your imagination. Be present with what is here now.” Or if I started having a train of thoughts, as soon as I noticed, I would think, “Thinking,” to remind myself to move back into quiet.
So I’m driving, and looking. The commute is only 12 minutes. Not a big challenge.
I noticed vivid colors and interesting objects that I have never really seen before. The car dealership at Santa Monica and 11th has the coolest lights in their lot. Further north, I spotted a building with gorgeous turquoise accents.
I wanted to appreciate without assigning judgment or qualitative labels, but I was a far way from doing that because so much of what I saw (for the first time) gave me so much pleasure. I know it sounds dorky, but it’s the truth. It did feel sort of close to bliss.
By the time I got to my parking structure on 4th where two lanes of traffic were closed due to on-going construction, just as it was my turn to turn into the garage, the ticket dispenser stopped dispensing.
So I, and the three drivers ahead of me that had already cleared the road, waited. And waited. Right about the time when cars behind me started honking, I realized that I was the driver of the car that was causing the jam in the intersection a full block behind me. It was my car blocking the road.
For the first 9 minutes of the ordeal, my usual response would have been anxiety, helplessness and rage. Instead, I found myself looking at the cones right outside my car thinking, “Orange.” If it hadn’t been for the honking behind me, I may not have had the momentary indecision, “Should I drive on? No, I’ll wait another few seconds. I’d really like to get into the garage.”
By this time, a lot attendant was fixing the ticket dispenser. Cars behind me continued the honking. The main thing that startled me was the fact that I hadn’t actually been upset. I felt more like an observer of something trivial. I felt oddly relaxed.
When it was my turn to take a ticket, the attendant was there handing them out. I smiled and said, “I sure am glad you came along when you did.” She winced, “I’m so sorry.” I said, “No, what I mean is, thank you.” And then we smiled at each other.
Right on!
Retired General Colin L. Powell, one of the country’s most respected Republicans, stunned both parties on Sunday by strongly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and laying out a blistering, detailed critique of the modern GOP.
Powell said the election of Obama would “electrify the world.”
“I think he is a transformational figure,” Powell said. “He is a new generation coming … onto the world stage and on the American stage. And for that reason, I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”
Check out General Powell’s interview on Meet the Press. I especially liked the part where he criticizes the Republican Party for insulting Muslims and praises the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.
I’ve got a new hero
Just two miles into the 1967 Boston Marathon, an official tried to rip off Kathrine Switzer’s bib and physically pull her off the course.
She kept going. She went on to run 35 marathons, including 8 Boston Marathons. She won the 1974 New York City Marathon and the next year had a personal best of 2 hours, 51 minutes. As if that weren’t enough, she created the Avon International Running Circuit, a global series of women’s running events in 25 countries involving over one million women. The series lead to the inclusion of the women’s marathon in the Olympic Games.
Wow. And I thought I was a badass for skinning my knee during a 17 miler and getting right back up.
Another day
“According to a national poll that CNN conducted after the debate, 58% of people felt Barack Obama won the debate, while 31% felt that John McCain performed better. The poll also indicates that the majority of people polled felt Obama would do a better job on the economy, health care, and taxes. Additionally, those polled felt Obama was more likable and the stronger leader.”
It’s okay, John, nap time is coming.
Birthday Gift
One of the many fabulous birthday gifts I received this year is a collection of essays entitled Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas.
Yes, I’ve finished Twilight, as recommended by Jenn. Found it to be entertaining and towards the end — scary! I actually had nightmares. Go figure. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment (especially with Halloween coming up) but decided to take a little intermission with Funny in Farsi.
I’m enjoying Firoozeh’s book so much that I ordered a copy for my 14 year old niece. (Shh, it’s a surprise due to land on her doorstep any day now).
The Library Journal puts it this way, “Today, as Middle Easterners in the United States are subject to racial profiling, stereotyping, and sometimes violence, this book provides a valuable glimpse into the immigrant experiences of one very entertaining family.” Simply, Firoozeh’s essays are warm and engaging. It’s a page turner.
Rethinking food, one meal at a time
The book Andy has asked me not to read.
It’s only because he’s worried I’d starve myself if I learned more about the farm industry. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve got animal produce coursing through my veins right now. In fact, I’ve had two cheeseburgers in the last 8 days. But another truth is that slowly I’m learning (even without having read Peter Singer’s investigation of food production) to make better choices.
Our lives changed over a year ago when Andy and I watched Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation” on DVD. I’m pretty sure he stopped eating meat on the spot. I tried abstaining, but psyched myself out after only 8 days.
My excuse? If meat is eliminated, the spectrum of what I’m immediately ready to eat is sharply reduced: I’ve been a “vegephobe” since birth. My strong aversion to the smell and texture of vegetables, combined with my even stronger gag reflex made meal times miserable for my family all throughout the mid ’70s. Whatever pop psychology my mom innocently subscribed to back in the day only served to reinforce my stubbornness.
Green beans haven’t touched my plate since that night in 1977 when my exhausted parents realized that being sent to bed before “Sunny and Cher” was a sacrifice I was prepared to make on a regular basis. Yep. I won. I’ve never even eaten a single leaf of iceberg lettuce. Salad dressing won’t help – mayonnaise is higher on my list of NEVERS than cooked spinach and broccoli.
Over the course of the last 15 years, with help from a good therapist (“Perhaps lightly stir fried Asian dishes with a sauce you know you like”), some great friends, and time spent listening to my beloved Tony Robbins’ tapes (NLP ROCKS!), I’ve been able to incorporate a few vegetables into my diet. But I’ve never made a habit of it. And I’m a long way from being able to put just any old thing in my mouth. God help the person who tells me, “Just try a bite.”
So now, although I’ve obliged Andy’s request not to even skim Singer’s book, my attraction to both the forbidden and horror stories have made doing so sickly tempting. Just imaging how animals on factory farms are treated has caused me to replace my daily milk and yogurt staples easily with organic soy versions. They don’t taste the same but are delicious in their own way and seductively guilt-free. Meanwhile, I have occasionally dared to glimpse at sites like The Unhappy Cow. Luckily, it’s possible to make the transition to compassionate eating without dwelling in the heart-wrenching terror-filled realities of factory dairy farms and slaughter houses.
Leaving the “how” out of it and learning about who we eat is compelling enough.
“Each cow has the ability to recognize more than 100 other cows, and they form close friendships with members of their herd. Researchers report that cows grieve when their friends or family members die.”
“Pigs are curious and insightful animals thought to have intelligence beyond that of an average 3-year-old human child. They are smarter than dogs and every bit as friendly, loyal, and affectionate.”
“Chickens understand sophisticated intellectual concepts, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed from generation to generation.”
“Some fish gather information by eavesdropping on others, and some even use tools.”
Thank goodness, with sites like VegCooking and GoVeg.com and really yummy scientifically engineered tofu products, eating ethically has never been easier.
My conversion is slow going. There’s a half devoured wedge of Cambozola in the fridge now. God, I love cheese. So the research du jour becomes finding farms where the cows are treated with love and, in good health, are left to have a full range of moods, including happiness.
