saw this quote today outside of Long Island University in Brooklyn, how fitting given the recent events in my life...here's to building that current.
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Obama at rally in Pittsburgh, Monday October 27, 2008 - As I was shaking his hand I thanked him for always remembering the lesbians and gays, he said "Of course, and thank you." Being at this rally was absolutely amazing. During the singing of the National Anthem I recalled how in high school at my basketball games my mom would harp on me about not putting my hand over my heart during the singing (I would instead stand respectfully with my hands behind my back); well, it was different this time. This time, I listened to that song and I stood in a room of 20,000 individuals and was more than proud of my country. I felt the hope that I've always wanted to know and I knew that this, electing Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States of America is, in fact possible. I even teared up. I was a proud, queer, female American. I know that we can truly become "angels of our better nature."
It is not the idealist in me - it is the realist in me. The part of me that knows and truly believes that we are better than these last eight years, that we, with Obama as President will be so much better off in 8 more years.
As I edit this and add text, we are almost 4 days out, there are people who I have met along this journey that I am so grateful for, there are many more, whom I have never met, but their stories are inspiring and it is these stories that keep me motivated in the late hours of the night, it is the thought of tomorrow that gets me up every morning before the sunrise to get out and organize, it is the students, the veterans, the moms, the dads, the disenfranchised, the poor, the women, the queers, the folks that just need a little help - - - it is the idea that America can become a place that I am truly proud of that keeps me going.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Harvey Milk on HOPE
Isn't it amazing that this speech was given over 30 years ago - it's as relevant as ever...
Monday, October 13, 2008
NYTimes.com: Help for Haiti
October 13, 2008
EDITORIAL
Help for Haiti
This year has been especially cruel to Haiti, with four back-to-back storms that killed hundreds of people, uprooted tens of thousands more and obliterated houses, roads and crops. A far richer country would have been left reeling; Haiti is as poor as poor gets in this half of the globe. Those who have seen the damage say it is hard to convey the new depths of misery there.
The Bush administration promised Haiti $10 million in emergency aid and Congress has since authorized $100 million for relief and reconstruction. The United Nations has issued a global appeal for another $100 million. We have no doubt that Haiti will need much more.
There is something the United States can do immediately to help Haitians help themselves. It is to grant “temporary protected status” to undocumented Haitians in the United States, so they can live and work legally as their country struggles back from its latest catastrophe.
This is the same protection that has been given for years, in 18-month increments, to tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and others whose countries have been afflicted by war, earthquakes and hurricanes.
While the Bush administration has temporarily stopped deporting Haitians since Hurricane Ike last month, it has not been willing to go the next step of officially granting temporary protected status to the undocumented Haitians living here.
Haiti’s president, René Préval, and members of Congress have urged the administration to change its mind. We urge the same.
There is very little that is consistent in the United States’ immigration policies toward its nearest neighbors, except that the rawest deal usually goes to the Haitians. Cubans who make it to dry land here are allowed to stay; those intercepted at sea are not. Hondurans and Nicaraguans who fled Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago have seen their temporary protected status renewed, as have Salvadorans uprooted by earthquakes in 2001.
Haiti, meanwhile, more than meets the conditions that immigration law requires for its citizens here to receive temporary protected status, including ongoing armed conflict and a dire natural or environmental disaster that leaves a country unable to handle the safe return of its migrants.
If Haiti is ever going to find the road to recovery after decades of dictatorship, upheaval and decay, it will take more than post-hurricane shipments of food and water. Haiti desperately needs money, trade, investment and infrastructure repairs.
It also needs the support of Haitians in the United States, who send home more than $1 billion a year. What it does not need, especially right now, is a forced influx of homeless, jobless deportees.
EDITORIAL
Help for Haiti
This year has been especially cruel to Haiti, with four back-to-back storms that killed hundreds of people, uprooted tens of thousands more and obliterated houses, roads and crops. A far richer country would have been left reeling; Haiti is as poor as poor gets in this half of the globe. Those who have seen the damage say it is hard to convey the new depths of misery there.
The Bush administration promised Haiti $10 million in emergency aid and Congress has since authorized $100 million for relief and reconstruction. The United Nations has issued a global appeal for another $100 million. We have no doubt that Haiti will need much more.
There is something the United States can do immediately to help Haitians help themselves. It is to grant “temporary protected status” to undocumented Haitians in the United States, so they can live and work legally as their country struggles back from its latest catastrophe.
This is the same protection that has been given for years, in 18-month increments, to tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and others whose countries have been afflicted by war, earthquakes and hurricanes.
While the Bush administration has temporarily stopped deporting Haitians since Hurricane Ike last month, it has not been willing to go the next step of officially granting temporary protected status to the undocumented Haitians living here.
Haiti’s president, René Préval, and members of Congress have urged the administration to change its mind. We urge the same.
There is very little that is consistent in the United States’ immigration policies toward its nearest neighbors, except that the rawest deal usually goes to the Haitians. Cubans who make it to dry land here are allowed to stay; those intercepted at sea are not. Hondurans and Nicaraguans who fled Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago have seen their temporary protected status renewed, as have Salvadorans uprooted by earthquakes in 2001.
Haiti, meanwhile, more than meets the conditions that immigration law requires for its citizens here to receive temporary protected status, including ongoing armed conflict and a dire natural or environmental disaster that leaves a country unable to handle the safe return of its migrants.
If Haiti is ever going to find the road to recovery after decades of dictatorship, upheaval and decay, it will take more than post-hurricane shipments of food and water. Haiti desperately needs money, trade, investment and infrastructure repairs.
It also needs the support of Haitians in the United States, who send home more than $1 billion a year. What it does not need, especially right now, is a forced influx of homeless, jobless deportees.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
And so it happened...
24 days out, I get sick...
I'm in Lancaster still and woke up this am and well, sore throat, cough, and that raspy voice I tend to actually like ;) but nonetheless, sick.
Today I'll be at the Lancaster field office, phonebanking and then a round of canvassing.
My hope, that we can change some hearts and minds and that the fresh Lancaster air sets me on a road back to health :)
Sent via BlackBerry
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Its interesting being in a swing state and actually having a television and time to watch it. The reason I make note of this is to see the combination of political ads being shown, that along with the local news coverage. Both Obama and Palin were in Philly today. Both had great turn outs. It just so happened that one man had better things to say.
Sent via BlackBerry
Sent via BlackBerry
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/4rp88t
Read this and do something, send money, make calls to friends in CA.
This is too important to sit back and do nothing.
Read this and do something, send money, make calls to friends in CA.
This is too important to sit back and do nothing.
More to come when not posting from a rocket launcher.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.
Monday, October 6, 2008
In Memory of Matthew Shepard and Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King
10 years ago tonight, Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten. He died five days later on October 12, 1998. Today, Wyoming still has no protections against Hate Crimes.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Crimes based on gender identity and expression, along with those based on sexual orientation are among the highest in the country, behind racially and religious based crimes. When these stories break they are often long overdue and rarely given the attention warrented.
On February 12th of this year, 15 year old, Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King, was shot and killed by fellow student, fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney. This story was ignored by the mainstream media almost entirely. These are just two cases over the last ten years - there are unfortunately plenty more.
The Human Rights Campaign reports that," evidence indicates that hate crimes are underreported; however, statistics show that since 1991 over 100,000 hate crime offenses have been reported to the FBI, with 7,722 reported in 2006, the FBI’s most recent reporting period.
Violent crimes based on race-related bias were by far the most common, representing 51.8 percent of all offenses for 2006. Violent crimes based on religion represented 18.9 percent and ethnicity/national origin, 12.7 percent. Violent crimes based on sexual orientation constituted 15.5 percent of all hate crimes in 2006, with 1,195 reported for the year."
Read more here .
As someone who lives as an out lesbian working within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community I want to say a few things. I want to thank our straight allies, for true equality to be reached the LGBT community will continue to need your support. This isn's about tolerance, I deserve every right that my heterosexual peers are entitled to. It breaks my heart when I hear people argue that same-sex couples should not be extended the right to marry or to raise children. If you know me, you know that these two things are important to me. I too, like Ellen and the hundreds and thousands of LGBT individuals out there, am NOT a second class citizen.
But this conversation goes beyond those particular rights, this conversation goes to being able to walk down the street and be safe. It means the right to go to work, school or out in my community without the fear that because of who I love I will be put in an unsafe situation. It means loving without fearing.
In this post I've focused on the deaths of Matthew Shepard and Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King, this is in no way meant to take away from the attention of the other individuals within the LGBT community that we have lost because of Hate.
Tonight, I will remember love.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Crimes based on gender identity and expression, along with those based on sexual orientation are among the highest in the country, behind racially and religious based crimes. When these stories break they are often long overdue and rarely given the attention warrented.
On February 12th of this year, 15 year old, Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King, was shot and killed by fellow student, fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney. This story was ignored by the mainstream media almost entirely. These are just two cases over the last ten years - there are unfortunately plenty more.
The Human Rights Campaign reports that," evidence indicates that hate crimes are underreported; however, statistics show that since 1991 over 100,000 hate crime offenses have been reported to the FBI, with 7,722 reported in 2006, the FBI’s most recent reporting period.
Violent crimes based on race-related bias were by far the most common, representing 51.8 percent of all offenses for 2006. Violent crimes based on religion represented 18.9 percent and ethnicity/national origin, 12.7 percent. Violent crimes based on sexual orientation constituted 15.5 percent of all hate crimes in 2006, with 1,195 reported for the year."
Read more here .
As someone who lives as an out lesbian working within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community I want to say a few things. I want to thank our straight allies, for true equality to be reached the LGBT community will continue to need your support. This isn's about tolerance, I deserve every right that my heterosexual peers are entitled to. It breaks my heart when I hear people argue that same-sex couples should not be extended the right to marry or to raise children. If you know me, you know that these two things are important to me. I too, like Ellen and the hundreds and thousands of LGBT individuals out there, am NOT a second class citizen.
But this conversation goes beyond those particular rights, this conversation goes to being able to walk down the street and be safe. It means the right to go to work, school or out in my community without the fear that because of who I love I will be put in an unsafe situation. It means loving without fearing.
In this post I've focused on the deaths of Matthew Shepard and Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King, this is in no way meant to take away from the attention of the other individuals within the LGBT community that we have lost because of Hate.
Tonight, I will remember love.
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