Live and Learn

Call to Service

2009-01-07T20:54:00Z

If you suffer from chronic volunteerism, as I do (my husband calls me the Master of the Uncompensated Activity), then you will love www.usaservice.com, a new website just launched today, January 7. (apparently the hotlink isn't working right on this blog; you'll have to cut-and-paste the address into your browser and it should work.) This fantastic new organization offers communities new and easy ways to connect in service of important local initiatives and needs. It's so exciting to...(read more)

"Grass"-Roots Governance?

2008-12-13T17:51:57Z

To borrow fellow blogger Ed Furey's phrase: "What the?" Here I have been glowing on about the governing-from-the-ground-up beauty implicit in Obama's change.gov website feature, "Open for Questions." In this feature, citizens may pose specific questions they'd like the incoming administration to address. What a fabulous, shining example of democracy in action, I've been saying! And how amazing that in six-and-a-half hours, nearly 10,000 people visited the site...(read more)

Open for Questions: Update

2008-12-12T23:14:00Z

UPDATE: The Obama Transition Management site, www.change.gov, is temporarily taking down the "Open for Questions" web feature. They were overwhelmed with their response. I apologize that the link in my previous blog no longer functions (and thanks to Amy for letting me know), but if you go to www.change.gov, and search for "Open for Questions," you should be able to find your way to updated information. Apparently, in one day, "Open for Questions" processed more than...(read more)

Obama Open for Questions

2008-12-11T16:28:00Z

http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions From the start, he's been committed to a transparent transition. Now, the President-elect is open for questions. Your questions. Click on the above official link, and ask away. Anything you think the US government should know about, care about, act on. Personally, I like this definition of democracy. Check it out -- it's a great site....(read more)

Let's do the math

2008-12-09T22:00:00Z

A new study has reported that U.S. Students have improved in math and science. "American kids are doing better than people think," the article reads. "But some Asian countries have an edge in math that just keeps growing." (See http://www.msnbc.com/id/28141411/from/ET ) We all have become wary, of course, of the ever-present evidence in modern life of "studies." You name the issue, and as many "studies" probably exist to back it up as they do to disprove it...(read more)

To baste, or not to baste

2008-11-18T00:02:00Z

Well, it’s almost Thanksgiving, the horror, the horror. For those of us moms who don’t particularly enjoy the culinary arts, this time of year can have its special challenges. Personally, I’d almost rather be in Target at 6 am Friday morning than in my kitchen at 6 pm Thursday evening. The enormity of the turkey dinner task weighs heavily upon me. It didn’t always. I used to enjoy fussing in the kitchen. But I’m old and cranky now, I have a busy life, and I am dead sick of my kitchen. I’m burned...(read more)

A Charter for Compassion

2008-11-16T21:06:00Z

I hope you'll watch this short video. I hope it is a life-enriching three minutes for you. It was for me. My family did not participate in any organized religion when I was a child. My father said -- and he told the truth -- that organized religion was responsible for intolerance, hate, suffering, war -- for so much damage and destruction in this world, that he wanted no part of it. Yet, as I've grown up, I've also seen how organized religion -- at its best -- can also be responsible...(read more)

Pulling up our pants and getting to work

2008-11-11T15:44:27Z

I've spoken to many friends and relatives this past week who, no matter what their political leanings, are newly hopeful about the future, now that we have President-Elect Obama. Hope is a new commodity, and it's trading high. That's not to say it won't be hard work, though. I have a cousin out in California, who has spent most of her life advocating for folks with disabilities/special needs. Her reflections are so eloquently expressed. I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her here...(read more)

A New Day

2008-11-05T13:33:16Z

According to news reports this morning, Senator McCain called Barack Obama at 10 p.m. to offer his congratulations on being elected the 44th president of the United States of America. In the call, Mr. Obama said he was eager to sit down and talk with Mr. McCain; in his concession speech, Mr. McCain said he was ready to help Mr. Obama work through difficult times. “I need your help,” Mr. Obama told McCain, according to an Obama adviser, Robert Gibbs. “You’re a leader on so many important issues.”...(read more)

All Over but the Votin'

2008-11-04T13:18:01Z

Eleanor Roosevelt said that the only way to grow as a person was to do something new that scares you a little every day. This election has scared -- and empowered me. I've pushed myself to get out there. I've dared to write about my thoughts in this blog. I've volunteered to campaign for a candidate -- Barack Obama -- for the first time ever in an election process. And as a result , I've met wonderful new friends who share a lot of my beliefs and ideals in what it will take to make...(read more)

McCain can't use a computer?

2008-11-03T13:45:00Z

My cousin, who works for and with those with disabilities internationally, sent me this inspiring clip this morning. The vast proportion of agencies and initiatives for special needs in this country support Barack Obama for president. (If Sarah Palin were voting only based on her child's welfare, she would reluctantly have to vote Obama too!) Here's the track record, courtesy Independent Living USA: ( http://www.ilusa.com/News/OBAMA-VS-MCCAIN.htm ) BARACK OBAMA VS. JOHN MCCAIN: Who Will Break...(read more)

The Seventh Generation

2008-11-02T23:04:29Z

Change is hard. And we haven't undergone this much tumultuous change as a country since Vietnam. We can all recite the litany of woes: two difficult wars, a tarnished international reputation, global climate change, a tanked economy. an interconnected global reality where we must borrow from China to pay the Middle East, and a terrible polarization of Americans into supposedly extremist camps of conservative and liberal. It's true that we've stirred up ideological wars at home to parallel...(read more)

United we stand

2008-10-29T19:48:24Z

...(read more)

people in the middle for Obama

2008-10-28T21:00:00Z

Between the extreme right and the far left, there are normal people in the middle . . . . and this time around, they are all voting for Obama....(read more)

In One Week

2008-10-28T11:58:03Z

...(read more)

Election, Nation, and Education

2008-10-16T15:10:00Z

During last night's debate, both candidates lamented the fact that the US spends more on public education than other developed nations, yet receives a dubious return on investment. They both indicated that more money does not create a better education—better teachers do, and the problem lies in improving incentives to attract and retain excellent teaching professionals. While I certainly can't speak for conditions everywhere across the US, I have some experience on the ground here in the...(read more)

Here's a practical tool.

2008-10-15T13:07:37Z

...(read more)

Chicago's Citizen of the Year and Waukesha's Man of the Hour

2008-10-10T17:26:00Z

In a Letter to the Editor in today's New York Times , William C. Ibershof, chief prosecutor of William Ayers and the Weather Underground in the 1970s, expressed outrage that McCain/Palin are deliberately misleading the public about the nature of Ayers' history in relation to Barack Obama's charitable work in Chicago. The chief prosecutor wrote of those events that brought Ayers to trial 40 years ago: "Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including...(read more)

Walking the Talk

2008-10-06T11:59:00Z

There’s a table at a local coffeehouse that I use as home base for a few hours every weekend. I set up shop with a milk-crate full of walk packets, political buttons, sign-in sheets, and clipboards, and await my team of volunteers, a revolving group of locals who come for their weekly assignments. They pick up packets, then go out in to the community to spread the word about our locally unpopular candidate, Barack Obama. Some of these volunteers come from very wealthy backgrounds. They pull up to...(read more)

The End of our Consumer Era, 1968 - 2008, RIP.

2008-09-30T13:47:00Z

Amid this election and this economic meltdown, we have been tossed and buffeted by winds of words, by pointing fingers and the laying of blame to the right left and center, but let's try and confront the truth for a moment. Let's try to look in the mirror and coldly assess the Americans we've become. We like fast food. Easy credit. Big cars. Luxury goods. Cavernously large houses. All the signs and symbols and trappings of "American Success." We Americans are a people who love...(read more)