Now that both campaigns are full up, VP's and all, I feel like I can write about my own personal torment.
Realistically, I am one in 305 million people in the country (Population Clock, Censes bureau). About a two thirds of the country is legally eligible to vote and approximately 150 million will vote this year. Here in Texas I am one in about 13 million. When you look at it like that, its daunting. I'm just a drop in the bucket, a drop in Lake Travis.
"When you vote, you are exercising political authority. You're using force. And force my friend is violence, the supreme authority from which all other authority is derived."
---Starship Troopers
While I do not share such an extreme opinion with Robert A. Heinlein, voting is the one control I have over my, our, government without being directly involved in policy making, enforcing, or justifying. When we vote for a particular candidate, we express not support for the ideas that they might espouse on the campaign trail, but faith in that person, that when pressed to make a decision about the direction of our country, they will lead us to something good. They will lead us to something, to somewhere better than we are now. This is where our current situation gives me pause.
On the one hand we have Barak Obama. A fantastic orator, charasmatic, talks big. He is inspiring in a way I have never seen in politics. He talks about change like Willy Wonka talks about chocolate. But he has only been on the national political scene for 4 years.
On the other hand we have John McCain, a moderate conservative, who stirred up some controversy in his party for reaching so whole heartedly across the aisle on the failed Illegal Immigration reform bill. He's a decorated vietnam veteran and has twenty plus years in the senate. But he is on the old side and he is in the same political party as G W (which is almost automatically a strike for anyone).
As I was thinking about writing this post, I thought of the Michael Douglas movie The American President. Why can't it be that simple? We have a some what clean guy trying to run a clean campaign. He's running against a jerk pulling up mud from every possible hole and slinging it. The clean president doesn't respond to the accusations because he wants to rise above, but then at the end of the third act he responds to all the criticisms at once in a blazing speech that causes every american to vote for him in the end. Unfortunately, this election isn't that simple.
We've heard a barrage of comments about why either candidate is unfit to lead this country. Barak Obama is inexperienced, playing on his celebrity rather than his policy and issues. McCain is nothing more than a third term for Bush. Both of these comments are somewhat founded in reality, then distorted for the purposes of our sound-bite culture.
I find myself in a tough spot because neither of these senators has won my vote, not yet. I am not taken in by Obama's celebrity. I became wary of him when I first heard murmur of Barak as the future of the democratic party two weeks after he was sworn in as a senator. Sorry, that is not enough time to know that. McCain is old. He has a tendancy to be misguided on economic issues (I still don't believe in the trickle down theory).
I was hoping the VP selection would help guide me a little more. But alas it did not. Barak, the candidate for change, chose Biden, a part of the machine that needs changing. Biden does give him a little more credibility as far as experience but I would truly feel more comfortable with the democratic ticket if it were reversed. McCain, who announced this afternoon, chose Sarah Palin, first term governor of Alaska. She helps him appeal more to the conservative right while also hopefully picking up some of the disenfranchised Hillary supporters. But she's only got two years experience as a Governor. I have to ask, would she be ready to take over in the event that McCain is incapacitated? I don't know.
The VP selection didn't get me any closer to a choice. Next time I talk issues.
Peace,
B
P.S. Sorry for the lack of conclusion. I'm tired.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Life is cyclical.
I got to get out on my bike again today. I went to the Veloway. I had read that there was a path that ran from the back of Bowie High school to the Veloway. So I went down to Bowie and road around looking for this path. Bowie is surrounded by fence. So I went back into the neighborhood back behind Bowie, hoping to find the real entrance. It is a neighborhood of fricken' cul de sacs.
Eventually, I made my way back to the school and took one more loop around. I saw a little dirt path. I'm riding on a road bike, the kind with the really skinny tires. I'm wearing my cycling shoes with the cleat that sticks out of the bottom. So I hop off and start walking back behind a couple of the portables. There is a section of fence that is cut out, about two feet wide and three and a half feet tall. Once I get back there I have to walk through a little forest down a really steep cement path. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to walk in cycling shoes...its no fun. My cleats are extremely hard plastic and like to slide on concrete, plus the awkwardness of the half inch lump underneath the ball of your foot, no fun at all.
Finally, I make it to the Veloway. I love it! It is great. No cars to almost hit me or force me into the curb. Its pretty much flat except for the one real hill. It goes up 12 feet in about 12 feet. Just me and the road. I saw a deer eating greenery as I rode by. It stopped eating and looked at me as I passed, made note, and went right back to eating!
It felt good to get out. Since I sprained my ankle in the last game of the summer season of soccer I haven't been able to get out and run. It hurt a little after the ride, but nothing ice and ibuprofen didn't fix. I should be back on a running schedule in two weeks. I still want to train for a tri but I don't know anything about how to train for one. Where can you swim laps in Austin? I don't want to pay $65 for a gym membership just for the lap pool.
BTW - The title of this blog is dedicated to Justin Golbabai
School is starting up! YAY!
B
Eventually, I made my way back to the school and took one more loop around. I saw a little dirt path. I'm riding on a road bike, the kind with the really skinny tires. I'm wearing my cycling shoes with the cleat that sticks out of the bottom. So I hop off and start walking back behind a couple of the portables. There is a section of fence that is cut out, about two feet wide and three and a half feet tall. Once I get back there I have to walk through a little forest down a really steep cement path. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to walk in cycling shoes...its no fun. My cleats are extremely hard plastic and like to slide on concrete, plus the awkwardness of the half inch lump underneath the ball of your foot, no fun at all.
Finally, I make it to the Veloway. I love it! It is great. No cars to almost hit me or force me into the curb. Its pretty much flat except for the one real hill. It goes up 12 feet in about 12 feet. Just me and the road. I saw a deer eating greenery as I rode by. It stopped eating and looked at me as I passed, made note, and went right back to eating!
It felt good to get out. Since I sprained my ankle in the last game of the summer season of soccer I haven't been able to get out and run. It hurt a little after the ride, but nothing ice and ibuprofen didn't fix. I should be back on a running schedule in two weeks. I still want to train for a tri but I don't know anything about how to train for one. Where can you swim laps in Austin? I don't want to pay $65 for a gym membership just for the lap pool.
BTW - The title of this blog is dedicated to Justin Golbabai
School is starting up! YAY!
B
Monday, August 11, 2008
Grey's anatomy
I am always amazed at how things end up. The timeliness of things, like when you are listening to a song, and things around you seem to hit on the beat. Maybe this has never happened to you, but it happens to me.
I just recently watched Grey's anatomy two part episode, "six days." This is the episode in which George's father has surgery for cancer and then dies. I remember watching it when it aired and going to work the next day and discussing it with Sarah in the CIS office. She asked me what it was like to watch that episode going through what was going on in my own life. Now that I have revisited the episode it still maintains its relevance, maybe it even gains some. What shocked me was that I looked up when the episode aired, January 18, 2007. My father passed away January 25, 2007. I watched that episode the week before my dad died. It was like cosmic training for the situation I was going to live the following week. To be fair, there were striking differences between George's situation and my own, but the key points are there.
This is part of an entry from my pen and paper journal:
"Jan. 19, 2007 4:00pm
I have survived the worst Christmas break ever. I probably would've gone crazy had it not been for Marisa.
List of things that sucked over X-mas break:
-Dad has cancer and is really close to death
-Girl from high school part of murder/suicide
-Saddam Hussein hanged
-Broke up with Natalia
Dad has not gotten any better. It seems we take two or three steps back, then stand still for a couple of weeks, then take three more steps backward. As of two weeks ago he had lost more than 50 lbs. in two months. About once a month the hospice nurse tells me she doesn't know how much longer he has. It seems that every time I get [mentally] prepared for him to die he lives and every time I get used to the idea of my dad being alive the nurse tells me he could die any day. Its a freakin' yo-yo."
The rest of the entry goes on to talk about the rest of the stuff on that list. Most of which I don't feel comfortable posting here.
Ever since my father's death I have been far more sensitive to death in the news, in movies, or on television. Like just recently, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hays, what's that about? Not to mention the war in Iraq. The state of Texas just executed an illegal immigrant. These are the things I hear louder than everything else. The man who taught me sound design in college was just diagnosed with cancer.
You know what they say about life...no one gets out alive. Now that I have thoroughly depressed you here is a funny video.
Hope that helps!
I just recently watched Grey's anatomy two part episode, "six days." This is the episode in which George's father has surgery for cancer and then dies. I remember watching it when it aired and going to work the next day and discussing it with Sarah in the CIS office. She asked me what it was like to watch that episode going through what was going on in my own life. Now that I have revisited the episode it still maintains its relevance, maybe it even gains some. What shocked me was that I looked up when the episode aired, January 18, 2007. My father passed away January 25, 2007. I watched that episode the week before my dad died. It was like cosmic training for the situation I was going to live the following week. To be fair, there were striking differences between George's situation and my own, but the key points are there.
This is part of an entry from my pen and paper journal:
"Jan. 19, 2007 4:00pm
I have survived the worst Christmas break ever. I probably would've gone crazy had it not been for Marisa.
List of things that sucked over X-mas break:
-Dad has cancer and is really close to death
-Girl from high school part of murder/suicide
-Saddam Hussein hanged
-Broke up with Natalia
Dad has not gotten any better. It seems we take two or three steps back, then stand still for a couple of weeks, then take three more steps backward. As of two weeks ago he had lost more than 50 lbs. in two months. About once a month the hospice nurse tells me she doesn't know how much longer he has. It seems that every time I get [mentally] prepared for him to die he lives and every time I get used to the idea of my dad being alive the nurse tells me he could die any day. Its a freakin' yo-yo."
The rest of the entry goes on to talk about the rest of the stuff on that list. Most of which I don't feel comfortable posting here.
Ever since my father's death I have been far more sensitive to death in the news, in movies, or on television. Like just recently, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hays, what's that about? Not to mention the war in Iraq. The state of Texas just executed an illegal immigrant. These are the things I hear louder than everything else. The man who taught me sound design in college was just diagnosed with cancer.
You know what they say about life...no one gets out alive. Now that I have thoroughly depressed you here is a funny video.
Hope that helps!
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