Democracy for Virginia

I began to test my own will for involvement 10 months ago by attending an Arlingtonian's for Democracy meetup.

Being an outspoken person filled with more opinion than may be prudent for me to share, I wrote an email to the meetup organizer's telling them in exacting detail how I thought they could improve the meeting. I was actually suprised to get a nice note in response saying, "you seem to know alot about this, maybe you would like to come and help us plan."
Being an academic interested in how adults come together in groups to address common causes believed it would be a good way to get involved and pursue my research interests.

Eight months later, after attending a few more meetings, Matt, the organizer for Arlingtonians for Democracy invited me to moderate a meeting for Democracy for Virginia. Okay I said.
It was a great meeting. I spoke with the organizations executive director, Jennifer Boysko, and we established some guidelines for helping one another keep the meeting running according to a set agenda.

When the agenda item for setting organizational goals come on the table, Jennifer gave me the floor and I moderated the discussion. I would offer an item for discussion and then take an order of speakers to address the issue, offer comments, make questions, or to make a motion for action items. It went well and within an hour the group of 22 people had an outline for action in the coming year.

At the end of the meeting there was a call for volunteers to take on duties to help make the plan come to life. I volunteered to be the social outreach coordinator. I know I have a limited amount of time, and I having done outreach work as the Vice President of the Graduate and Professional Association at ASU, I was sure I could handle the responsiblity and that perhaps more importantly I WOULD ENJOY IT!

Each of us has a limited amount of time in this world. We work, we sleep, we enjoy our friends and family, we enjoy our time alone to rest and recenter....but to make democracy work mean we have to donate our time. We need to follow the issues and have an informed opinion., but we also have to be willing to put ourselves out there if we are going to make things happen.
My first contribution as social coordinator was to organize a Holiday Party as suggested by board member Lee Diamond. After two conferenece calls and several flurries of emails we made it happen.

Parallels

Tonight is another vigil at the park near Clarendon Metro station, the same place the vigil mentioned in the first post on this blog took place. The Society of Friends is again one of the sponsors for this vigil. Again, it's to bring a group of people home. There are, as you'd probably surmised, one or two significant differences.

Tonight's vigil is for the four peace activists who have been kidnapped in Iraq, rather than the American soldiers fighting there. The stated condition for their safe return, the release of a large number of Iraqi prisoners, is unlikely to be met; Bush has said that we do not negotiate with terrorists, (though we have a long history of doing so). Just the same as with our other fellow citizens, I hope for their return, but my own thoughts as to why they were taken are dark, and leave me filled with foreboding. Tonight from 7:00-9:00pm, please hold a candle and whatever beliefs you have, and offer a warm thought, a prayer, or a few whispered words to the hope of their safe return.

Wednesday Dec. 7th, 7:00-9:00pm
Langley Hill Monthly Meeting (Quakers)
Clarendon Metro Stop
Wilson Blvd & Clarendon Blvd.
Arlington VA 22201
Contact: Jeannette Smith
www.quaker.org/langleyhill
Open area at the subway stop, open park area between 2 major streets

Getting Involved

SARTRE24
invited writer

The rationale for getting involved in political action is so simple when we look at the issues we face and compare them to the misdirection oozing from the halls of governance and the White House itself. Republicans would have you and I believe that they are the everyman party and they represent the values and issues faced by common, everyday Americans and that my dear friends is their most disturbing lie. They want us to believe that as Democrats, liberals, and the like that we have no values and that we have no sense of the moral issues our country faces but they are working under the very public assumption that the abortion and human sexuality are the only moral issues. This may be a result of the right-wing religious fanatics own the party but that is another discussion for another time. As a Democrat, I hope to convey to people that we face wider-reaching and very real moral dilemmas in this country. The education of our children is a moral issue, making sure our citizens have health care is a moral issue, not forcing our elderly citizens to choose between eating and taking vital prescription drugs is a moral issue, promoting real and inclusive constitutional and civil rights is a moral issue and it is high time that those of us who aren't conservative Republicans start explaining to people that we too believe in advancing some important moral issues. Republicanism has become synonymous with big business and allowing the wind to follow whatever direction the corporate lobbyists are blowing. I am not suggesting that all Republicans are alike but they are a party that knows how to follow the leader and the leaders has duped this country into believing that he cares about real issues when in reality he has no concept of what problems we commoners face on a day-to-day basis. We on the other side have sat silent as our troops were sent to die for reasons that at best were misleading and ill-founded. We have been bullied and attacked and called un-American because we promote global responsibility and try to view our political structure as an extension of our character and we have yet to stand up as a group and counterattack.
To my fellow gay and lesbian citizens I say that this should be even more important to us because this President and this party won the 2004 election on our backs. In a campaign of divisive hatred they brought conservatives to the polls to vote not for a president but against the advancement of civil rights in this country. By attacking the validity of our relationships they were able to gather a viscious momentum that gave our president his second term. Getting involved is a moral issue for us now more than ever.
You need to get involved because your country has been hijacked, because our reputation in the world is at stake, and because the people in charge DO NOT care about you no matter how many heartfelt homeland tales they tell. Government should be an extension of what is best about its people, not the product of a corrupt and unjust campaign of fear, hatred, and dishonesty. Our elections cannot continue to be the result of whose smear campaign was most successful. What does it say about us that our political discourse has degenerated to the verbal equivalent of beating each other with clubs.
When the government is failing its people it is because the people are failing to govern. You and I have a responsibility to ourselves and our country to get involved, we owe ourselves a place in the conversation.

Getting involved??

Getting involved is as easy as showing up and speaking out. I have invited friends and somewhat like-minded individuals to contribute to this blogspot with the hopes of isolating action items that could move US towards a real democracy, you know, one where citizen participate in governance.
Lets do this thing.

Ellipse Art Gallery

art and the making are performances to build soul and community
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Ellipse Art Gallery

down-home mountain music
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Ellipse Art Gallery

storytelling, laughter
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Ellipse Art Gallery

listening to life, love, and what not we were taken into a new space of being
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Ellipse Art Gallery

some of the performances at the Ellipse indoor picnic transformed a casual night out into a deeply cathartic happening
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Ellipse Art Gallery

Arlington is a place of hidden delights and intense music...
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Chalk4Peace

Chalk4 Peace artist and activist John Aaron thrilled us with a dedicated pitch to join his event on September 16, 2006.
For the kids in your life, for the child in your heart give into a goal of 1 million young artists all over the GLOBE! drawing with chalk....drawing for that oh so simple thing: PEACE ON EARTH! Develop a following and grow the movement.
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Moveon.org Vigil for Peace

TO HONOR THE DEADClarendon Central Park- Clarendon & N. Highland StWednesday, October 26th, 6:30 PMCome to a candlelight vigil in Clarendon Central Park to remember the2,000 American service members and others killed in Iraq. Gather at thefountain midway in the park, which is behind the Clarendon Orange Line.Bring candles, bring your friends and family. This will be a respectfulgathering.Location: Arlington, VA 22201Host: Kristine MontamatStatus: Public, open for RSVP, 92 Guests (Max 350)---------------------------------


I witnessed, at the Vigil to Honor the Dead, what I will term as disregard from many of people in the passing cars. People drove along in pursuit of their day-to-day lives. A few people slowed their vehicles,perhaps to get a good look at the signs or maybe with some caution, perchance they felt concern that someone mightaccidentally flow out from the vigil onto the street. I wondered how many knew what the vigil would be for: to bring troops home.
There were signs with various messages to the President, asking to bring soldiers home. The people at the vigil all respectedthat people had died, as one sign informed us 55 Virginian's thus far.

Rep. Moran paid his respects, in a dark suit with a worried face. He was shaking hands and engaging in quiet conversation. I was glad to see him. His office often sends letters to my home assuring me that Rep. Moran is glad to hear the voices of his constituents. I spoke with a couple who I was sure had lived through the SecondWorld War --you know, the one that was to end all wars, until the nextwar. They assured me that THIS TIME is DIFFERENT. They had never beforeexperienced a whole world asking one nation not to enter into battlewith one world leader disregarding all cries for peace.

Representative government: what does that mean, please help meunderstand. Who is being represented? Is there a time when young men andwomen who enter military service and answer the civic call to protectlife, liberty, and the pursuit of freedom can say to their governmentthat the request is just not appropriate? No, they depend on us, thoseof us who are in a position to ask HONEST QUESTIONS.As an American, I have the right to ask honest questions. I have theright to ask WHY and not be dismissed by other as being unpatriotic. It is my right to question authority: I am expected to do so with respect for dueprocess. I am expected to do so with courtesy.

When my honest questions are not respected, then what am I to do?We have invaded Iraq and we have shaken their earth with shock and awe:it is not a simple thing to leave without ensuring the devastation willbe taken care of, but how??I would appreciate thoughtful comments on how to promote transparencyand respect as the United States military is phased out of Iraq.

Inparticular, I ask for comments from people in the armed services whohave first hand experience with conditions in Iraq.Let’s open the floor to honest questions and reasonable suggestions.

finding page paradise

a space, a page waiting to be filled and wanting to be read

page paradise