Home of the Free - We Hope

I have recently stumbled across an article that struck me with both hope and sadness.

The people in Greensboro, NC have recently triumphed in the struggle to protect religious freedom. This happened on May 24 when the local chapter of the ACLU successfully argued for the right of people with religious convictions other than Christian to swear to tell the truth on their own Holy Scriptures.

The state Attorney General is reviewing the decision and weighing the option of appeal. Hopefully, they will not appeal this decision.

You can read an account of the case at the News Record.

This latest dispute over the predominance of Christian icons int he courtroom began when a Muslim woman asked to swear upon the Qu' ran when testifying. Unfortunately, the court did not have one. Later, she and fellow Muslims raised money to donate copies. The court refused the copies, and this led to the suit.

The suit was initially dismissed on the grounds that there was no controversy. This decision was later reversed.

In a country where the ten commandments have been found in a courthouse, I guess I should not be surprised that a judge would at first dismiss the case that people of faiths other than Christian be able to swear upon their own scriptures. Even though the ten commandments monument was moved, a poll reported that 77% of people surveyed disagreed with the decision to move it!

I find it shameful that judges need to be nudged to open their minds and consider that Holy Scriptures could refer to more than just the bible.

It is probably true that when the founding fathers wrote that all men have the right to religious freedom, they probably were not thinking about anything other than their own variations of Protestantism. However, our definition of the freedom of religion has evolved (I hope!).

May this Greensboro court ruling be an indication that soon more courthouses in the United States will acknowledge that law does not favor one religion over another!

Get Active! Presidential Elections 2008

As you may have noticed, presidential candidates are starting to make a show. Some potential candidates have merely started their exploratory committees. Others have gone so far as to announce to a late night news audience that they were indeed running for office. Still others have set up the fan fare and announced with a large rally of supporters cheering them on!

Now is a good time to start chatting about the next President with your friends and neighbors.

Now is a good time to start letting people know where you stand on important issues and letting them know who you would support for President.

Before you start any conversation, you may want to prepare yourself with a few facts on candidates so you are ready to make the best case possible for your candidate. Luckily, there are many helpful resources to simplify your investigation!

You may want to check out a few websites to see how different candidates are doing in the polls or what is being said about them in the news. I am partial to major news networks like CNN, but I also check out Fox and MSNBC as well as the Washington Post to try to get multiple perspectives. You may also want to search for your candidate using technorati, a blog search engine.

If you would like to be able to get a line on the what people are thinking without having it cherry picked by reporters, then you can also look into web sites dedicated to showing you the latest in polling data, such as the Gallup Poll, Zogby, or the PollingReport.com. Please keep in mind that the results of surveys are greatly influenced by the questions that are asked. Surveys can still be biased because people are biased. How the data is presented has still been hand selected, to an extent. Even though the surveys feel more honest without the trappings of analysis, you should still check multiple sources to have a sense of what it 'true.'

I have found web sites such as Politics1 and Politico.com to make inquiry into the 2008 Presidential race easy because they not only have a current list of who is running, as well as who is planning to run or being pressured to run, but also they provide links to biographical information for each candidate, so you can immediately get the goods on any candidate or hopeful.

Being a part of a political campaign is like watching history happen while you are making it happen. If you are fascinated by the history of elections and are interested in comparing the current campaign to last elections, for the sake of even more engaging conversations if not your own curiosity, please check out HistoryCentral.com

The November 2006 election showed us that a few votes can make a difference! Webb (VA-D) won his seat by a slim margin, and changed the balance of power in the Senate! People calling and going door to door to bring out the voters made the difference. We can do that again!

If you are ready to make change happen in America, please know that you can help make the change you hope for possible. Little by little, day by day, you can help make America the utopia we all what it to be! Get active in the coming political race. It may seem far away for you as a voter, but as a supporter and as a citizen, it started long ago.

Research the candidates. Talk about the candidates. Show your support!

Race for Tibet!

As we get closer to the realization of the 2008 Olympic games it become more apparent to observers that China is not getting any better at addressing the human rights issues, for which they have received much criticism from the international committee.

People with the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the Australian Tibet Council are worried that China will use its Olympic charter to legitimize their presence in Tibet, misrepresenting present conditions. They have developed an Olympic mascot using the Tibetan antelope, perhaps in an attempt to lighten the weight of the fact that they are invaders to Tibet and its people.

The Race for Tibet campaign, initiated by the International Campaign for Tibet, is asking people to sign a petition demanding that China improve its human right conditions and urging the Chairman of the International Olympic Council to maintain its integrity and hold nations accountable and dedicated to peace.

The ITC sees the Beijing 2008 Olympic games as a way to draw attention to the human rights issues in Tibet. Many people pay attention to the Olympics. 302 nations are expected to compete in 28 sports in the 2008 Olympics. In 2004 according to information on Wikipedia.This campaign has links that will guide you to the various ways you can help make important human rights policies become a reality in Tibet.

It is unfortunate that the campaign to Free Tibet has remained a fringe issue for so long. The Chinese invaded Tibet in 1949. 58 years later the government of Tibet and his Holiness the Dali Lama are still in exile.

If you are not familiar with this issue, the ITC offers many fact sheets and as well as a brief question and answer site. If you would like to use this platform to help educate friends, acquaintances, neighbors, or co-workers who are not well-informed about Tibet, but who love the Olympics, then this is your chance to work your liberal politics into the conversation! The Race for Tibet site has also created fliers you can post around town, in the coffee shop, in the mail room, or at the grocery store.

Millions of people follow the Olympics, but few are aware of the human rights issues in China and Tibet. Please use this campaign to help build awareness. You can offer your assistance from your desk! This campaign is an excellent example of how the Internet is making mass involvement possible.

Reflections on President Bush's State of the Union Address 2007

The obvious hub of the Presidential State of the Union address was his desperate plea to support his plan to send a surge of troops to Iraq. Madame Speaker Pelosi remained firmly in her seat while V.P. Cheney rose to give his predictable support to Bush's plan.

Freshman Senator Webb gave an excellent response, one worth reading if you did not hear it...or reading again if you did get to see it live. Senator Webb very smoothly pointed out that Americans' have no reason to trust President Bush's new plan to "win" in Iraq as he said:

"this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world."

When I heard the President address the nation from the library on January 10th, I felt that that there would be little resistance to his change in strategy, which can be summed up by his simple statement that:

"This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq."

His description of the dire consequences of leaving Iraq without first sending this surge were indeed frightening, and his recent change of commanders the week prior gave this address an air of confidence that it was all a done deal. That was how I felt even though the American public had seemed to vote overwhelmingly Democratic in the November election, a statement that also seemed to say that Americans wanted to see a big change in how Iraq was handled.

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush again emphasized that American would not want to leave Iraq without finishing the job. He said that the course of the war may not be the war that we planned, but it is the war that we have....and WHY is the war as it is?? From his poor planning, from his failure to take advice. Why did we not send in adequate troops and supplies earlier? Why did the war seem to be run on the cheap when it is so important?

Pres. Bush seems intent on increasing the military presence in Iraq. His concept of winning is military. I think that what it means to WIN and what it means to leave successfully should emphasize political and economic outcomes for Iraq and not military outcome.

After listening to Webb, I am more eager to hear plans of how we can begin to phase troops out of Iraq, while also stabilizing the safety of its citizens and its political economy.

I agree with Bush's assertion that America is a nation of great heroism and great people. We need to take seriously that we have been given much and so from us much is expected.

That members of Congress could come together to address educational issues in the first term of Bush's presidency was, hopefully, the beginning of a heroic effort to finally address educational inequalities. I hope that there will be serious revisions to No Child Left Behind. With the new Democratic leadership in the Senate and the House, I am certain there will continue to be bipartisan efforts to make each child's educational experience quality.

I am also hopeful that the United States will continue to make international aid a priority. President Bush has made many promises to meet the millennium goals by putting funds into the millennium challenge account, which he formed in 2002.


I was somewhat surprised that in his reference to PEPFAR and AIDS relief he did not also mention abstinence-only. Abstinence-only-until-marriage had been mentioned in every previous speech of his Presidency. Abstinence-only was also being included as a stipulation on how funds in African nations were being spent with the Global AIDS Funds. Abstinence-only was also a powerful rallying cry to his conservative supporters. I think people should all take note that it was missing from this Presidential address. Although the conservative war against sexual freedom and reproductive rights is far from over, it is very interesting that this key policy issues, which had been gaining momentum was absent.


There are many other topics from the address that are worth exploring. The issue of spending reform seemed to get solid, positive responses from the Republican side of the aisle. He has a very interesting tax proposal. I am intrigued the connection between lowering taxing to help more Americans' afford private health insurance. It is a powerful scheme that does everything Republicans like--privatize and cut taxes--and is destined to make them look good, if it works.

Everyone agrees we need to act wisely, spend wisely...develop alternative fuels and alternative plans to fight the war on terror. It is too bad that Bush promotes this ideas now, on his way out. This is probably why he has the worst approval rating for any president in the last 50 years, or so said Wolf Blitzer.

I am eager to see how well Congress responds to the President's call for troops. Let us all pray everyone begins to think wisely, and consider how the well being of America is connected to the well being of all the residents of this planet.

Blog for Choice

I am pro-choice because I believe that each woman has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The choice to have a child MUST be a personal, private, individual decision. Each woman, when pregnant, is alone with her body and the awareness of a growing and dependent life. For each woman to be free, she MUST be given the RIGHT to choose.

We should not legislate to strip women of the right to her freedom to choose. Instead, we should legislate to ensure that each pregnancy is wanted, if not planned.

Young girls and boys as well as adults should have access to medically accurate information on human reproduction, birth control, and disease prevention. Each person should be made aware of the right of each individual to choose what happens to their body and be taught to respect one another as unique individuals.

Family medical clinics should be available in every community to provide regular clinical services, educational sessions, and medicine. If people are assisted with the means to prevent unwanted pregnancies, there would be fewer abortions.

Plan B has only recently become available in the United States. Advertising and public outreach campaigns are still needed to help more women know Plan B is available. It should be available to any woman at any time and of any age. No one has the right to judge a woman for choosing to control her reproductive capacity.

I find it hard to believe that there is anyone who wants to have an abortion. That there are people who rely on abortion as a means to birth control. Abortion is the last option, it should be the last option any woman should have to make if she finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy.

We can help reduce unwanted pregnancies by making pregnancy prevention an easily accessible and affordable option. We can make more pregnancies wanted by providing affordable health care, child services, and educational opportunities for young mothers and their families.

Organizations like NARAL Pro-choice America , who planned and organized today as the national BLOG for CHOICE day, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America promote women's reproductive rights, which are dwindling here in the United States.

Although elections in November 2006 proved that Americans' support a woman's right to choose, the attacks against Roe vs Wade will not stop. Abstinence-Only education supporters will continue to lobby for their belief-based curriculum to dominate over medically accurate curricula. While Plan B has been approved for use in the United States finally) We can not take reproductive rights for granted. Be attentive to your politicians and funding streams. See what resources are available in your community to help girls and young women secure their rights and access to clinical and educational services.

Women deserve their freedom, their dignity, their right to control their bodies. This is why I am pro-choice.

Taking Risks and Starting Over

Sometimes in life we need to take risks, put forward extra strength to get the job done once and for all (like we apparently need to do in Iraq!).

I wish the best for all our men and women who are committed to danger to make the world safer. I pray that all our belief in freedom and stability becomes reality.

It seems we are ready as a nation to Go Back
Go Back
Go Back

To another time
Another place
Where the signs were in the right place
Back to the time where we were before people began to read the signs all wrong!