Campaign '08

I was raised in a Jewish liberal democratic culture that placed a high value on social justice and has strongly impacted who I am today. I thank my parents for their caring and progressive political ideas. Whatever your political persuasion I think this election is very important and has already changed the face of american politics. The very fact that Barack Obama who is african american and anglo and Hilary Clinton, a woman, were competing for the democratic nomination, represents progress in and of itself and is very exciting. Barack Obama is my man and with the help of a forwarded e-mail from someone who worked full time on the Kerry/Salazar campaign and thoroughly enjoyed it, I have just signed up to work on his campaign. You can work as little or as much as you want. Send me an e-mail at lightalive@msn.com if you want me to forward this e-mail to you.
I see Barack Obama as a humble and confident guy who is committed to transforming the challenging place we have gotten ourselves into with the current administration. Today I heard that he wants to give college students $4,000 a year. In exchange they will be required to perform 100 hours of community service. That makes so much sense to me. Help kids out and give them a chance to give back. I am looking forward to learning more about the campaign and about Barack Obama's vision for the future of this country. I too worked for John Kerry part time for the last two months before the election. I was working to get out the vote and it was was very satisfying to go door to door and talk to people. I think this time will be more fun because I have so much more enthusiasm for Barack Obama than I did in the last election.
There is also a group of people http://www.meditation who are organizing a silent meditation retreat during the whole democratic convention. It will feature rotating meditation teachers from all different groups and meet in a public park near the convention. It is open to the public. You can participate in as much or as little as you want to. I think it is a great idea to bring the powerful healing energy of group silence to the convention. The organizers are also hoping to have some people who are convention participants join them on breaks.
These are certainly interesting times. Happy Independance Day. I think it is a good day to think about what I have become independant of this year. Two things come to mind- caring so much about what other people think and obsessing so much about whether I am in the right relationship. How about you? I am grateful that I get to go to the mountains for the weekend and I probably won't write until Monday.