A President Is Born

After a day of anxious waiting and pacing, the labor is over and the election is decided and the future -- a healthy, hopeful future -- is born.

Sometimes the right thing really does happen.

So Go Vote!

Subway Etiquette

I grew up in New York and subway etiquette was drummed into my head from an early age. A polite person gives up his or her seat to people in certain categories. The categories are: pregnant women, disabled people, and older people, especially older women. When I was really young, a gentleman gave his seat to a lady, but that went the way of the dinosaur by the 1970s.

When I moved back to New York last month, I was pleased to see that subway etiquette is still operational. At least, I was pleased until, in the last week, on two separate occasions, polite young people offered their seats to me. Me? I'm not old enough to be offered a subway seat. I was deeply troubled, and mentioned it to my friend, who is my age. "Oh, yeah, that happens to me, too," she said, "but I just assume they thought I was pregnant."

And Finally This

I'm sharing an e mail that's been making the rounds. Today it arrived on my desk. I have no idea who originated it. I do hope, though, that if any YES folk received and read this message, they have paid attention to its words and change their YES to NO.

You are my friends. I respect and admire you. You are the best women I have ever met -- generous, kind, and willing to help anyone who needs help. I am very concerned about this misleading information about Proposition 8. It all sounds so real, but is it not true.
Here is the truth:
1. No church is required to perform -- or not perform -- any ceremony. This would be a direct violation of the federal constitution protecting separation of church and state.
2. Schools do not teach gay (or any other) marriage to kindergartners. The teach protection from strangers. Sex education is taught in high school and they teach - "This is how it happens. Don't do it." Marriage education is taught in high school and covers good parenting, child care, and nutrition.
3. No child is required to participate if the parent does not want the child to do so. A parent may have the child excused from sex education, etc., by notifying the school. Best to give the school a letter to file so no one forgets. That's all a parent has to do -- tell the school. That can be done at the beginning of each year before instruction even begins.
4. Marriage and Domestic Partnership are not the same thing. The civil rights are not the same for both.
5. Classic 'traditional' marriage is not affected by the people entering into it. If it were, the biggest threat is the huge number of divorces and wife abuse practiced in straight marriages.
We founded this nation on the belief that every religion is protected by prohibiting laws that are based on religious doctrine.
We founded this nation to protect minorities.
The proud nation of the United States does not legislate to take away the rights of others nor do we condone political and personal hatred against each other.
This is not a religious issue. It is a civil rights issue.d It is a moral issue because others need our help.
Please remember that I have a daughter who has devoted her life since junior high to bettering the lives of others. You have met her, seen her photos, know how she has helped hundreds of poor families right here in our community. She is willing to go back to Pakistan to find ways to improve the lives of women by improving their chances for education.
Doesn't she deserve the same civil rights as I do?
If it is okay to persecute a group, what will protect us if we are next?
Thank you my friends.
Sally

I don't know Sally but I commend her for these words.

Hooray For Hassan Alyassin

Remember several months ago when this young man was going door to door in Pomona letting people know of his ambition to run for mayor? He rang the doorbell of the witsendmagazine.com co-founder. So taken was she by his forthright, honest ambition that she gave him ten dollars on the spot and wished him well.
And he made it. He is running for mayor of Pomona. The odds are against his winning this go around and in favor of his trying again.
Who knows. Maybe during his next campaign he'll be able to pay a printer for posters instead of painting them himself on scraps of plywood.
Hassan, we're rooting for you.

PSA No To Proposition 8

I'll Want My Money Back

Back in the mid seventeen hundreds there was a lot of stuff going on that required brave and forward thinking decisions by courageous, articulate, fair-minded people. Luckily, we seem to have had quite a few folk like that back then.

For example, the Stamp Act of 1765, enacted by the British Parliament, mandated that revenue stamps be affixed to all newspapers, pamphlets, licenses, leases, or other legal documents. The revenue garnered by those stamps would be used in theory for "defending, protecting, and securing" the American colonies. Over in England, the financial burden seemed so evenly and lightly distributed that the measure passed Parliament with little debate. Of course, it wasn't their lives on which those members of Parliament were voting so their decision was probably fairly simple.

The violence of the reaction in the thirteen colonies, however, was impressive and completely surprising to Parliament. The act aroused the hostility of the most powerful and articulate groups in the colonies -- journalists, lawyers, clergymen, merchants, and businessmen, north and south, east and west -- because it wasn't fair.

In the summer of 1765 trade between the colonies and England practically stopped. Prominent men organized as "Sons of Liberty," and political opposition soon flared into rebellion. Inflamed crowds paraded the streets of Boston. From Massachusetts to South Carolina the act was nullified, and mobs destroyed the hated stamps.

The Virginia Assembly passed a set of resolutions denouncing taxation without representation as a threat to colonial liberties.

A few days later, the Massachusetts House invited all the colonies to appoint delegates to a Congress in New York to deal with the Stamp Act. This Congress, held in October 1765, was the first inter-colonial meeting ever summoned on an American initiative.

No taxation without representation became the battle cry of the American Revolution.

So here we are about to vote on whether or not people in the State of California should be denied basic rights extended to the majority of the population. If that initiative passes, it seems only fair and completely democratic, according to the wisdom of our founding fathers, that all who are denied rights afforded to others should be given tax breaks. We could call those breaks the "We Screwed Them Tax Cuts" or the "We Think We're Better Than You" tax cuts.

On Wednesday morning, if the YES folks have won their absurd battle, it's only fair that those who have lost their constitutional rights be reimbursed for past taxes and given on going tax breaks until the day their rights are restored.