I've lost track of how many governors and other politicians we've indicted in this state: Otto Kerner, Dan Walker, George Ryan, Dan Rostenkowski and now Rod Blagojevich. I'm sure there are others.
My first impression of Blagojevich came years ago. I was in Lincoln Park and noticed that the guy jogging towards me was, in fact, the governor. He was alone. He didn't need security back then. What struck me though was the way he looked around, as if he was taking note of all the people who recognized him. And when someone showed a sign of recognition, his face glowed. This was a momentary experience as he ran by, but it always stayed with me. My first thought was "Boy is that guy big on himself."
I voted for him the first time, mostly because I am a Democrat and I thought he sounded sincere and intelligent. Four years later, I skipped his name on the ballot and left it blank. Now I think about that first impression years ago, that little smirk on his face, that cocky little 'look at me' gloat. Little bastard. Who's smirking now?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
100 Years and Too Few Words
Today I went to the funeral for a woman who was 100 years old. I didn't know her. I knew others who knew her, but I didn't know her and had never met her. Its a strange thing to go to a funeral for someone you don't know. Its even stranger to walk away feeling like you still don't know the person.
I think funerals should tell a story, and too often they are reduced to touching or funny soundbites strung together as poor representations of one's life. Too often the minister doesn't know the deceased or doesn't know them well enough to do most of the talking. I realize these are religiously based rituals, but why do we insist on hearing mostly from a stranger when family and friends are the true vessels of truth?
The minister today told a few short stories, but they revealed very little about who this woman was. I kept thinking, "She lived for a hundred years! Can't you think of something better than that??" What I did learn was that she was a deeply religious woman, a woman of faith and family, and a kind and caring person. She was always there for everyone else. I suspect her greatest gift was always being present in a steady, reliable way for everyone. And her family counted on that from her. Always there. It explained why her four children (all 70 years old or more) were talking brightly at the beginning of it being a blessing, and were sobbing like forlorn children at the end. Always there was no longer there. Can you imagine having your mother with you, strong in body and clear in thought, until you are 70 years old? I both envied them, and felt touched by their sorrow.
All this to say: think about what you want people to say about you at your funeral. Will anyone really adequately put you into words? Does anyone truly get you? Does anyone know your passions, your loves, your feelings to the core? If not, why not? If not, maybe you should leave a few hints in your own words.
Ethel's life was summed up in words she wrote in the front of her Bible:
What I have, God owns
What I need, God provides
What I give, God multiplies
Rest in peace, Ethel.
I think funerals should tell a story, and too often they are reduced to touching or funny soundbites strung together as poor representations of one's life. Too often the minister doesn't know the deceased or doesn't know them well enough to do most of the talking. I realize these are religiously based rituals, but why do we insist on hearing mostly from a stranger when family and friends are the true vessels of truth?
The minister today told a few short stories, but they revealed very little about who this woman was. I kept thinking, "She lived for a hundred years! Can't you think of something better than that??" What I did learn was that she was a deeply religious woman, a woman of faith and family, and a kind and caring person. She was always there for everyone else. I suspect her greatest gift was always being present in a steady, reliable way for everyone. And her family counted on that from her. Always there. It explained why her four children (all 70 years old or more) were talking brightly at the beginning of it being a blessing, and were sobbing like forlorn children at the end. Always there was no longer there. Can you imagine having your mother with you, strong in body and clear in thought, until you are 70 years old? I both envied them, and felt touched by their sorrow.
All this to say: think about what you want people to say about you at your funeral. Will anyone really adequately put you into words? Does anyone truly get you? Does anyone know your passions, your loves, your feelings to the core? If not, why not? If not, maybe you should leave a few hints in your own words.
Ethel's life was summed up in words she wrote in the front of her Bible:
What I have, God owns
What I need, God provides
What I give, God multiplies
Rest in peace, Ethel.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
By Garrison Keillor
Published: November 13, 2008
Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning.
He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool.
Chicago!!!
We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor - he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."
The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.
The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back.
He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law.
I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference - the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis - you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.
It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin.
Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.
And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early Nineties, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of The Harvard Law Review, instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.
The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.
Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons.
His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.
So enjoy the afterglow of the election awhile longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails - imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes The First City. Step aside, San Francisco. Shut up, New York. The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.
h/t to Di
Published: November 13, 2008
Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning.
He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool.
Chicago!!!
We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor - he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."
The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.
The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back.
He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law.
I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference - the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis - you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.
It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin.
Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.
And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early Nineties, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of The Harvard Law Review, instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.
The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.
Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons.
His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.
So enjoy the afterglow of the election awhile longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails - imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes The First City. Step aside, San Francisco. Shut up, New York. The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.
h/t to Di
Sunday, November 9, 2008
What Will We Do With Our Outrage?
There is talk in the blogosphere that certain fixtures of the Bush administration may not survive the Obama era. We're not talking about Karl Rove or K Street here. We're talking The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, among others.
I mean, think about it. If Keith Olbermann is still finding reasons to be outraged on a daily basis during the Obama administration, we've got a problem! And what's Jon Stewart going to poke fun at? Biden gaffes? Cute puppy stories? I know we've all worked and prayed and begged for this day to come, but don't we run the risk of being bored?? What will we write about? What will fill the blogs? What will we be angry about?
Oh, I know. People like Rush Limbaugh and Fixed News will give us a little grist for the mill, but I just don't think it will be the same. Is it possible that we will look back at this time as both excruciating as well as exciting? Will we grow nostalgic for righteous indignation?
Or will we finally get to exhale, relax a little, let our guards down, trust our leaders and love our government as well as our country without reservation?
Maybe it won't be the best time for dissent. But hopefully, it will be a great time to be an American.
I mean, think about it. If Keith Olbermann is still finding reasons to be outraged on a daily basis during the Obama administration, we've got a problem! And what's Jon Stewart going to poke fun at? Biden gaffes? Cute puppy stories? I know we've all worked and prayed and begged for this day to come, but don't we run the risk of being bored?? What will we write about? What will fill the blogs? What will we be angry about?
Oh, I know. People like Rush Limbaugh and Fixed News will give us a little grist for the mill, but I just don't think it will be the same. Is it possible that we will look back at this time as both excruciating as well as exciting? Will we grow nostalgic for righteous indignation?
Or will we finally get to exhale, relax a little, let our guards down, trust our leaders and love our government as well as our country without reservation?
Maybe it won't be the best time for dissent. But hopefully, it will be a great time to be an American.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Lieberman, Part 2
A Lieberman aide was quoted yesterday in Politico as saying "His position is he wants to remain in the (democratic) caucus but losing the chairmanship is unacceptable." The CW now is that Reid is buying time to see what happens in the other Senate races still to be decided, before he ousts Lieberman.
Another angle on this is that Lieberman may be threatening to leave the Democrats, but he won't find a lot to cheer about if he goes further over to the dark side. He will likely not get any chairmanship, will be in the minority party, and will have even less clout than if he stays with the Democrats and gives up his chair without a whimper. So, for good reason, many Dems are saying "Let him go!"
Bottom line is that the Dems may not need his vote if we pick up another Senate seat. With Maine's moderate Republican senators, its likely that they would support President Obama on moderate issues, and would break the Republican's threats for filibuster. They both saw which way the wind is blowing, and doubt they will repeatedly vote against their constituents wishes on major issues like the Iraq war and the economy. Lieberman may have just threatened his way into irrelevance.
Another angle on this is that Lieberman may be threatening to leave the Democrats, but he won't find a lot to cheer about if he goes further over to the dark side. He will likely not get any chairmanship, will be in the minority party, and will have even less clout than if he stays with the Democrats and gives up his chair without a whimper. So, for good reason, many Dems are saying "Let him go!"
Bottom line is that the Dems may not need his vote if we pick up another Senate seat. With Maine's moderate Republican senators, its likely that they would support President Obama on moderate issues, and would break the Republican's threats for filibuster. They both saw which way the wind is blowing, and doubt they will repeatedly vote against their constituents wishes on major issues like the Iraq war and the economy. Lieberman may have just threatened his way into irrelevance.
Come Together, Right Now, Over Me
The white boy at this rally in Manassas, VA had an Obama sign and the black boy didn't. The pictures capture the story as they figure out how to solve the problem. Even these little guys got Obama's message.
(Photos taken by Nida Vitudis, 17 yrsold)
Click on photo to enlarge.
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