Sh! Struggling non-genius at work

I don't have the discipline,
but I've got blinders on now.


No email.

No letters to the editor.

No coordination.

No photo montage cut-and-paste projects,
no matter how amusing they are.

No taking pictures of the workers taking down the
metal shutters and preparing to remove the windows for
restoration.

They want the damn drawings. What's so hard in that? It's easy to make drawings. Why am I doing everything under the sun but making the drawings?

And there's our friends' garden I was supposed to finish. My husband keeps asking me about that, like what on earth is wrong with me that I can't concentrate? The USA is tumbling into ruin and bankruptcy and suburban Virginia women take their little daughters to Sarah Palin rallies, toting hand-painted signs to express their admiration for a woman "just like them".

What is wrong with that picture?

Some on the Obama boards keep exhorting us not to make Sarah Palin the story. OK. I can get some of that, like no "free ride" for Palin and no "free press" for Palin. The problem is that the Republicans by virtue of choosing her put Sarah Palin in the public eye, and the instant they did that, the damage was done. The evocations were made and installed on the hard-drives of humans' memory and thought processes.

Sarah Palin, forever.

Until the hard drive dies or is too cluttered with other newer, better stuff to remember her. But, for now, she is actually the GOP VP candidate for a 72-year-old GOP P candidate with repeated facial melanoma. Hard to ignore her, especially when women from Leesburg, Virginia, suburban DC, identify themselves and their daughters with her.

They claimed the moral failures of her family's life made her more "real", her family more "authentic", that these are "personal, family issues", "off limits". The real problem is that Sarah Palin and those who support her try to make their morality guide our public policy, but when it is shown to fail, it isn't our business.

What it means is that rational, logical, analytical thought is suspended. What counts is what you believe, and then you can say or claim whatever you need to in order to support it.

We're trying to talk issues, and they're back to crying foul on matters of the heart.

As long as the Republicans can keep the majority of their voters focused away from the issues and on the heart, the longer they can remain in power to do as they will for their own interests with what is left of The United States of America after the present fire sale.
That's my opinion. Just opinion.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with Judith Warner's statement, "One does not argue when making new friends," and her conclusion, based on the observations of University of Virginia associate professor of moral psychology Jonathan Haidt from his recent essay, “What Makes People Vote Republican?”, who argues "that it’s liberals, in fact, who are dangerously blind", that liberals "need to start breaking through the empathy barrier."

No one every changed a person's mind by arguing with them.
That's another opinion.

You have a chance of helping to hear you by listening to them and discovering that neither of us are so far apart in our values and beliefs -- kids should behave with respect to their elders; teenage pregnancy is a sad occurrence, and we should do all we can to help them make better choices; it is our obligation as stewards of our planet to take care of the animals and the fish, the birds and their habitats, the environment in which we all live, and on and on. Democrats are born to Republican parents, Republicans have Democrats as cousins and neighbors. We hold onto our differences because they become part of our identity, they explain and bolster our relationships with people who are similar. We learned in grade school that this mattered a lot, to have friends.
To not be alone. Outcast.

We hold onto our identity because it defines us, our relationships and our fragile place in the world. It's the high ladder we climb against the wall; it's so easy to fall. It's easier still to imagine falling and all that will come of that.

Blinders for my work, not for other people.

Why is Barack Obama right for conservatives and liberals? That's the case we need to make. It's based on knowledge of history -- legal, banking, foreign affairs, social -- and how we use that knowledge to fix our problems and teach the next generation what they were and why we did what we did.

Fixing them once doesn't preclude making them again in the future, when no one remembers what happened, and no one wants to listen to the few who know about it because it spoils the party.

Got to go.
....

Oh, and read "Trusted Sources" by dday, posted yesterday in

Hullabaloo

....

Obama/Biden 08
for renewal

....

Call... Skype works from home for free calling to swing states! Lots of disconnected numbers, answering machines, a few grumpy McCain voters who hang up on you and more who are innterested in what you have to say. Great for the home-bound, and you get to wear your pajamas.
Canvass... no cell phone or free minutes required! Just ears, information, a mouth and good sense.
Contribute... I'm still hoping for another drop in the hat I'm holding out for renewal of our government and our society. Remember, you get the credit for your contribution.
Communicate... that means listening and responding with consideration, empathy and information. We need to do a lot more of that, anyway.

Hurricane Ike Aid
And while you're on www.barackobama.com, you can make a donation for the people affected by Hurricane Ike.