2) Finally making contact with someone from the Nebraska AIDS Project, in hopes of finding satisfying/worthwhile volunteer work.
3) Hearing that, despite the national efforts of an anti-choice minority, a new Planned Parenthood clinic is open and serving women and families in Aurora, Colo.
4) Teva's keeyooot new line of fall shoes made entirely of post-consumer recycled materials. (My favorite = the Riley)5) Reading Anita Hill's bitchslap to Clarence Thomas over his revisioned version of history.
6) Coming up with the bright idea (pun intended) that just because there's no official plan to make Lights Out San Francisco a nationwide event, that doesn't mean we can't celebrate on our own! Mark your calendars: Oct. 20, 8-9 p.m. You can live without electricity for one lousy hour, can't you? Candles and quiet and all that might bring into your life? Try it! Let me know how it works!
7) Subsequently realizing I'll be in Austin for Lights Out. Pretty sure I can live without electricity for one hour, even in a strange city.
And things that made me sad. And mad.
1) Hearing Seymour Hersh on "Fresh Air" talking about the devastating consequences likely if the current regime keeps beating its worn-out ol' war drum on Iraq. Pay attention now, people. The national spin is rotating in that direction.
2) Learning that Judith Asuni, one of the peace activists we met with in Nigeria, is being held by the government there on trumped-up espionage charges. Apparently, she helped some German documentary filmmakers gain access to rebels in the dangerous oil delta. She has done so much to illuminate the plight of this devastated region of a poverty-stricken country ... the charges can't be anything but a trumped-up way to get a muckraker out of the way. But I can't find any new information, and I am worried for her safety.
3) Reading this article about working conditions for Brazilians fueling the ethanol industry. Does any of this fuel trickle up north? Do I support this when I buy the ethanol blend here in Nebraska? I hope not. Bad enough that using ethanol supports yet more pesticide use and subverts the possibility of switching to far more logical/economical/efficient switchgrass.
And what of feeling happy or sad?
Here's an odd little story about a study that finds people who are used to being happy end up just having higher expectations for happiness.
"When good things happen, they don't count for much because they are what you expect. When bad things happen, you temporarily feel terrible, because you've gotten used to being happy."
Hmm. This gives me much to navel-gaze over.
As does this:
Quote of the day.
“The value of the dwelling is in the dweller.”
-- Idries Shah, Sufist author
3 comments:
I caught some of Clarence Thomas’ 60-Minutes interview Sunday. I didn’t know much about his background or his upbringing; mom shipped him off to be raised by stern grandparents. He claimed that when he was younger, up until he worked for Reagan, liberal was too tame a descriptor for his social agenda. He described himself a rebel or revolutionary. I guess a good job and money makes a difference.
I am constantly amazed, because I’m idealistic, how news from Iran and perception of events, unfortunately slowly, mirrors two books I’ve read, one more than a year ago, the other six-months. Blackwater’s black-eye is long overdue.
Have you considered the Lincoln Literacy Council for volunteer work teaching English?
WL
thanks for finding the Anita Hill op-ed. I read her biography years ago and my respect and admiration for her grew exponentially! she was just here in Tucson to speak at the AZ Women's Commission, but tickets were not in my budget. it still makes me sad and disgusted that Clarence Thomas was confirmed on the Supreme Court - a major miscarriage of justice. they talked about his book on NPR over the weekend and Nina Totenberg talked about how anger hits you from every page throughout his book. i've never heard Nina talk about a book like she did his.
Love the new line from Teva. i wish more manufacturers would create products from previously used materials. and i'm positive you and Mr. Austin will be fine without lights for an hour.
have a great time up in the folk's town. and don't leave town w/out a mango-chili popsicle.
I think it's a particular credit to Anita Hill that she did not reopen the characterizations made against Clarence Thomas but rather directly contradicted his assertions about her, then and now. She has eminently more class than Thomas. Let other people show Thomas for the hypocrite he is. Hill doesn't need the aggravation... never did.
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