Christy!

Morning, Christy…

Now to routine Sat. morning cleaning and breakfast. I’ll be back…

I’m lovin the moondance!

‘morning, Redd – beautiful writing…

just putting on the coffee – it’ll be ready in a minute.

Yesterday evening, I put up a post weaving together some disparate paragraphs and lines taken from speeches given by Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama at various Democratic National Conventions the last few years. I hoped in doing so that folks would pause for a moment and think…really think…about what it was that made them support progressive or liberal causes or politics through the years.

Hi Christy. What a concept! But you have a certain very excellent writing style, and that was so different. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Anyway, you really made your point. Thanks.

Hey Christy

Saw “Iron Jawed Angels” last night on DVD about Alice Paul and the Suffrage movement during the Wilson administration. Great stuff and a very important reminder that political activism, in all its various forms, has been with us since before the dawn of the Republic. The women’s movement started over 100 years before Gloria Steinem in the names of Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

We have real progressives running on the democratic side this time-their progressivism enabled by the candidacy of John Edwards.

We don’t need John-”Less jobs, more wars”-McCain to give us a third Bush term. The American people I believe understand that too and really want change. The activism of the netroots has helped shape the narrative that is going on now. Just look how foolish Willard looked with his invocation of terror if a Democrat wins the WH. That argument resonated a lot four years ago-now it’s just a tinny, tired tune.

There is still much work to be done.

My parents came of age during the Depression, which had a great impact on my dad’s politics. He was a Dem, my mom was that now-extinct species, a liberal Republican. I was drawn to political science in college and finally got a BA in the subject. It’s been a life-long interest, although work did tend to get in the way – until I retired.

Good Morning Christy and everybody!

lovin’ the moondance, too

How long do we have to wait for what could be, what should be, what was promised to us? It’s going on 250 years and we have a long way to go.

what’s your story sanderO?

I would say that the enemy to freedom and the rights of all humans has changed since this nation was born. At that time the threat was mostly from monarchs and despots and less from greedy predatory corporate capitalism. The later has been ascendant and is more the problem in achieving the destiny of human rights and dignity for all humans.

We really need to reign in corporations. They are not driving the madness.

My story?

Christy -

Thank you for that lovely story about your gran; it’s easy to understand why you miss her so much. If there’s a *there* wrt an afterlife, she has a right to be well-pleased with the impact she had on her gran’chil’.

Yesterday evening, I put up a post weaving together some disparate paragraphs and lines taken from speeches given by Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama at various Democratic National Conventions the last few years. I hoped in doing so that folks would pause for a moment and think…really think…about what it was that made them support progressive or liberal causes or politics through the years.

i thought that was one of the most depressing posts i’d read in a long time (i’m sorry, i know it wasn’t meant to be) – because what inspires me is certainly not the empty rhetoric of clinton, obama or maybe even edwards. especially after a week like last week – which i think was as bad as the week the MCA was passed.

i guess one of the things that makes me act is the idea of making the rhetoric be real – be something more than some post-modern fake wished for reality. but more than that, i am inspired by the example of others. not so much in my own family, though (except for, in some ways, my mom). i’m inspired by all the things i know people are doing, whether in public or in private, to give comfort to the suffering and to give hell to those who need a wake up call.

yeah, how did you come to political activism?

Used to think of myself as a liberal first, democrat second; now see the progressives doing the same. Thanks Christie for reminding me that I am a democrat first, then a liberal. Progressives take note: it is the democratic party and democrats are about the working class. If the election comes to be about latte issues, McCain will be the next president

I grew up in New England without a lot of money. My parents were Democrats but not really political.
I was a reader from an early age. I loved all the books about people helping each other. Books about woman who helped were favorites. There was a series of books with orange covers that told the stories of famous people and I read them all.
I have never understood why people would kill each other or discriminate and was anti-war in the sixties.
I have worked for Planned Parenthood and have counseled battered woman.
Naturally I am a Democrat but I have never been as involved as I am now.

I come from a family that is split down the middle — my maternal grandfather was a lifelong Republican. Yet my mother ran for (and lost) our small WV town’s city council as a Democrat in the late 60’s, a precedent that wouldn’t be repeated for more than a decade. I attribute my political activism to 2 things: the social justice I learned being raised in a small WV Methodist church (even though I am no longer a Christian) and my own awareness of racism and discrimination as I grew up and the dissonance that created for me when juxtaposed to my church’s teachings of God’s love for all.

As a gay person growing up in a very rural state with a different fundamentalist church on every corner of my hometown, I learned early to seek out information about fighting to survive in a society that was hostile to my very existence. My work in education for the last 2 decades led me to my current progressive views on poverty, equality, and being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.

I have never understood the basic tenets of conservatism, the faux meritocracy, endless calls for tax cuts that take away very important social services that keep our national infrastructure working and viable, and wanting to maintain a past that was never very rosy for me or my family or the people I lived and worked with. When they embraced the “religious” right, I became a vocal and active worker for progressive policies and politics and have remained so for the past 30+ years.

I still dream a progressive ideals being advocated by a national politician and the Democratic party of which I have been a member for all these years. Hope springs eternal….

Ms S- a fascinating post. Having reached the pre- ahlzheimer stage, what I do recall are the moments of family discussions. Strongly liberal and even stronger Union lean. Those were the formatives.
However, what I come away from this post is the unique idea that “Looking Forward” MUST be built upon a detailed examination of “THE PAST”!
It’s all there. We just need to examine it.The tragedy is that we don’t.

Thank you. And speaking of courage…there was a great piece on PBS last night on some of the ’60s civil rights struggle, protesters, etc. Watching the marchers, the police etc, you could see again the poverty and bravery of people in the marches. Citizens who is the 60s were almost still enslaved and certainly without the vote. But they got on the streets and spoke out. Just the fashions revealed how far we have come. Many were Miss. citizens in deep poverty. Now, though still problems, those citizens are much more likely to have achieved some success, be well-dressed, clearly able to speak out and address the policies. Are we ina perfect world? No. But how enobling to see again the bravery of so many people demanding the vote, a voice, and dignity. There work has put a Black candidate into serious contention for the Presidency. Thank you for reminding us to celebrate courage, hard work, and perseverance.

My parents were born during the depression, FDR had a very big influence on their lives. I was in grade school when JFK came into offfice. My first time voting was the 1st post-Watergate election. I started my adult life when RR was trying to dismantle the social safety net. To some extent you are a product of your times.
I’ve always believed we are better as a community, working together for the things we cannot accomplish by ourselves. I’ve never bought into the theory that the government is the oppressor – we are the government after all. And above all else, this old hippie believes that we can and should work together to make things better for ALL citizens. That justice and fairness should not be available only to those who can afford them.
Thanks for asking Christy.

that was beautiful. thank you.

I have along story, but I’ll be brief because I really need to get to my Sat. morning routine…

I grew up in NYC. I was born in Nigeria, and I came to NYC with my parents when I was 14 years old. My dad worked in the Nigerian Mission to the UN. I went to Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan, where I was one of two black kids in school. Most of my high-school friends were Jewish, kids of Red Diaper babies. Of course they got me into activism, and that’s how I got involved in the 60s–the whole 9 yards, the bee-ins in Central Park; I experienced the historic 1968 in NY. Stonewall; Concert for Bangladesh in 1970. And oh, I was also at Woodstock, where music was the membrane that brought people together. Woodstock was glorious: the rain, the mud, the weed, Sly Stone, Richie Havens, Jimi Hendrix…Those were my halcyon days…in Manhattan when I was young…

Now I live in Minneapolis, it’s 22 F outside, and I’m looking forward later to going to my favorite cafe in Dinkytown, the university neighborhood on the other side of the Mississippi River. There’s a hot spot at that cafe…

Going to the cafe with my Dell laptop of course. Never go anywhere without it…except when I’m off to shop just for groceries…

I watched my dad get up on frozen cold nights when the wind howled around the house and drive away in his work truck. It would be hours and hours before he got back, and I watched my mom try to maintain normalcy so we little kids wouldn’t be scared and yet she would clench her hands together when she thought we weren’t looking.

In ice storms and blizzardy nights, Dad would climb old wooden power poles built by the REC to restore electricity to remote families in the North Country. And come home to sit at the table and worry over making the paycheck stretch to cover the needs of a growing family.

I was raised blue collar, union daughter. And politically aware first for Kennedy and his Peace Corps.

But it was the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement that drew me out of college to travel the campaign road and return home disheartened, but never done. I saw the heavy burdens placed on blue collars back then, and things have only gotten worse, until even white collars are realizing now that it’s just a tiny fraction of “haves and have-mores” that dictate our country these days.

And that must change, so the activist tools I use have changed over the years, but my voice is still strong and no less passionate. And it began being raised blue collar.

Prairie Today: Mile Marker 60

oh, and for a different kind of inspiration, i want to thank elliot, who suggested this chocolate cookie recipe yesterday. i’ve only tasted the dough, but my-oh-my am i looking forward to cooking a few later today.

peace and inspiration to all today.

OT, This liberal is incensed that my University of Iowa is giving the criminal Rove $40,000 to speak on February 17. A man that is in contempt of Congress and an unindicted conspirator will get my Tax Dollars?

Calling all Hawkeyes. We need non-violent direct action. Oh

Did I tell you Gandhi is my hero?

Good Morning Christy and all the fine folks reading this.

Once Edwards dropped out of the race it forced me to make peace with voting for Hillary or Obama. I’ve been thinking about the whole process, because if I was in my 20’s, I’d be backing Obama with the passion that the folks who are in that age group are.

What I realized is that I got so caught up in the me factor, and my vote, that I lost a chunk of my idealism along the way. The problems that we face are bigger then my personal choice for a candidate. Either one of our candidates who will become the nominee is infinitely better for our values, our country and the world then McCain. I’ve always viewed the president as being a human being, not royalty and not a diety, and with that comes imperfections. It’s been an enlightening process for me, and I’m glad that it opened my eyes to how narrow my focus had become.

Mt Father was responsible for my interest in politics. He was a Tool and die machinist, a mouldmaker, a man of the Great Depression Era, who had an interest in political history. Diner was a time for discussion. Back then the family sat down for dinner, the t.v. was turned off, and all subjects wereopen for discussion.

Dad liked us to try to understand many contra American Government issues. In discussing Communism,(during the fifties), he would point out that if one was a peasant, free education and an opportunity for upward mobility within a Communist regime looked to be a pretty good deal for a peasant with no hope for his children.

During one of our last talks, he said that he never thought that he would die before Universal health care was achieved in the United States.

Discussion and downright argument was encouraged during dinner time. Although such an environment was probably bad for the digestion, it was educational in many ways. Lessons learned. Framing positions, History not taught in American Schools, at least 1-12, and having open mind.

Eliot,

It is hard to actually find the seed. I grew up in a fairly liberal bedroom community in Long Island at the end of the beat generation. I never took to pop culture and found myself listening to things like WBAI (Pacifica) radio and not top 40 as most did back then. Those were the days of Joan Baez,Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger (one of the greatest Americans) and other “lefties” who were reaching out in music and demonstrations… civil rights anti war and anti nuke etc.

I came of legal age during Vietnam and would have to face serving, getting deferment, being a CO or leaving the country. The war was the biggest conscious raising “event” for my generation. I was in college in Pitts when Kent State took place a few hundred miles away. I was around for Woodstock and the assassinations of JFK, MKL, RFK, MalcomX. I saw Israel go from what apppeared to be a democracy to a repressive theocracy. I read Chomsky and Zinn.

I have been moving left since my mind opened 40 years ago. I have seen no progress in human rights in my lifetime. Mostly window dressing.

That’s my story.

ahh selise, egregious really was the inspiration for the homemade cookies -and love- she would say :)

I’ll go get the milk

I have lived in NYC during Guiliani Time and was arrested for no reason at a Diallo demo and tossed in the tombs. I continue to demonstrate whenever I can and have attended most of the demos in DC and NYC.

Direct Action will do it, if anything will. Talk will not.

Don’t expect the political system (corrupted by corporate interests) to protect and advance human rights and democracy.

Christy, thank you for the powerful messages of your posts last night and this morning, but thank you even more for the inspiration that drew out the responses growing in the comments sections. Thoughtful, reflective, reminding ourselves why we care so we don’t lose sight of what needs doing.

Because it will be hard work, and the obstacles and distortions the right will throw our way will be huge. So we must renew ourselves for the challenges ahead.

This is an important milestone day in many ways. Because the common good is what makes us civilized…and we need remind ourselves of that from time to time. We have a mighty adversary with the latest technological tools to mask their inner barbarians. And they may be puffed up with self-importance, but the common good from the common man will be steadfast and endure. Because that is civilization…and community…and governance.

people are liberal/progressive because they are endowed with empathy. The story is immaterial – often very interesting and heart warming, but immaterial how they evolve to it: liberalism/progressivism will find them if empathy plays some roll in their being.
.

Good morning from L.A. What an inspiring post, Christy. Thank you for sharing some family history.

My Mom was raised on a Huron reserve in Canada, Dad was from a large Irish family that had settled in Minnesota in the 1940s. Growing up on a farm in NW Maine w/five kids, parents, grandparents, unmarried uncles, etc. we struggled. Mom & Dad managed to help every relative that ever needed help. It was their way. I slept in a bed w/two cousins for years until their folks could afford to get a place.

Mom & Dad took all of us to the polls w/them to vote from the earliest age. Must have been quite a sight. We read newspapers @ school when we were older & were required to discuss all kinds of articles @ the dinner table. It was a family duty you never blew off.

My parents were known as a “mixed race” couple up there so long ago. Where I live in CA now is so easy compared to the border town prejudices of my youth. Makes you tough, though.

Mom & Dad are gone a long time, one of my brothers never came back from Vietnam, one died young from HIV complications. The biggest life lessons learned @ home were to help others when they need it, forget the judgements, just get them the help they need. And never take your rights in this country for granted. Naturalized citizens like my parents really got that one.

Concert for Bangladesh: I was not supposed to there in the first place. A friend who had bought a ticket and was planning to go to Madison Square Garden that night changed her mind and decided to spend that weekend in CT instead, and gave me her ticket. At that concert, nobody was expecting to see Bob Dylan, who had not been seen in public since his famous motorcycle accident years earlier, until George Harrison walked onstage and said: I want you to meet a friend of mine.” Then Bob Dylan walked onstage with his guitar, and everyone went nuts!

And oh, it goes without saying that my friend has regretted that weekend in CT…hasn’t gotten over it, even now in Guatamala, where she continues her activism…

I was in NYC during Giuliani Time too…

Christy,
Storytelling is so essential to building a movement—it really is the only thing that has ever worked. Thank you for this.

I grew up in a household that never talked about or did anything about politics. I was in 7th grade when JFK was shot and remember it chillingly well. King and Bobby were shot in my jr. year of HS and not much penetrates hs brains—at least when it comes to politics. But I do remember watching the riots at the DCN in Chicago because they were happening about 20 miles from where I lived. It felt scary to me. The one thing in HS that really planted a spark in my head which didn’t grow until much later was working on the play “Inherit the Wind.” I couldn’t dream of how that would influence my later life.

Then, college and the war and the protests. Being a theater major my life was tied up inside a theater complex building and it was very odd. One day there was a peace march that went past my dorm window and I learned that some of the frat rats were joining in with the Natl. Guard to beat up on students. That wasn’t right. I went to marches when I could and when I thought it would be “safe.” Voted in my first election for a dem—of course. Haven’t voted otherwise since.

Then Watergate and Barbara Jordan and many years later, Thomas and Bork. I got into my present line of work and have become a radical promoter of justice. It started with pro-choice and gay rights activism and since this clown was appointed pres. has blossomed into trying to stick thumbs in a leaky dam to stand up for whatever rights were being threatened. Trying to stop a war, marching, writing letters, making phone calls all to no avail. Yes, some of us knew what a disaster it would be before it happened.

Coming here has broadened my reach and helped push me into doing way more than I had. Those wonderful lines and speeches in Inherit the Wind keep emerging at various places in time and in my life.

Good politics works to relieve suffering for the many. Bad politics is about furthering the welfare of the few with privileged and access to power.

I miss Abbey Hoffman.

I think he took his life because he saw it would never come to pass. I fear he may be right.

We are losing ground. Sad but true.

The caucus is is today. I just don’t know what to do. The plan had been to keep my mouth shut and then support the nominee… …but I’m finding it hard.

It’s a wonderful movie- wish I could see a stage production. Revival time?

For you, RevDeb:

Matthew Harrison Brady: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!
Henry Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one thing that sets above the other animals? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse stronger and swifter, the butterfly more beautiful, the mosquito more prolific, even the sponge is more durable. Or does a sponge think?
Matthew Harrison Brady: I don’t know. I’m a man, not a sponge!
Henry Drummond: Do you think a sponge thinks?
Matthew Harrison Brady: If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!
Henry Drummond: Does a man have the same privilege as a sponge?
Matthew Harrison Brady: Of course!
Henry Drummond: [Gesturing towards the defendant, Bertram Cates] Then this man wishes to have the same privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!

Wow, Millineryman, you always inspire me.

And Sander thanks for your story, and everybodies’ –fascinating.

I can’t claim any long political activism. I just hate George Bush and want that whole cancer excised from our government, from our society.

But as for my political sensibilities as it were, my parents taught us critical thinking, and gave us the freedom to think for ourselves. They created a safe and secure environment for us to grow up in. They provided us with a good education. They also respected our privacy, and our rights — like the right to appeal *s*

They taught us to respect the rights of others too, and they bent over backwards not to transmit their own prejudices. We lived by the Golden Rule and Reason.

Not ashamed to say they were Republicans. My father was on the school board and so was my mother’s mother, perhaps the inspiration for his run. (Boy Christy , your gran’s amazing!) They worked hard to bring up good citizens. I have many images of heading into the voting booth with my Mom.

This is what I want our government to ensure for ALL our children, a safe environment, a good education, respect for their rights and freedoms. Not too much too ask either

On MSNBC, in a speech to his supporters, said: “In this country, when things are right, we will keep it right. When things are wrong, we will make it right That all to be the cry of every conservative.”

He got that right…for progressives as well. As much as I hate to say it, it’s actually a really fine speech…for conservatives…

We were taught never to lie…period. there were no excuses for lies. Now lying is OK, pretty much through out our country.

I miss Abbey Hoffman.

Abbie Hoffman…

Wish I could be there, carrying signs:

Crime Pays

If I Break the Law Can I Get $40k?

Thanks Marie.

A few more:

Henry Drummond: Yes. The individual human mind. In a child’s power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted “amens” and “holy holies” and “hosannas.” An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man’s knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.

Henry Drummond: I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers.
Judge: Colonel Drummond…
Henry Drummond: Can’t you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!
Judge: I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted.
Henry Drummond: Well, your honor has the right to hope.
Judge: I have the right to do more than that.
Henry Drummond: You have the power to do more than that.

It wasn’t until much much later that I learned more about the real case and the real figures who probably were even larger in real life than in the play—an odd reversal.

Wolcott has an amusing piece up today. We can dream of “Liberal Fascism.”

I don’t think you can expect too much from a president aside from critical thinking, honesty and respect for the constitution and the rights of all people.

Their role is to advance democracy and the welfare of our people. We are the nation. If our welfare increases, so does the health of the nation.

How this is done need not come from one person, but from all the thinkers he or she surrounds themselves with. Two heads are better than one. Ten are better than two. We need a president who seeks out advice. good advice, and has the wisdom to make the right choices. The president sets the tone. And they have to be free of any special interest except liberty and justice for all.

It’s up to the congress to make the laws and him to execute them… right?

its funny,one does not have to move mountains…if everybody just extended themselves a little bit….very Xtian,but MANY Xtians dont subscribe to that ANYMORE…funny dat

also America gets it,repukes not so much

AP Poll: Exiting Iraq would boost economy more than stimulus
Saturday February 9, 2008 1:17 am
Source: USA Today – AP
Published: http://www.usatoday.com/money/…..poll_N.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The heck with Congress’ big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession — and most people think we’re in one — is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Ron Paul is out (sort of)

Something just occurred to me as I was slicing the garlic for my noodle soup (with haberneros, broccoli, and soy sauce), that we have already achieved history in America: For the first time in American history, the Dems will vote for either a black man or a white woman to be their nominee in general, and whether that person will or can defeat McCain is another story. But my point is history has already happened.

Emmett Till: meet Virginia Dare (supposedly the first white person, a girl, to be born in the US, in Roanoke Island). Of course that community disappeared mysteriously, and to this day no one knows whatever happened to them.

Wolcott has an amusing piece up today. We can dream of “Liberal Fascism.”

thanks! he’s always good

No, something monumental will happen and Gravel will be the nominee for the Dems and Cox will get nod for the Republicans.

I was raised Catholic, so I became a democrat in 1960, inspired by John Kennedy and his stirring oratory. I was in the ROTC in college, even though I thought the war was a horrible mistake, I believed that when the nation called, everyone should respond, and figured I would get drafted anyway. I went into the army in October, 1968, after the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy (who I saw a few weeks before he was killed) and the Chicago convention. I was unbelievably lucky: I was sent to Turkey instead of Viet Nam.

When I got back, I was sent to Fort Bragg, where I joined an anti-war group. I spent a lot of time listening to the stories of the young draftees, and realized how lucky I was in so many ways, raised in a comfortable home by smart parents, educated, and reasonably likely to be safe, no matter what I chose. They weren’t so lucky, but they were going to do what they could to protect themselves, and just like me, they were going to serve their country, no matter what.

That summer made me what I am, even though I didn’t realize it then.

This is notable but the important thing is what the nation does, that is our congress and our courts and our police and so forth. MLK asked us not to look at the color of someone’s skin, but the content of their character. So I don’t care if someone is white or black or female or gay, but how they act, what they agitate for.

Can we become a WE nation and think about each other and not about ourselves and our families for a change?

The enviro / energy thingy seems to be something that is giving everyone a connectedness even if it only a disparate need for survival. We need to achieve the same in human rights.

Apocalypse Now was on last nite………..WAR IS TOTAL HELL and an abomination..that is all

Good Morning everyone….

prolly not…sadly…too many cell phones(immediate gratification must be satisfied)

I was born into a multi-generational household at a time when the hunger and disappointment of the Great Depression still lurked in my extended families daily thoughts and the sacrifice and horror of World War II hung in the air as my father slowly recovered from his emotional and physical wounds.
Out of this gloom from which my family was emerging, they all, every damn last one of them, believed we had made it because one man had cared
about us. That man was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We were Yellow Dog Democrats and damn proud of it.

Morning pups,
I really had no interest in politics until a friend asked me to attend a Nixon rally at Madison Square Garden in I think ‘68. Large crowd outside working it’s way into the venue and suddenly we were approached by a man asking to see our tickets. Upon inspection of our tickets he asked us to follow him out to the street where he ripped up our tickets and walked away. Found out in the news the next day that hassidic jews and improperly dressed longhairs were denied entrance. Thanks Dick for helping me find myself politically and establishing my own personal dress code.
bluejeansntshirt

Service should not have to be in a military capacity. This is a perverted notion of patriotism. It is a shame that so many believe that joining the armed forces is “serving” the needs of the nation.

The threats to this nation are from within, from those who take our rights, deny us housing, heath care, decent living wages, access to education and so on.

While people are signing up to fight made up enemies from without, they took our democracy away from within. Bait and switch.

Ron Paul is out (sort of)

hmm wonder where all the ronpaulians’ votes will go, protest? or contest?

Surprise surprise. Vietnam. I was a 17 year old punk from the Chicago suburbs and suddenly I saw poor black and white kids thrown into this bullshit meat grinder mostly because of a lack of educational opportunity. Project 100,000 took that many men a year into the Army and Marines who could not meet MINIMUM military standards while Bush, Clinton and millions of other avoided the shit. It’s always driven me.

And this history has already happened thanks to progressive activism, IMHO…

I believe anyone will stand up and defend their home if it is under attack. There are no threats to this nation from outside.

More 100,000 died in auto accidents from all sorts of causes last year. Can we have a war of auto accidents please?

What will become of the blimp?

Good morning pups!

Reading through this whole thread has been the best experience I’ve had this week. Thank you all for sharing stories from your lives. As I’ve said several times before, FDL is a beacon.

Time to take the dogs for their Sat. morning hikeathon. Read you all later.

Good morning Christy, good morning Firedawgs -

Very nice post this morning, and “Moondance” rules.

Let me get my thoughts together and I’ll jot something down.

Good Evening, Christy, from Okinawa.

Great post. I’m very much enjoying reading the formative backgrounds of so many FDL pups that are regulars here — it’s fascinating.

I guess my political leanings were mostly influenced by my father, who served as a career naval officer (started out as a mustang), yet he was a very strong Democrat, undoubtedly influenced by growing up in the the Great Depression and then by the events of WWII. He would tell me about FDR and the events of WWII, which I still can recall quite clearly, even though I was only 7-8 years old when he was relating those historical accounts.

Among other memories, one of the strongest for me is how he posted a large sign in the front yard of our house in Point Loma, San Diego in 1972 that stated: This household is for George McGovern.

The Vietnam war was a significant political framing event for me. I was very vocal about the dishonesty of the Nixon administration. This was rather difficult when I was working on construction survey crews for CALTRANS alongside Vietnam vets and even some Marine WWII vets. The drawn-out and stumbling way that we finally got out of the quagmire of Vietnam was definitely a major influence in my decision that I would align myself to the Democratic Party.

I resisted at first serving in the military, in spite of my father’s urgings, mostly because of the very prominent negative consequences of the Vietnam War. He pushed me to try and get a Navy ROTC scholarship, primarily because it provided the funding for a college degree, but I blew that effort off, much to his chagrin. But it was inevitable, I suppose, that I would join in the Armed Forces, ending up in the Marines. I became fascinated with the history of service by my great-great grandfather on my mother’s side, who came over from Ireland in 1857 to enlist in the U.S. Army. He served out West in the regular Army prior to the Civil War, and then he was brought back to flush out the volunteer units in 1862. He was wounded at Petersburg in 1864, and discharged a year later. He evidently was too used to being a soldier, as he re-enlisted in 1866 and served for another 20+ years out West. That family history provided the germ for my decision to become an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. There was a slight detour, however, when the U.S. Army told me that they wouldn’t allow me to become an infantry officer in my senior year of ROTC. They were slotting me for a regular commission as an Ordnance Corps officer. The Marine OSO out of Spokane, was able to intercede with my PMS at ROTC, and I ended up going through OCS at Quantico in 1979, where the Marine Corps without any hesitation allowed me to become an infantry officer.

Being a Marine has been bitter-sweet, mostly because being a liberal Democrat and a Marine officer were almost exclusive categories, especially during the Reagan years. But I’ve survived, and now I proudly let these Marines that I work with daily here on Okinawa know that I am a liberal Democrat, that I voted for both George McGovern and Jimmy Carter, and that George W. Bush is an absolute walking, breathing disgrace of an American.

Thanks again for this post, Christy. It’s a great way to spend some time on a Saturday evening out here on the Rock.

Semper Fidelis,
Dave in Okinawa

Good morning Christy and all. I want to leave a little comment about our great Democratic Party in NM. I know there is a lot of negative press that we have not counted our ballots yet and etc. etc., but I want everyone to know that this is because we have encouraged everyone to participate by allowing any voter to vote at any location even if they are not in their “correct” voting location, where their name would appear on a roster. We are doing a heroic job of trying to make sure that we count every vote and value every voter and all the volunteers (we were all volunteers) who ran the polls.

Democracy is hard work. People who expect demoracy on a platter, that one should just show up to vote occasionally and have their vote counted instantly are getting a demonstration of what it REALLY takes to make democracy count. You know, the 17,000 provisional ballots.

Since I can’t seem to find the linking option at FDL this AM, I hope people will go to the Democracy for New Mexico site and read the latest post on the Presidential Caucus in NM, because it describes how the votes are being counted. If anyone else can get that link up, I think it would be worthwhile.

BTW, the campaign lawyers have also supported our efforts to count the votes, see at DfNM.

Happy Saturday to all.

My mom was raised in Alabama by one of the few families of Lincoln Republicans. She and my dad divorced when I was 5 after he came home from WWII. We had moved to South Texas during the War and my grandfather had purchased a citrus orchard and another piece of land which he planted with new trees (the old grove and the new grove). My first political memory is sitting at the square table that holds my computer now and keeping tally, with Grandpa, of the votes at the Republican convention between Taft and Eisenhower, as reported on the radio, in 1951. When Falcon dam was dedicated , we went to see Ike drive by.

I read those orange books, too. Lives of great folks with the childhood portion of their lives filling the first 3/4s of the book. Made being a child important for anything that might come later.

When I was in high school, I volunteered at a charity children’s hospital and came in contact with so many families with grievous burdens, not of their own making, that I have expected universal health care to be obvious to anyone as the only humane and sane way to “promote the general welfare.” The children who were admitted usually had malnutrition, TB, and what ever was wrong with them.

One of the most creative things I’ve been a part of is creative spite.
My childhood friend, Elizabeth and I were absolutely appalled by Newt & Company bad mouthing single parents. Our mothers had worked their hearts out to raise us and we didn’t turn out dreadful. So we started a scholarship fund at Central Texas College for single parents, and every year we can encourage ten people who are trying to make a life for their families. The scholarships are small ($500) but they do encourage.

Since I can’t seem to find the linking option at FDL this AM, I hope people will go to the Democracy for New Mexico site and read the latest post on the Presidential Caucus in NM, because it describes how the votes are being counted. If anyone else can get that link up, I think it would be worthwhile.

NM Dem Prez Caucus: What’s Happening Now

Came to activism thru how women were treated in a way that was blatantly discriminatory. At Cornell women had to be on average 100 points higher on the SAT test, there was early admissions only for boys, and the marching band was boys-only which completely broke my heart. I refused to apply to Harvard because they had a boys-only library which was just an evil concept, separating me from books.

The Vietnam war became important and I realized we needed to work towards peace. I always wanted to work overseas on something medical, that was from childhood. But I think working against the war helped me understand from the Quakers that it is necessary to work very hard for peace and reconciliation. It’s not enough to be against something, you must be for something.

This time around it took me a couple years to understand the depths of this administration’s intention to rip apart our constitutional democracy. In the summer of 2005 I took a deep breath and decided to get involved a lot more in order to help turn things around for the sake of my kids and nieces and nephews. We cannot make things right in a short period of time. But we owe it to the next generation to get in there and do as much as we can.

Irish Jim,
I se you have been commenting for us DFH’s on this article. Email me at amyfencl@msn.com and lets get something going to welcome MCRove in a style befitting his legacy.
http://www.desmoinesregister.c…..056/NEWS09

Good morning everybody!

FYI – from the EFF: House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms

House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms

Announcement Sets Stage for Congressional Showdown

Washington, D.C. – Today, a formidable trio of House Committee Chairmen sent a stern letter to their colleagues urging them to oppose immunity for phone companies that assisted in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

The rest of the letter (pdf) is here.

Maybe there is some hope for the 4th Amendment after all.

here’s the link :)
Democracy for New Mexico

Morning all. Had a sleep-in this morning (yay, Mr. ReddHedd, who cleaned up the kitchen and made coffee while I was sleeping…gotta love it.)

Priscilla — lovely to see you!

It is the one thing that drives me nuts…. why do we have to have instant results from an election?

Maricopa country (the most populous county in the US)had over 40,000 provisional ballots which need to be resolved.

THANK YOU Repugs for Prop 200 Voter ID law which we can’t get struck down which became law because of their brown fear.

I don’t know how to describe my father’s politics. He was a registered republican but I don’t think that translated into his having a republican mindset. He was an immigrant. Came to this country when he was 8 and his one opinion that trumped all others was that this was the greatest country in the world. You could not criticize this country in his presence, even during the Vietnam war. He wasn’t a ‘love it or leave it’ guy but he surely felt lucky to be here and while he wouldn’t actually support the war, he never criticized the govt.

He was also a self-employed building contractor and my favorite story told at his funeral was by the son of one of his acquaintances. This man was a factory worker who’s job was in jeopardy. The son said his father rec’d a call one night from my dad. My father told him not to worry about work. If the worst happened, he could always have a job with him. The son went on to say that a great weight was lifted from their family by that offer. They had all been sitting around fretting about the future. After that phone call, his dad relayed the message and the feeling of relief was palpable.

Good Morning Friends
I was raised in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, the eldest of three daughters to WASP parents who made their way here from Illinois and Indiana. Very consertive, Republicans and there was never a talk of politics. My mother made openly racist, mainly through ignorance, comments about people of color. My dad mostly kept his mouth shut when mom spewed her venom. But, she did me one favor, she urged to learn a musical instrument.
In band and orchestra, I met some interesting kids. One of them was a geeky Jewish kid who was Always talking politics.
Throughout jr. and sr. high school we formed an ever closer friendship. The first time I was in a synagogue was at his Bar Mitsvah and the first time I went to a Country Club it was for the party for the same.
We sat down during the pledge of allegiance, put together Anti-War protests and I helped him get elected to positions in school politics. He turned me on to Pacifica Radio and radical books.
Those of you who know me will know who that guy was: Greg Palast.

*wiping away a tear*

I’m what Michael Weiner-Savage would call a “red diaper doper baby”, except that may parents were in no way dopers. They were, however, and still are, what used to be called “Reds”. Both of my parents were activists on the left in the late 40’s and early 50’s until they settled down and had me. They both worked in motion pictures and television through the blacklist, which my dad has written a very interesting book about. He is turning 89 soon and is still active, blogging with me at Amachewahwah, and also at Smirking Chimp,.

I am a child of the 50’s and 60’s, was politically awakened by John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan at the age of 12, became a member of SDS and the W.E.B. DuBois Club when I was still in high school, and got beat up by the cops at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.

I’ve been politically active ever since.

My grandparents on my father’s side were born and raised in Sumpter and Florence, South Carolina. My grampa joined the Navy and served in WWI. During the depression he and others marched on Washington to demand that the bonus promised them be paid early. They became known as the Bonus Marchers. I remember looking at the old black and white photos of the tent city they erected on the mall in Washington. My dad was born in 1924 in Columbia, SC so he was with them but didn’t remember much about that time. Since there was no work in South Carolina my grampa took a job picking up trash with a nail-tipped stick in DC. He hated Eisenhower and MacArthur until the day he died for their breaking up the Bonus Marcher tent city with cavalry.

My dad became a great piano player and made quite a reputation in Washington during WWII, playing with Arthur Godfrey and other big bands and even had his own half hour show on the local NBC radio station after the war. By the 1950s his reputation had him playing at many congressional parties, the forerunners of today’s cocktail weenie circuit. My dad never played at home so if I wanted to hear him play I had to go where he was playing. At times that meant donning a tux and going with the band to congressional parties. “Herb’s boy,” as I was known at the time, went to a lot of those parties, met and talked to a lot of the politicians of the time.

When I was 16 I volunteered to work on the campaign of a young man running for president. His name was John F Kennedy. My stepdad owned a deli in Washington and Jack and Jackie used to come into his store quite often so we knew each other. Inauguration Day 1961 I walked from our home near Mount Vernon to what was then National Airport because it had snowed the night before and the roads were blocked. They had cleared the road from the airport into Washington and I took a bus to town. If you look at pictures from the inauguration I’m at the bottom left of the photographs, on the lowest abutment on the side of the stairs. My dad was playing one the balls, at the Sheridan if memory serves, so I met him, changed into my tux and went to the ball. I was already a left winger, on the mailing list of the Soviet embassy, and an avid reader of leftist literature. My dad was a Republican and we had some interesting discussions.

Fast forward to 1970. I had been in Viet Nam since 1967 and was becoming disillusioned with what was going on (yeah, sometimes I’m a slow learner) but Kent State put me over the edge. In September 1970 the Navy, in its infinite wisdom, decided I’d had enough of Viet Nam and I returned to the states. One of the first classes I signed up for at UC San Diego was a course in Marxism taught by Tom Hayden. My problem with a strict socialist view was the dogmatic approach to everything. While a lot of it still resounds I could never be a true socialist. I ended up working in mental health for the next 20 years. I had a knack for crisis intervention and am still pretty good at it. The experience of working with the truly mentally ill, those with thought disorders, really made me understand that there are two worlds out there. One for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of us. There is really no system for those less fortunate. They get along as best they can, on their own. No ideology there, just facts. The sheer number of people left to fend for themselves told me there was work for a lifetime out there. I can’t put a label on my views. I’m not a Democrat, socialist, anarchist. There are bits and pieces of all ideologies that, put together, I think can make things work better for all. I wake up each morning thankful for the opportunity to work at becoming a better person, working to make the goals and vision of those like Gandhi and the Dali Lama a reality.

Peace Love Light

I learned about political activism and particpation from my parents. At various times and places (we moved a lot). Mom was President of the PTA, AAUW, Girl scout leader and church womens group. She was part of the movement in the mid 60’s to get sex education into the HS in California.

Dad has been on a town counsel , Eagle scout leader, Elder of their church and lately on the board of their local Habitat for Humanity. They both are very involved in Habitat now in their mid 80’s. Proud to say they just finished their 13th house. And when the new family moves in, they have a ready made grandparents ;)

I think I became involved for the same reason they did, because they wanted to make things better for their kids.

You just sparked a memory. When I was in high school they inserted the words “under God” into the pledge of allegiance which I recall we recited each morning. WOW indoctrination of the youth.

A few of us at the time decided to protest and not participate in the pledge. Some how news of this got outside the school and our names were mentioned in a press account and I actually received hate mail in high school. I wish I had saved the letter and I forgot all about this until Demi mentioned the Pledge. Brain cells are a wasting. Thanks Demi!

one’s individual journey to liberal/progressivism is a journey out of ignorance to knowledge, out of darkness to light; it is a release of fear and isolation in order to embrace hope and community.
.

Right on Brother! We got your back!

Hey Christy! I’ve been reading FDL every day but my workload at school and the after-school/evening tutoring work and classes I teach have left me little time or energy to think lucidly enough to actually post any comments for a long time, LOL. This is a lovely thread and very inspiring! (and much needed right now!)

I advocate for public libraries because my small-town WV library was my salvation growing up.

I advocate for universal health care because I provided end-of-life care for so many friends who died of AIDS and my for my grandmother whom we cared for at home for 10 years.

I advocate for children in poverty because I work with them every day and I see firsthand how they suffer under Republican policies.

I am a liberal Democrat, and an American patriot, and I will always fight for what is right and good for all people.

Ah, I just asked some religious fundamentalists to leave my property. And when asked why, I told them politely and directly that I have my own views about spirituality, and since I don’t impose my beliefs on other people, and I didn’t invite them onto my property to share theirs, I would appreciate it if they left.

One person apologized, and the other started to justify what they were doing despite the arm tug and nudge to walk away by the one who got my point.

Does the above count as political activism? :)

You’re very welcome Sander O.
I always felt my mom wanted me to be invisible.
When we sat during the pledge, we were stared at. Bad vibes. It was the first time I can remember doing something unpopular because of my beliefs. There was a great lesson in that.
It seems that many of us here are from the same generation…Dylan, VietNam, SDS and so on.
Maybe one of the reasons we are attracted to each other.

and took his chippie off to the tropics.

Even with this sad story, you still manage to inject your wonderful sense of humor. Thanks for this post, Christy, and for allowing us to share our stories, which are truly wonderful and personal. FDL is a fantastic, personal, and intimate online think tank…

What a beautiful story! I too was inspired by the stories told at my own father’s funeral when I was 15. Hundreds of people came from all over to honor a man who they said had helped them out, no questions asked, when they were in the greatest need.

None of us knew how much he did nor how well he was loved. He lived his Democratic ideals and didn’t talk too much about them. He loved JFK, was a Korean war vet who NEVER talked about his service in the Air Force, and he helped me to become who I am today.

I like to think that he would be proud of my advocacy, even though my sister and her family are hard-core conservative Republicans and oppose every idea I live by, LOL.

oF THE BEST SORT!

Among other memories, one of the strongest for me is how he posted a large sign in the front yard of our house in Point Loma, San Diego in 1972 that stated: This household is for George McGovern.

My first vote after I turned 18 was for McGovern. I even campaigned for him a little. I was so depressed the day after that election that I didn’t even make it to my classes..

In 1995, the kids and I were re-roofing our house and it was a project over weeks especially in Oregon where we did work between rain showers. One day…all of us were up on the roof… really making progress on a sunny day and a car load of folks pulled up to the house……

The saw us up on the roof, wanting me to come down and talk to us about God….. I sat there laughing…. it had been a frustrating few weeks doing that DIY job …. I yelled down and said….. “Up here I am closer to God” and returned to laying shingles. They didn’t take being ignored very well.

I think I had that same salvation home-town library where I grew up as well. Mr. ReddHedd and I always talk about building libraries in rural areas as our “project” if we ever get some miracle inheritance or win the lottery. It made such an enormous difference for me and so many other kids in my homwtown to have that window into the larger world beyond.

Me too! Man, those were the days. I remember sitting in my living room, and hand addressing envelopes from a list to mail McGovern material to voters.
By the light of an oil lamp….not really, but considering where we are at technologically now, it feels that way.

One of my first memories as a child was the Vietnam War on TV and specifically the Mi Lai Massacre. I despise atrocities and the wars that incubate them.

That’s why things like this make me sick to my stomach and to let it continue unabated for another ‘hundred years’ is a crime against humanity.

G.I. Tells of Ordering Unarmed Iraqi’s Death

and they had wonderful silhouettes for illustration…more memories.

Born in Texas to children of the depression who were the most repugnantklan,racist bunch of mouth breathers you could ever imagine. A family steaped in those time honored UUUUberchristofacist family values of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Alcoholism and drugs(used to call them “pep pills” back then) rounded out my allMurican childhood. Left at 14 after telling the old man I would kill him if he ever touched me again. Up to that time I had NEVER heard a Black person refered to as ANYTHING other then a N—–. Joined the Army as soon as I could and started finding out we’re all the same when the sh*t hits the fan. Came back and went crazy doing the Cali. Biker thing. Finally woke up and started thinking people shouldn’t treat each other like this. Got clean and sober, got the help I needed rearranging the mental furniture so I could interact with society, people and women in a somewhat more appropriate and healthy manor. Been doing what I can to help those who need it and I can since. VERY heavely into reality. I don’t want words of hope. I want a plan of action to help us all recover from this going on eight year nightmare.

I don’t have tale to tell really. I was 14 during the Hanoi Airlift.
I come from a Republican family. My Irish immigrant grandfather was happy to “work for Henry Ford” and argued with the union so much he blamed them for losing his job.
My sympathies for progressive causes come from the actual Christian values that require us to love and care for our neighbors (really) and a serious aversion to stupidity (like claiming that you can ignore the financial realities of waging an unprovoked war or that betraying a CIA operative and program could be justifiable to protect said war).
SO, if there would be one person who I could credit with the strength of my political convictions, it would be George W Bush, who unambiguously personifies everything wrong in America.

I campaigned for McGovern as well, going door-to-door, although I don’t think I was able to convince even one household to consider voting for him.

You know what still pisses me off, is when there is disparagement of McGovern by the gutless pukes on the right. I still grow incensed when I recall when Gingrich put down McGovern after taking over the House in 1975. McGovern served with distinction as a B-24 pilot in WWII, flying over 30 combat missions, and IIRC, being awarded the DFC. Contrast that to Gingrich’s service record (el-zippo), yet that piece of shit (POS) Gingrich had the temerity to put McGovern down as an example of an American who was a disgrace to his country.

I’m really hoping that the hey-day of these puke-ass, POS rethuglicans is now over, but I know that they’ll come back from the grave yet again. But I’m ready to fight them tooth & nail, hammer & tongs. When they want to insult great Americans, I tell them — Let’s get it on!!

Watergate and Viet Nam had a great influence on me but it was the issue of busing that really got me involved in politics. I had just graduated High School when I participated in an anti-violence march in Louisville when busing was first introduced. We marched in downtown Louisville and along the route we encountered some people who said some ugly things that were reminiscent of what you heard in the 1960s Civil Rights marches. It really made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Pete Seeger participated in that rally and I still remember the electricity in the room when he led us all in singing We Shall Overcome. It made me feel really good to stand up and help counter the ugliness from my fellow citizens.

Later in my life I participated in some marches for lesbian, gay & transgendered rights. I even brought my two daughters with me so that they could be introduced into political activism. The fight for the Fairness amendment in Louisville really brought out a lot of the ugly right-wing bible thumpers (even more hate than the busing rally in the 70s). In one encounter with these people we were all in the street waiting for the vote on the Fairness amendment to be announced. The people against the amendment had signs that said God hates fags and other awful things. A lot of them with their faces twisted with hatred were shouting nasty things against gay people. It was pretty scary to be in the middle of these people (luckily my daughters weren’t with me on that day). On that particular day the amendment failed but eventually the fairness amendment passed. Both my daughters were proud to have participated in the marches much like I had been proud to have particpated in the anti-violence busing march.

There have been a lot of things I’ve participated in over the years. I joined the National Organization for Women in the late 70s where I worked a lot on the issue of women and pornography. I attended the 20th Anniversary March on Washington in the middle of the Reagan adminstration that recreated King’s march for jobs and justice. I was involved in the nuclear freeze movement and various campaign’s for human rights. My latest trip to Washington was in the summer of 2007 for the ACLU event to lobby Congress for habeas corpus.

I worked on local & national political campaigns. I was once a delegate for Gary Hart (yuck). I worked on Clinton’s 1992 campaign and attended his inaugural and one of the balls. In 2000 I was glued to my TV set like the rest of you and watched the Supreme Court steal our votes. In 2004 I worked on the Kerry/Edwards website as a moderator. And in 2008 I backed and still back Senator Edwards.

Thanks for giving me a chance to walk down memory lane. LOL Sorry for the lack of fluidity in my writing but I haven’t had enough coffee yet. LOL

Question for the pups.

I live in an apartment building and on a regular basis a small group of bible toting black religious folks come and ring apartment door bells and begin a rap about god and THEIR religion.

I have always told them not to come here and do their praying in their own church.

Are these people “out of bounds”? Or am I, for asking them to leave? They usually don’t want to believing they have a right to be inside our building walking the halls and ringing door bells.

Libraries are a priceless resource. These days, networks of libraries carry a heavy load together, sharing books, making knowledge as reach-able as possible.

Having working in my junior/high school library five school years, having walked up the steps of Carnegie libraries in MN and ND, I understand what you’re saying. In the meantime, until I win that lottery ticket, I buy duplicate books and donate, or pass along books when I’m done. Downsizing the personal library will hopefully benefit many readers.

Another reason I am who I am…..the much maligned Catholic school education. Never was there a harsh word said against another religious group or minority. Instead there was a great emphasis on charity and kindness.

a barely working architect here… books are our friends

Books were very important in our family. The library our favorite place. I remember when the childrens librarian told me I had to go to the grown-up section (with the stern librarian) because I had read all the books in the kids section.

I was born in ‘65 so my earliest memories are of moving to Fort Hood to live for a few months with my step father just back from Viet Nam. I can still smell and taste the ammo on my sandwich which I carried to school each day in an old ammo/lunch box. I despised the Army base with a passion.. The way people carried themselves and treated each other terrified me.

I do remember watching the war news and the Watergate hearings and I remember Mother joining up with the ERA movement. I remember the ecology flag in my bedroom and the War Is Not Healthy For Children Or Other Living Things poster in our house.

I remember my first act of protest.. Rejecting the Baptist church (in Omaha NE) at the ripe old age of seven years. The only thing those folks rejected more than questions was the pursuit of logical answers or saying I don’t know..and they were mean spirited authoritarians. Little did I know they would be running the world for at least the next 40 years.

Another reason I am who I am…..the much maligned Catholic school education. Never was there a harsh word said against another religious group or minority. Instead there was a great emphasis on charity and kindness.

And morality.

OK, having gotten through all of the comments so far I’d just like to thanks you Christy, for thinking of this.

It’s very cool reading where we all came from.

Biodun and SanderO, were you guys at the Easter Be-in in Sheep’s Meadow in ‘67? Remember “Radio Unnamable” with Bob Fass, and “The Outside” with Steve Post on WBAI?

And who could forget the TPF? Grand Central Station, midnight, spring equinox, 1966. A lot of busted heads that night.

Who’s out of line? I’m not sure either of you are.
But, I don’t know if these door-to-door Godsalesmen have very much, if any, success.
It’s been my experience that people look for God when and where they want to. When I see people on the street waving the bible and shouting, I always wonder if they ever make any converts. I think it probably makes them feel better, but I really doubt they are doing anything positive for their “neighbor”.

Hi everyone.

Dear Christy. I think that is one of the most beautiful posts I have ever read. THANK YOU!

I won’t share much, because my experience is just not that notable, except for one similar part of the theme.

Our parents are gone now, but never gone from our hearts. Since we’ll be moving before too long, we’re cleaning up and clearing out 40-years’ worth of our own accumulated “stuff”, and I also find myself doing the same with my mom’s old papers that I agreed to store/safely dispose of for the family when she passed on. Her and my dad’s financial papers are there – EVERY LAST ONE(!) back to the early thirties.

Although they eventually achieved what could be called a very comfortable life, nevertheless, back when they were first married, Dad had his first job, and they were struggling through the great depression, they had very very little. Yet, in spite of their own needs, the canceled checks don’t lie: they somehow found a way to give at least something, on a regular basis, to their widowed mothers. Later, when their own situation improved a bit, they gave more, and they clearly spent their whole lives “giving back” in impressive measure to a great variety of charities.

It is humbling to think back on my parents’ own struggles, and see that clear evidence of their generosity. The very least we can do is to carry forth in the same vein as best we can.

Oh, fwiw, they were proud, stubbornly proud Republicans. I miss them deeply, but I am thankful that they cannot see what “their” party has become. I kinda think they wouldn’t be so terribly unhappy that their kids are Progressives/Liberals. ;->

Very interesting story. That guy is something.

Wow. That’s some story, Christy. This is a good chance. Fun reading about ther stories behind these names I see. Me? Ahem.

My dad. 6th grade education. Grew up in the Depression. Child of immigrants who was born here but English wasn’t his first language. Got him left back a couple of times so that by the time he was in 7th grade, he was old enough that he was expected to go earn some money. And he did anyway he could. Legally. (Except for going to the many train yards in Newark and stealing railroud ties to sell for fire wood.) Lied about his age to get a job when he was 17 at Westinghouse in Newark. he worked that job until he retired. And he was a union man. Oh my, was he a union man. His plant had no union when he started and he was among those who helped organize it and it splintered-UE, IUE, IBEW. I wish I had a dollar for every time he told me “You know what out first strike was for? Recognition. Not one dime.” I remember him being on strike for long periods of time, taking what jobs he could. The family suffered for it. But I learned a very clear lesson about standing up and standing topgether.
When I went to HS in NYC, he told me to go to NY Publiv Library and get “The Jungle” and a book about Walter Reuther. He loved Hubert Humphrey and was depressed as hell when Nixon won in 1968. To lose was bad enough. But to Nixon, whom he despised as much as Joe McCarthy in the 50’s and since. When I was a kid in the late 60’s, there was always current events talk at the dinner table. I was te youngest, so if I wanted to participate, I had to know what was going on. Mostly I listened. Despite his meagre formal education, my dad was well rtead and saw to it there were at least 2 newspapers in the house daily. Oftentimes we’d have 4 or 5. He and mom were against the war in Vietnam. Mostly, I think, because my brothers were draft age and they decided to send them to Canada if need be. Didn’t have to after all. But dad’s position against the war and for McGovern were not popular with his peers. he’d tell me “Whenever one of these guys gives me bullshit, I just ask them where they served in WWII. Almost all of them tell me ‘We had deferments, you know that.’” Yes, he did know that. So long before it even became a word, I learned about the chickenhawk. Dad could ask that questiion because he gave up his defermenet and served in the South Pacific. He marveled at how shitty American labor laws were, employee benefits and health care. From time to time at family barbecues he’d be called a socialist or communist. He was neither and didn’t give a shit. i learned never to give a damn either when people tossed the pejorative of the day in your direction. Through the end he tought me Labor was good but people didn’t know enough of its history. The Democrats cared for people like us and the Republicans never, ever would.

I have been listening to Fass since I was a teenager I think if that’s possible. Yea Post and Josephson and Abbey were my roots. Free form radio.

The world has changed and BAI still has some good stuff. Support it!

BAI is one of the great sources of information in my political awareness and it has given us Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow!

That’s a cool youth in the DC area.

Loved Inherit the Wind. As a child growing up there were a lot of movies that laid the foundation for my later political involvement. Inherit the Wind was one of those movies. Others included: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the Ox-bow Incident, Gentleman’s Agreement, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, Meet John Doe, and so many others. I’d love to hear what movies or books influenced people early in their life.

Reminds me of the story of our Episcopalian priest who was in shorts & T-shirt mowing his lawn one Saturday when a group came around to “talk about God”…. he sat down with them under a tree and they talked for hours… the next Sunday…. they were at our church…

No, you’re not out of line.

I treat them the same way I treat anyone else who is selling something I don’t want – I just say, “Sorry, I’m not interested” and close the door. Don’t recall any of them knocking again.

Radio Unnameable, with Bob Fass, was where I first heard “Alice’s Restaurant”, “Mr. Bojangles”, and “The Firesign Theater”.

I know that Steve Post i still on the ir on WNYC, but where is Fass? And whatever happened to Larry Josephson? I’ll never forget waking up every morning to “The WIlliam Tell Overture”.

Breathe!

I’ve always played with the underdog having only moderate skills of my own. I was inspired by gods. We gave coach 8 solid victories over the years and he taught us to play until the last second and than a little bit longer. This is one for the ages and all my money has gone and will go to Dennis. John Edwards is my choice for president simply because if we do not destroy the cooperate ownership of the MSM we will never be able to win. There is a real possibility of a brokered convention and in that case everyone (Not Dennis, he let his true enemies get at his back) is still in play. I’m with Edwards until it’s over.

Strangely enough, the book “Atlas Shrugged” was my first eye-opener into the Republican mindset. I began to realize that I really didn’t like most of the people who loved that book. And then, later, old Greenspan says it is one of his favorites.

It’s all about ME, ME, ME. Never help the less fortunate. In fact, destroy them if possible. It is their credo.

Then there’s my mother’s side (Irish). Apparently, my grandmother was a bootlegger. The story goes that Mom’s Uncle Tony kept getting arrested for bootlegging. To ‘help out’, my dear sweet Granny made gin in her bathtub for her brother. She was a sweet Irish lady, the mother of 6. I guess it worked out, my mother says that she doesn’t remember the Great Depression. Her family always had enough money.

Good night Pups — the whiskey is settling in nicely. Time to sleep a bit.

I hope you all have a great day back in the U.S.A.

My first vote after I turned 18 was for McGovern. I even campaigned for him a little. I was so depressed the day after that election that I didn’t even make it to my classes.

McGovern was my first presidential vote although not my very first vote (two years earlier in a Dem congressional primary at age 17 – Kentucky had the 18 year old vote earlier than any other state except for Georgia and you could vote in the primary at 17 if 18 before the general election).

I didn’t make it to class the day after the ‘72 election because I was hung over after drowning my sorrows the night before with some Very Old Barton

The political education started early. Family was Democratic and my great grandfather, great uncle and uncle all held county level offices. My dad was a state employee so couldn’t actively politic outside the home but talked often about politics at the dinner table. Sunday dinner at the various aunts’ houses also had a lot of intelligent political discussion at all levels. In ‘60, I plastered large portions of my hometown with Kennedy/Johnson campaign stickers.

High School in a military school in the late sixties then college ROTC in the early ’70s, I was not always real popular with the folks in charge. They tended to not appreciate folks quesitoning the CW on Vietnam. Oh well.

Now to wrap up my story:

First: an important correx to my 24: My father was not part of the Nigerian Mission to the UN but worked as a civil servant at the UN Secretariat in NYC. In those days member-nations had to “donate” five people to the Secretariat, and my father was one of five. My father always taught his three sons to have a sense of justice and fairness. He was part of the government but eventually got sick of its corruption. So after his 5-year stint he left the government and both my parents went back to Nigeria (God rest their souls.)

I was then a freshman at NYU. I of course stayed in college and moved downtown to East 9th St. to be with my hippie friends–also NYU students. In those days NYU was known as hippie university. I was a hippie as well: with all the trappings: afro hair, beads, bell bottom pants. In any case, I became a US citizen when I was freshman. In those days you could become one after 5 years in this country. Unlike most of you born were, I chose to become an American. That’s why I’ve been very sensitive at FDL about not letting the right appropriate and define the flag and words like patriotism.

I’m not afraid to say this here: at NYU I had more in common with my white NYU friends than with the blacks in Harlem. This is also why I’ve been able to form alliances across race and classs for poltical action…

Very nice story.
I think that’s great.

I was just thinking how funny it is that while neither of my parents spoke much about politics while I was growing up all of their children ended up as progressives. While I am the only child that is poltically active both my brother and my sister share in most of my progressive views. I wonder what influenced them? Perhaps they too were influenced by those old Hollywood movies?

A sad note: Once my grandmother on my fathers side passed away I found out that she had been involved in Democratic politics all of her adult life. I was really saddened that I didn’t know this while she was alive. We could have had some really interesting conversations. I think this was why my Dad was always so proud of my political activism even though he was not involved in politics. He must have seen a little bit of his mother in me. What a shame they waited until she died to let me know.

I don’t know about any racial connection, but we have a good friend who, being a biologist with an additional degree in philosophy, just loved to invite the bible-toters right in to his humble apartment for a nice long, long, long “chat”.

Oh, and along with his biology pursuits, he often served as a surrogate parent to orphans of various fluffy & feathered sorts. His most hilarious story I ever heard was of having one of these delightful endlesschats with a hapless, terrified chap who not only was totally out-talked and out-thunk, but sat quivering in his chair while a tame screech owl GLARED down on him from the lampshade above.

Our kindly friend eventually let the would-be-preacher escape unscathed, but I always wished I could have had a YouToob of that conversation. heh.

check your Facebook..

Biodun, what years were you at NYU?

I went there 69/70, and 70/71. Undergraduate film program, School Of The Arts.

Christy,

I was born in Ithaca NY in the mid 50s. Grew up during the Civil Rights Era in the early 60s. My grand father was a labor organizer in and around Boston at the turn of the century. My father and his brothers all were born in different towns a few miles apart, because their dad kept getting run out of the company towns, like Lynn, Peabody, etc. He was organizing textile workers. My dad was not what I would call a progressive, although he was always a solid Democrat. When he passed away in 1989 Bush I was president and my father was disillusioned with the good old USA. He told me to watch out for the European Union Union, that they would one day eclipse the USA’s economy and our standing in the world as a haven for immigrants. He knew what he was talking about.

Myself, I moved to Texas in 1978, and after working in the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, I settled in Austin, got married, had kids, got divorced, got an Engineering degree and now practice civil engineering in central Texas. I am raising my kids to be progressive. They are both musicians, although I tried to raise doctors and lawyers. C’est la vie….

Well coffee’s getting cold, thanks for the opportunity to reminisce.

Hmm…a news report yesterday stated that research had been done on DNA and political views. They purport that political views are hardwired into our DNA! Oh, I hate to think that my intellectual parents did not have any influence on my voting. I thought that growing up democratic, being an anti-war activitist the 60’s, living in Israel, East Village, and growing up inside the beltway would have influenced my voting. But no! It is only my DNA speaking!

In any case, with my background, you’d think I’d be supporting Obama. But I was an Edwards supporter until he dropped out because he was the only one who focused on poverty. Poverty is quite an issue with me. I volunteer at Minneapolis Public Housing, working to find subsidized housing to very poor people, and the homeless. Now it’s one thing to read about poverty and understand it intellectually. But it’s quite another to be exposed to it everyday. The children are heartbreaking, homeless through no fault of their own. The director of a homeless shelter we were once visiting said: “We cannot afford to raaise another geneeration of homeless kids.”

Yes, I see.
I think your mother was right!
I love watching stories play out.

Yep. I was there 1970 and 1971 before I transferred out. English and French major…

Those with more of a history within the Democratic Party than I have care to flesh out the details about how superdelegates came to me? The question is asked at The Moderate Voice.

Henry Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one thing that sets above the other animals? What other merit have we?

Well I’ll be darned. I’ve never seen that movie – but I’ve certainly made that same argument…

I have an old friend, a fellow hell-raiser from back in the day, who is now an evangelical Christian. I have nothing but respect for him, and talk to him a few times per week. He will talk to anyone who is receptive, and go real easy on anyone, (like me) who he knows to be a “tough case” – he talks only to the extent of another person’s comfort. He does, however, drop some broad “hints”, whenever we talk, which is fine. He’s a happy man – maybe I’m his long-term project.

That being said, my friend Joe is a Christian who walks the walk – he gets up and actually *does* things for other people. I like to think that at least occasionally, I do too.

I guess this is also a response to SanderO above… probably way too simplistic, but my friend is a Christian with a capital “C”, I consider that maybe I’m a christian with a small “c”. What I may or may not believe, in a theological sense, doesn’t affect the way in which I choose to live my life.

I think Joe knows that trying to shove a belief, any belief, down my throat won’t turn out well.

When I was born and old enough to listen, I was told by my parents the stories of living in Nazi occupied Norway for 5 years..I used to go to bed and say, “tell me about the war”…My Dad worked for the government and never thought they would invade, even though my mother (who had been born in America) constantly warned that they would. They did, and my father was the last man standing shredding the defense documents in Oslo, as the rest of the government fled to the hills…so I have to start with that underpinning.

After the war, they were stationed in DC, where I was born. Because of my parents’ “profession”, I was mostly in the care of a black woman, who is still alive and is 92 now…I spent a lot of time at her house and going places with her and pretty much identified with her, since I was with her so much. I realized the reality of racism really early on, and that definitely seeded my “fight for justice” feelings. I was in DC during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the memory of my father’s horror about what was happening is forever seared in my mind. In early 1963, we moved back to Europe, and it was there that we listened on an old wooden radio that JFK had been murdered. That seeded the disillusionment and questions about how and who would have done such a thing.

Later, we returned to the US, and I went through my hippiedom and marched against the war, etc. After that, I lived in NYC for a long time, including during Ghouliani time; and quite frankly, I left NY for fear of an eventual terror event…I don’t know why exactly, but I did.

Anyway, I have always railed against injustice in every form, and my earliest memories and my fundamental position has always been driven by the idea that awful things happen caused by awful people, but there are many more good people in the world, and it just doesn’t have to be that way…but I also caution that it can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime; people need to observe, accept reality, and then take action. Denial in any form is what allows the injustices to go forward. No fear!!

I went through a gooper period in my youth- loved Goldwater- then during my second year of college I learned some things about foreign affairs and economics and became a dem which I am to this day.

I believe that there should be a safety net for food, shelter, and health care- (but I think it should be very low- subsistence- no one should ever WANT to stay in the net rather than work.

I believe that american must sometimes fight to protect herself and must remain strong- but she should never start a fight or be a bully.

I believe that unbridled business activity will always become criminal if not controlled- and that while capitalism is the only workable system- it must be well regulated.

Taxes should be as low as they can be while doing what it takes to maintain the nation. Rates should be progressive.

Higher education is the road up the economic ladder and must be available to all chidren at a cost they can afford.

Government should leave me and mine the fuck alone if I’m not harming anyone.

That’s about it. Guess I’m sort of a moderate democrat- but everything the goopers want to do conflicts with what I think is right- and I fight them as I can.

sorry. there’s something weird about that, the more i think about it.

seems more like definition of politics being a bit like a “cape” folks wear, and change over time, which changes color as the times change.

e.g., old-style Southern Democrats vs now, my parents vs us grown kids (see my 118) who always wore a totally different label, yet shared a lot of values, yet NEVER the label. (politics was not allowed to be discussed in our house, but feelings were crystal clear, heh)

After McGovern and Carter ran basically insurgent campaigns against the establishment, the elected officials took umbrage at the thought that they didn’t have a divine right to be delegates to the Democratic National Convention so they instituted the “super delegate” role in order to assure they had a say in the matter.

Never seen “Inherit the Wind“? I used to show it every year when I got to the 1920s in my history classes. Now I show “Singing in the Rain”. Inherit is really a better commentary about the intolerance of McCarthyism than an exemplar about the rise of Evangelicalism in the 1920s.

In a few, I will get on the 6 bus to head out to that cafe I talked about in my 24. (I don’t drive. I grew up in NYC, remember? I never learned how to drive. If I can live in Missoula, MT and not drive, I can live anywhere and not drive. And so by the time I get there this thread will probably be EPU-’d by-Phoenix Woman. How do I know that? *g*

I think the next time they ring your doorbell that you should tell them that you are glad that they came and then proceed to engage them in a discussion about some progressive political issue. They will hate it so much they will probably stay away for good. LOL

I worked with a man that used to corner people at work and talk about the bible. He got me one day and I listened until I had an opening to start talking about my favorite issues. I went on and one and one. He started to walk away and I followed him and kept talking. After that encounter he never cornered me again. LOL

dang! the sooner humans admit they’re animals, the better off they’ll be, as will everything / everyone else… if we’re lucky.

I am a descendent of active members of the Texas populist movement which fought for rural and farm issues. My grandparents were born in 1885 and 1888 and I am the youngest child of a youngest child. This agrarian movement seems very old fashioned now but it was about social and economic justice. My father was a union organizer in the 1940’s in defense plants and the chemical industry in Houston. Political issues were discussed at the dinner table very loudly. It was wonderful.

My thinking exactly.

Fass still does midnight to 3 am on WBAI

Larry J went to LA and does ocassional things on Public Radio. Google them. They are still kicking.

“Humans are the only animals that blush- or need to”

Mark Twain

These are wonderful stories.

It is interesting how many of us came to embrace progressive politics through lessons we absorbed from our parents and grandparents.

Casting my mind forward 20 to 40 years, I wonder what stories my children and grandchildren will tell. I think over the next several months we are all going to have an opportunity at dinner table discussions and through our actions to establish a progressive legacy for them to remember.

Dandy!

My favorite teeshirt – a gift from our kids last yr:

“Humans aren’t the only species on earth.
We just act like it.”

don’t know who thot it up, but i get lots of smiles with it.
mebbe it’s the gray hair/old lady connection…

I had a discussion with niece, who was 10 at the time about whey I was supporting Al Gore in 2000. It centered around being pro-choice. She was going to catholic school, was anti abortion and wanted to Bush to be president.

Since she brought it up, I explained to her about what pro-choice was. She had never heard of the concept. She listened and I could see her processing the information. She’s always been very curious.

Shortly afterwards I was talking to her Mom and I told her about the conversation. She was relieved to know that my niece was comfortable enough with me to bring the subject up, and she explained to me that her and my brother walked a fine line between undermining what she was being taught in school, and what they believed as adults. She also told me they haven’t addressed the issue with her yet, but she was glad that I explained to my niece about other views on this, and that an opposing view wasn’t coming from her parents, who were also pro-choice.

My dad, who is now 82, ran for state representative when I was about 10. We lived in Metairie right outside of New Orleans. As everyone knows La. is notorious for corruption and Dad wanted to do something about it. And the state of the school system drove him crazy. The first time he ran as a dem. The second time he ran has a repub to strengthen the 2 party system. Both times he lost in razor thin margins. La. is still corrupt and the school systems is being privatized as we read these comments.

My father is my hero. He doesn’t know that he is responsible for my “radical” activism. I love him.

I am the daughter and granddaughter of union members and staunch Democrats, and I grew up in a blue-collar home. If there is one thing I took away from this, it’s the fact that the Democratic Party is (and should be,) the representatives for working people.

I started volunteering for Democratic campaigns when I was still in high school. To say that I am excited about going to our caucus in a few hours is an understatement. Washington State is, surprisingly enough, on the map this year. I will caucus for Edwards. I’ll vote “D” in November, but I am happy to make the vote of my conscience this afternoon.

Just like so many others on this thread, my world was expanded as a result of programs like Head Start and public libraries. We must continue these programs. They offer a hand up to the working people in our country. The only way I see to save them is to elect more progressives, who see the value in lifelong learning.

-S

I was wondering the same thing.
Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I find some new left wing propaganda pamphlets left on the dining room table. Left there by my 20 year old son.
I just love it.

Your my hero!!

Thank you for such inspiring stories, everyone. I’m the most progressive person in my family, and have had an interest in politics for as long as I can remember. My parents took me to my first political rallies in 1960, when I was just 5, to see Kennedy and Nixon, who both barnstormed the country that year. My mother ran for city council as a Republican when we lived in Westerville, Ohio, in the mid-1960s (she lost, but I loved campaigning with her!). I applied to be a Senate page when I was in high school, and started a town-wide education forum my senior year in northern NJ, with school administrators, parents, teachers, and students meeting regularly to discuss issues. I remember being thrilled to hear that my conservative grandmother in Topeka, Kansas, was voting for McGovern in 1972. I watched every moment I could of the Senate Select Committee hearings about Watergate. I worked on local and state political campaigns as a volunteer. I’ve always read about candidates’ views on issues, and have donated minor sums to selected candidates over the years.

I met Mr. NJP at a part-time job with the Gallup Poll, when I was in grad school in the 1980s. His family is very progressive, and his father is very well-read on politics. Mr. NJP had worked as a journalist for a magazine that covered NJ politics and public policy. When we started dating he took a job as a state house correspondent for one of the daily newpapers of northern NJ, then worked as a stringer for the NY Times, writing about environmental issues in NJ. He went back to grad school for public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and is a full-time (freelance) policy wonk, covering health care policy. He’s been involved with several political campaigns–as a staff person, as a journalist, as a volunteer.

He started getting very involved in the peace movement in 2005, and was active in two groups. I volunteered for a congressional campaign in 2006 (not my own district, which is represented by a progressive Dem, Frank Pallone, but a nearby district where a progressive Dem was challenging the Republican; alas, Linda Stender narrowly lost to Mike Ferguson, but she’s running again in ‘08, and Ferguson is not running, so we may pick up that seat!).

There’s so much to be done to clean up this unholy mess. I want to see the conservative ideology thoroughly discredited.

Wow, what a great story about your dad.

I’ve written here and over at EW’s about my father being a college professor and OSU coach in soccer. My mother served as an officer in the OSU Women’s club. The day after the Kent State violence, my Mom had to attend a fundraiser on campus because she was the organizer. Our VW bus had to travel down High Street lined with unarmed students on one side and armed national guardsmen on the other. Our VW bus was packed full of the floral centerpieces. The VW full of flowers with a little child in the midst of them brought upheld hands of peace signs from the students. The guardsmen raised their rifles. My Mom prayed out loud that we and the students would make it out of this moment alive…

I was becoming a democrat…

My father started youth soccer in our Midwest hometown. The son of the first African American family to move into our hometown join the youth soccer team. Weeks later, someone tried to shoot and kill the father of this family…The same night, a rock shattered our front picture window. A note on the rock said, “***** lover.”

I was becoming a democrat…

Many a grad student from around the world joined our family for holiday meals. I learned about the vastness of cultural diversity and how the world views the United States. I learned a great deal from diversity…

I was becoming a democrat…

The first African American teacher hired in our school district was placed at my elementary school. On her first day of recess duty, students tried to stone her. I threw my body in front of her to protect her. I was injured and my parents had to come get me from school to care for my injuries. She never returned to teach at our school. She and I shared a dream…that day it was shattered…

I was becoming a democrat…

Watched a President lie to the nation and the many televised investigations to follow…

I was becoming a Democrat…

At age 15, received a press pass and had the opportunity to interview Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Carter granted me an interview. Reagan said I was not a “real” journalist, just a kid. So, no interview.

I became a democrat…

Watch my grandfather loose his job just before retirement. He had served his company well, even served on the Manhattan Project unknowingly through his company.

I remained a democrat…

Had our health insurance provider go Chapter 13 on the day our son required surgery as an infant. On Christmas Eve, the courts delivered a note to our house telling us we had to pay the entire hospital bill because of legislation that protected the insurance company. We had to drop out of grad school and lost our savings for a down payment on a house…

Remained a democrat…

Watched my brother, 2 years before his retirement,get laid off. One of the most dedicated, hardworking, honest individuals I know…

I remained a democrat…

Watch our retirement go out the window due to an Enron like scheme by my husbands former employer…

I remained a democrat…

Worked in housing projects in DC to make a difference in the world. Found the voice of poverty and risk was not heard by everyone within the Beltway…

I remained a democrat…

Life stories and experiences shape our views…in deep ways…I am a democrat.

Christy, you are so inspiring. Thank you for this terrific post. I can’t read the comments now, but will come back to them after dinner tonight.

Rather than a story, here’s a summary of sorts in a photo:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img…..sonwt3.jpg

I guess it also gives away Starbuck!

oH MY.

Gorgeous.

You might have also included in your YouTube link this awesome guitar strummed playing “The House Of The Rising Sun.” Because from what I have seen, most liberals are liberal because they have not had it easy. I am a liberal because …

I was raised with WOBBLYs. My grandfather witnessed the Everett Massacre when the loggers were trying to form a union and the Feds came in (in the name of the rich) and just shot them all on sight. I learned all the songs (I Don’t Want To Play In Your Yard, Big Rock Candy Mountain, etc) I learned the slogans and I learned about worker’s rights and greedy company owners who paid little and expected the moon. All my family were and are liberals, we just cannot wrap our head around conservative people who actually believe they are caring individuals when their loyalties side with big money. Especially when they do not have it and are the victims of greed themselves …

I grew up in a tiny community of less than 300 people. I remember one time about a conversation with my mother as a kid about a popular family in our community. Mom was not friends with these people ~ she was not their enemy, she just did not hang out with them. I asked her why she did not want to go over to their house and have coffee with the mom as their kids were very popular and I wished mom would “go with the In Crowd,” which to my 13 year old attitude was embarrassing that she didn’t. But Mom usually did not fraternize with the “In” people ~ unless one of the “In” people was someone she liked.

Mom looked at me for a long time and I could tell she was weighing her words. Then she said, “They are Republicans. I do not associate with Republicans.”

Well to my 13 year old idea of what was right, that was just WRONG, to discriminate against someone because of their political affiliations? What was that all about?

But now I am the same way …I would not have anything to do with Republicans either because from I have seen, they are more interested in money than with justice. Coming from the same traditions as Christy did, with people who helped each other out, especially the ones who were down, I never see Republicans getting in there and pitching in. I saw them on the sidelines criticizing instead. I see how they quickly became Liberals when they faced poverty and hard times, finding that their simplistic “answers” and “solutions” were just that ~ simplistic and unrealistic.

I think being raised a liberal Democrat in this day and age has made my life harder, yet still I would never want to be a Republican. I have a firm sense of what is right and when I stood with unpopular issues I have been right down the road as well ~ like when I worked with the Sanctuary Movement with my church in the 1980’s. Now we find that the same players then are in power now who are causing even MORE death and destruction. Because they never faced the consequences of their actions. Nobody wanted to hear the truth then, even my neighbors, workmates and friends. Thus history will repeat itself, especially when the manipulators find that what they did made them richer and they still maintained their “good” reputations. But time always tells when you stand with the Truth with a capitol “T,” doesn’t it?

I was raised a liberal and like so many of you, I became a genuine one after reading about liberal thought and what it meant over time. The kernels of Truth within liberal thought are as vibrant today as they always have been. So I will be a liberal until the day I die.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

Wonderful to read your post. My Dad’s oldest friend in Maine was IWW, became one during a recruiting drive near a logging camp when he was a teen. I have fond memories of him swinging my brothers & I on the old park swings in town while he sang to us. He was quite elderly, still had a great baritone voice. Some of the songs were the ones you mentioned, also this one:

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right;
But when asked how ’bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.
The starvation army they play,
They sing and they clap and they pray
‘Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they’ll tell you when you’re on the bum:
Holy Rollers and jumpers come out,
They holler, they jump and they shout.
Give your money to Jesus they say,
He will cure all diseases today.
If you fight hard for children and wife –
Try to get something good in this life –
You’re a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.

Workingmen of all countries, unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight;
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we’ll sing this refrain:

FINAL CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
When you’ve learned how to cook and to fry.
Chop some wood, ’twill do you good,
And you’ll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

Only as an adult did I finally learn the name of it- The Preacher & the Slave, written by Joe Hill in 1911.

and MntLoe @ 171

Wow.

Proud to say I’m a card carrying Wobbly.

Just read your comment @ # 88. Privilege to make your online acquaintance.

sanderO—when i lived in an apartment building, all you had to do was post a ’no solicitors’ sign on the main entrance door, and they weren’t allowed to enter the building………you may place one on an individual door, but they can be in the halls then……..if a sign is posted, is illegal for them to be there, and they can be charged for it.

wow, what stories, got me to thinking about what activism means.

to me, activism—–comes from anything or anyone that causes or inspires you to act……….

i can honestly say that there are too many stories for me to tell in that area, so i will share the one that stands out.

my gma, born at the turn of the century, from pennsylvania, 8th grade education because she was the eldest of 11 children and had to quit when her mother died, to raise her siblings. her father was a butcher, so, they had food. the last one lived with her while finishing high school when she was married to my ’pop’. that’s how many years she did it. imagine that, doing that during those times…….every single one of them graduated.

i never heard her say a bad word about anyone, EVER, she read, she watched the news and game shows-because she like to see people win, read the newspaper with a fine-tooth comb.

i never heard her complain, she used dialogue to get her point across by stating the obvious and then letting someone absorb it.

she did things anonymously.

she was an fdr democrat.

she lived to be just shy of 100, and she had a rough life, many trials, but a nice life, because of how she lived it.

anything else i would say about where i come from would just be examples of people who taught me by example that–when you can do something, if you can do something, where there is a need, then you DO IT. not whether it’s ’prudent’ but if it needs to be done and you are able, then you do it. that’s how things get better, that’s how things change, by doing……..

thanks for the stories, christy, do this thread again one day.

The pleasure is mine.

“What it was that brought us to political activism in the first place”.

Thanks Christy for asking. My Father was a Midwestern automotive factory worker who made less than $100 per week for most of his life. As children of the depression, he and my uncle would often talk politics. I’ll never forget him predicting the country will never be able to withstand a second term of President Nixon in the white house.

were you guys at the Easter Be-in in Sheep’s Meadow in ‘67? Remember “Radio Unnamable” with Bob Fass, and “The Outside” with Steve Post on WBAI?

Missed this one. But I listened to Steve Post all the time. He later surfaced at WNYC, continuing to stir up trouble in the 80s..

Christy, your grandmother sounds exactly like mine! She died right after 9/11, but she was as strong as a whip, suffered through many hardships (death of her son when he was 9…two horrible divorces…poverty when raising her 3 daughters by herself), but always, always, always was a strong force in our lives. She was one strong woman and Democrat and she taught her granddaughters to be just as strong and to be proud of who you are.

Thanks for sharing a part of your life, Christy.

Wonderful story Christy, like others that have written, I, too, had the kind of grandmother who was able, through her kindness and generosity, to instill on her children, (my mother ) how important it is to share those things of which you have been blessed. My grandmother died in 1997 and I doubt that she ever voted once in her life and yet to this day I know in my heart she must have been a Democrat. A person like that couldn’t have been anything else Thank you and the rest for wonderful stories.

The election is over.

There was a fight between the Rich & Powerful and everyone else. The Rich & Powerful won.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

John Edwards for President — Leadership in the Left direction.