A reason to change my name?

Did you? If not go. The internet will be here when you get back. This was the first time voting in the new state. We got up a little early and walked to our polling place not really knowing what to expect. There has been a lot of talk about long lines and that we should have early voted, neither of which were ever problems or options that I knew of in the old state. I've been feeling a bit fish out of water like down here in the South over the past few days, so I have to admit for the first time in my life I had a little trepidation about going to the polls.

So we wore comfy shoes and walked to the polls. When we arrived there was one very long line coming out the door. A women in front of us left saying she would come back, I cringed a little bit thinking that she might not come back and not voting is a crime in my book. Then there was some confusion. Turns out there were actually three lines, not one, and they were labeled only by district number nothing else distinguishing, and even that was a bit fuzzy on which line was which. How do you know your district number? It's on your registration card. I promptly pulled my card out of my purse located the number and we were in the right line. Which, was unfortunate because it was a much longer line. Folks around us realized the didn't have their cards, there's a number to call. Cell phones appeared from everywhere as people started dialing the registrar of voters line, which was busy. Then there was a lot of calling home to husbands/wives/mothers/roommates. There was another call of how do I find my number and I pulled out our cards again to show the women in front of us where the district number was. This time I pulled out hubby's card. Whoops. We're in the wrong line. No wait. We are in two different districts? What!? We live in the same house! We're married. Hubby went off to see what was up while I held our place in line, which early reports were saying took 1.5 hours, which was a bit odd because it was 7:25 and the polls opened at 6.

Turns out we're not in different districts in the sense we are used to using the term. We have the same reps and the same polling location and what not. District A is people with last names begining with A-K and District B is people with last names L-Z. Since I never changed my name we straddle that line, and officially belong to different districts, which really just means different lines when you vote. Hubby's line took 25 minutes less than mine, although he kindly waited in the school's lobby so we could walk home together.

Anyways, in the end we voted, as did everyone else there. Which is what really matters. I would have liked to see the process go a little more smoothly, but our voices were heard on the big matters today. Sadly, however, we didn't get the "I voted" stickers like we did back home. I missed the stickers, so I'm giving myself one on the blog. (I stole it from some other random blog so hopefully it's not copyrighted or anything).


On another, related note. Paul's post about campaigning gave me a warm fuzzy feeling as I remembered a moment from my youth. I, as Paul did, once stood on a street corner waving a sign and chanting a slogan of some sort, and cheering when someone beeped at us. My whole family did. All four of us, with hand painted signs and matching T-shirts. It wasn't for a presidential campaign, or even a state election, or an election at all. But a referedum on the school budget. One that wanted to cut art, music and foreign language from the cirriculum (or something equally abhorrent) and one we severely opposed. Or at least my parents did, so as a pre-teen I did too. Looking back as a free thinking adult, I'd stand on the corner again today.*

We have a family picture of us that day up somewhere in our house admist vaction photos, graduation photos, awards and the general trappings of a family life, there we are in those "Teacher's make a difference" T-shirts that only came in grown up size. My sister didn't have braces yet and I didn't have contacts and my mom would probably say "well that was the style" about her haircut. I can only imagine we won because the picture was put in a frame and has stuck around all these years. But either way, I know I was part of something that day. Part of something bigger than me. We all have that opportunity today, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. To be part of something that makes this country great. I didn't campaign for my candidate, I didn't even put up a lawn sign. Maybe I should have, maybe next time I will. Or maybe I won't find the time. It's easy to let things go by in favor of the other busy moments of our life, and there is nothing wrong with that. But at the very least we can all take the time to cast our votes. So go, now. The blog will be here when you get back. I promise.

* it's quite possible that it was the version of the budget that finally supported the arts and we were for it, it was almost 20 years ago so the details are a bit fuzzy...either way the feeling of the memory stands.

blog action day

Something I miss every year is blog action day. Every year Paul has something very smart and interesting to say, and I think to myself, I should also have something smart and interesting to say, but I have a hard time being smart and interesting on demand. (I think I used up all that power in all of those interviews earlier in the year)

Today is not much different, and last night I actually was thinking that I might write a post today about the debates, because that whole anyone can teach with out those pesky qualifying tests remark really got to me. Really John, anyone can teach? Being in the military qualifies you to teach? Come wrangle a classroom for a day dude. ANY classroom and see how well you do. Students are not soldiers. I'm going to stop before I say something I regret. Let's just leave it at this, to me, it was the most important moment of the debate and, it's been lost among all the Joe the plumber talk. Education is an issue that has been largely ignored in this race, and one that is near and dear to my heart. Maybe it will be next year's blog action topic.

Anyways, poverty. I haven't really spent much time thinking about poverty. We are not poor by any standards, although the budget is pretty tight right now. Tight is relative. One salary, two mortgages and some school loans also doesn't make us well-off. We fall somewhere in between, which I guess counts a middle class. That's not to say that we don't feel the pressure knowing that our current situation is not sustainable for much longer, but we also recognize that this life (the academic one) was a choice we made and we were lucky to have the means to make it. I could be an engineer, making more than twice what I make now. I have the training and the certifications, I chose not to use them. That being said, it is sometimes hard to not feel sorry for ourselves and to feel the stress of the zero-sum balance at the end of every paycheck.

Being wrapped up in my own life, as we all are, it's hard to remember that others are having an even harder time. I guess that's what blog action day is all bout though, making us remember.



At times in my life I have been fortunate to visit other parts of the world where poverty is a completely different situation than the one we have here in the US. On both occasions what struck me the most was how different cultures deal with different things. This is a working school, I mean can you imagine? But, I maintain that the multiple generations of family members living in a hut smaller than our "spare" bedroom are happier people than the wealthiest Americans you could find. Core values are different in different places and wealth is not necessarily one of them.


Here in America, I have recently relocated from a wealthy state to a poor state. From one with one of the lowest poverty rates to one with one of the highest. My perspective has changed. What lesson can I expound to blog readers about poverty? The one I learned during my first hurricane season. I may not be able to afford to replace my ruined pants this month, but I also didn't have to spend hours in a FEMA line waiting for food or water. I am lucky, many others are not. This does not make them bad people, or lazy people, or less deserving people. They are people. People like you and me who are trying to navigate in a society that values looking out for number one and no one else. It is not the value that makes every kid that attends this one room school house have a smile on their face everyday. Maybe we can learn something from these poor societies. Maybe a culture that values people more than it values wealth is one we could all start to strive for.

voting time is here...

http://russelldad.tumblr.com/post/52678280/5-friends-vote

I'm not smart enough to figure out how to embed it in the blog right now. But it's an important message, so click and watch. I'd like to believe that everyone who reads this blog is already registered. (if not, you probably stopped reading during my political phase back in January), but send it on, get the word out. In some states, like mine, October 4 is not the registration deadline, but an actual day to vote, not for president, but for the other people of importance, and for congressional primaries. Every position that requires voting is important...you've heard that rant before.

Since my responsible primary voting, I've stayed away from political topics here. I figured my views were pretty clear and there really wasn't much else to say. That and I was happily living in a state whose electoral college has agreed with my candidate for all of my voting life, and there is no question that that record will stand during this election. (I was going to say all of history, but my quick internet search told me that during my youth the state supported the opposite party...this is shaking my world view a little so I'm going to move on).

Since the big move, I'm no longer safely ensconced in a "blue" state, but rather a currently considered red, but strongly voted for Clinton and looking at total history was more blue than red state. Besides the slight cultural shock that the move has brought to both myself and my uber-liberal husband, this means that my vote might actually matter here. Current polls indicate we are "likely McCain", which give my internal optimist a little hope. This turn of events has me rethinking my lack of political commentary, that and the whole Palin thing...

Anyways, check out www.270towin.com. You can change your state from blue to red or red to blue to undecided and see what effect the change would have on the election. They also have tidbits on each state and the historical data I mentioned above.

Finding a candidate: time's up

Well, it seems I have run out of time. Not just for finding a candidate, but for alot of things in my life. I sat down today and felt that it was really time to organize my travel schedule for the next few months (scheduling another interview inspired this, for those of you tracking my career progress and not at all interested in my political leanings). Turns out, I will travel to 10 states and another country by the June 30th. That averages out to traveling every other week. My schedule doesn't work out that nicely. I'm a little stressed.

Anyways, I did not finish The Audacity of Hope as I had hoped (ironic I know). I did get through a fairly big chunk of it, somewhere around 60%, and hubby says that that is enough to give me the right idea, so I'm not going to feel too delinquent about the whole thing. So what are my thoughts. I agree with the comment from last time. It is not as inspiring as I was expecting. Actually I was pretty disappointed for the first 160 pages or so. After all the hype I've heard of this guy's rapid rise to fame to be what some are calling the second coming of Kennedy, I was ready to be INSPIRED. But mostly, it was common sense, a little bit pretenious in the language, and I didn't find the writing all that eloquent. No inspiration. In fact, Obama almost seemed to be making my point for me. My major concern is his lack of experience, and he spends a whole page talking about an older senator who he respects, and the one piece advice this guy gave him was not to rush into running for president, that the senate is really where the government heart and soul is....I'd get out the actual quote and all of that, but I have a headache, and did I mention I'm really out of time with everything...

But, around page 160, something happened, the book turned a corner for me and there where his thoughts on education. Now, I'm not going to say they were inspiring. They were the thoughts on education that anyone who believes in education has already had. Growing up in a house filled with teacher union reps and schoolteachers, (not to mention my own 11 years of higher educational pursuits) I not only believe in education, I live and breathe it. They were the thoughts on education I had before I even knew what thinking was. They weren't new and novel. But they were right. They were so damn right. It was like he had been in my head. And it was the first time I had seen a politician address the issue so well. So close to the way I thought it should be addressed, maybe not inspiring, but exciting. So I was in a little bit of a quandary.

In the end, I don't think it's changed my mind. Paul makes a compelling argument. But, my optimism in many areas of life doesn't extend to politics. I don't think Obama has the experience. I think he has the right ideas, I think he has the right beliefs, I think he brings people together, and in general I don't have a compelling reason to vote against him. But optimism and the White House don't mix (Hillary has already learned that the hard way). Good morals, good ideas, and pretty well defined plans of action, are what we should want in a leader, what we should respect in a leader. But they don't make a successful presidency. Compromises and tough decisions need to be made. I think many of Obama's plans, (health care reform, education, and taxes) underestimate the strength of the opposition he will face, and that means nothing will get done. As much as I want to see real, core value kind of change. It ain't gonna happen this time around. Too many people are still too mad about too many things. I have to vote for reality, not idealism.

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter. The decision being hard for me means I won't have a hard time getting behind whoever gets the nomination, and in general I'll be happy either way.

Finding a candidate week ?: First book review

previous entries in this ongoing conversation here

Well, I didn't give up on my quest; I got distracted by another one. At the very end of week two my office phone rang off the hook with two job interviews, another potential career option and the request for an invited talk. My phone never rings that much in a month, never mind a day and a half. So all of the crazy that goes with preparing for an interview and actually flying to another time zone to have the interview took over all time that I would have blogged about anything, as well as anytime I would have to explore politics.

So here we are, a few days out of Super Tuesday and I'm still digging. I have finished Hillary's book and dear hubby has finished Barack's. I'm now about halfway through Barak's and hub is reading Hillary as I type. There may be a barrage of posting in the next few days as I scramble to share all of my thoughts, but I'm going to break it up into chunks. Today: a review of Living History.

This book is worth reading regardless of an ongoing election.

As a person: First, you should know I like history and I find historical reading fascinating. I mean, who else do you know that read The Glory and the Dream in it's entirety the summer after high school. (I'm a bit of a nerd). So, I found reading Living History to be a fascinating volume of the history taking place during the 8 years I was too busy being a teenager and college student to pay enough attention. I feel I have a greater understanding of many things I just didn't know much about.

As a women: This book is amazing. Hillary tells the story of coming to age during the women's rights movement people of my generation think of as the past. Her experience's should not be comparable to mine 40 years later. It saddens me that that are. But emboldens me as well. Even the little things. She talks about not changing her name, and being forced to when her husband was in the public eye. She talks about people not understanding that she was not Hillary Clinton, but family and friends consistently sending mail to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. 30 years later I am experiencing the same phenomena, and not just from great-aunts who stick with ingrained social traditions, but from cousins who are younger than me. I recently made the decision to hyphenate my name for the first time since I was married. Not legally, just semi-professionally. My husband and I applied to jobs in the same department and I thought that in light of some universities starting to address the two-body problem and others not being willing to interview women that may not be willing to uproot because they are less likely to do so if they are married to established men that a subtle indication that we were both mobile was appropriate. I agonized over that choice, it wasn't just one of practicality, it was in a sense changing my identity. I was angry that I even had to think about it. That was the aspect of my application I was worrying about, not my credentials, my NAME! In the end I got an interview and my name didn't matter one bit. What a waste of emotional energy. What a crappy world we live in. Anyways, I digress, the bottom line is the book and her personal story resonated with me. Read it, everyone should know how far we haven't come.

As a voter: This is an amazing women. This is an amazing person. She would be a fantastic president. She has experienced, first hand, all of the crap that goes with being in the White House and on the flip side will know how to make progress as a president without letting the crap ruin it. Reading this story one has to admire the strength of a women willing to go back there. Reading this story I realized that she has to have an unbelievable desire to make a difference to be willing to put herself and her family through another presidency. But most of all, I took away a belief that she would run a successful administration. An administration that would fight for the things I believe in. An administration I'd be happy with. The book rings with raw honesty and self-reflection. Above all, I value honesty. I value a person who knows who they are, and is willing to be open about it.

Summary:
Informative: check
Inspirational: check
Qualities I admire: check
Political views in alignment with my own: check

Potential candidate: check

finding a candidate week 2: The Plan

Some light reading. Blog silence will ensue for a few days.

My favorite candidate revealed

Last week, when I started these musings, I mentioned that although I hadn't been paying attention, I did have a candidate in mind. I promise full disclosure so here it is.

I have had a love/hate relationship with Hillary Clinton since I shook her hand when I was 14. It was 1993, and the newly elected President and his wife came to speak to the National Education Association convention in San Francisco. After the speech, both Bill and Hillary walked along the front row shaking hands, where my 11 year old sister and I were standing on chairs for the chance to be that lucky. The whole thing was kind of chaotic, so my memories are also that way. What I do remember a really warm and caring smile that accompanied that handshake. The brief moment was rapidly replaced with the chaos of being knocked over by some burly secret service agents, but she left a positive impression on me. That I remember well.

I will admit childhood perceptions are not the best way to choose a candidate. But when this guy came to talk to my 5th grade class, I thought he was a "bad man". Turns out I was right, so I guess I was a fairly perceptive child. I have a precedent for trusting my younger self.

Anyways, during the debacle that plagued Clinton's presidency, my love for Hillary waned a bit. I lost a touch of respect for her "stand by your man" attitude and the praise she received for it. It did not fit with the strong woman I thought she was. To me, strong women are independent women, and strong women don't put up with men who disrespect them. So I thought standing by her man was crap. I thought it was the wrong message to send to women who were in bad relationships. I did think that it was mostly a political move, but I didn't agree with it. Reality was that I never actually knew why she was doing it, I just saw what the media wanted me to see. I was in college, pursuing a degree in a man's world, and a bit feisty about being a strong woman.

Now, time has passed, and she has been a successful senator, I almost forget she's even married and I'm pretty impressed that a women made it this far in the race. I think she would make a great president, I think she has the experience and the know how to actually get something done in the job and I'd feel safe with her at the helm. I also think that it's about time we could catch up the the rest of the world and acknowledge that women can do the job as well as men. Chile, The Philippines, England, and others I'm sure have all come to terms with this, so we really are not all that progressive. But, we already know how I feel about women's rights.

So this is were I stand going into this primary. On an emotional level, I want Hillary to win. But, my logic takes over. Just because one party might be progressive enough, doesn't mean the whole country is. Sadly, I don't think we will elect a women president. But I'm an equal opportunity pessimist: I don't think that we will elect a black president either. Especially, a relatively young, relatively inexperienced one. I think Obama is great too. He might just be able to change the world, but in reality the president in only one part of our government. I'm not convinced he has the know how to make the rest of the wheels turn. I think that Hillary might, but she might just be stonewalled by the ol boy's club as well.

So, my logic tells me that if I want to see a democrat in power, I shouldn't vote for either of them, and my preference for experience tells me Bill Richardson would be good choice. Ahh, there's the rub. Vote with my beliefs, or gamble for a winner? 23 days left to make a decision.

finding a candidate week 1: Final story

On first check there were no relevant stories, but I found a moment at lunchtime to check again and here was the story I got: Obama lines up another big-name backer.

Where to start?

First, I almost didn't read the article because I thought there had been a mistake. Under the headline is a picture of the republican candidates, and we've already established that at this point I don't want to learn about them. They will not be on my bubble form next month.

Then, there is the lead-in, "Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano plans to announce her support for the Democratic presidential candidate, a move that could erode support among women for Clinton.". There are so many things about this statement that throw me off track, I almost thought I was in the wrong place again. I have never heard of Janet Napolitano, so I wouldn't count her as a "big-name backer". Then this eroding support among women thing...the infinite implications of that statement...well it just pisses me off, so I won't even get started.

But, I pressed on. The first 6 sentences of this article are relevant to the democratic primary and discuss the importance of the big name support. The remaining 9 sentences are concerning the campaign finances of the Republican candidates. Now the picture makes sense. I think someone needs to start teaching newspaper writers/editors/whoever about key points in writing. Maybe they all skipped that day of third grade, but if I recall correctly, the title should be indicative of the content and the content should stay *mostly* on the topic it intended to address. Maybe 6 is more than 9 in that new math.

Final analysis, the news is not a source for actual information. I will now happily return to my blissfully news free existence and bid a fond farewell to this particular experiment.

finding a candidate week 1 continued

I had a rather chaotic day today and spent alot of time worrying about friends and family and colleagues and the array of troubles that are troubling them. Not to mention new non backwards compatible versions of my analysis software, and plume parts blowing ways the wind isn't, and why does excel calculate angles counterclockwise anyways?

So, in short I just checked the top stories for the day. It's 11:18 pm, it still counts as my Thursday check, and alas, no news concerning democratic candidates. It's the other party in the spotlight today. But top story number two was this sad yet still inspiring story of Sir Edmund Hillary's death. I offer my sincere respect to a great adventurer, which is the true spirit of life.

Finding a candidate: week 1 continued

It's Wednesday, and today's top story is not surprisingly about yesterday's primary: Clinton Escapes to Fight Another Day. This particular article is from the NY Times, and not Rueters, which tends to have a more international readership, so there is a bit more meat in it. Not much, but a bit more. This article does address something that has been haunting my decision from the start: The overall elect-ability of the democratic candidate. My ultimate goal is to get a Dem in the White House, and I have some concerns about ANY of the candidates actually being able to pull that off. I know first hand the this country is not as progressive as we like to think...

I'm saving my actual analysis and opinions for another post, so you'll have to remain in suspense about those aspects of my thought process for a little while longer.

It is abundantly clear to me that the news is not a good source of information, it's just spin and poll results, which can be proved quite wrong. But I knew that was probably the case from the start. I have thought about abandoning my one story a day strategy, but I only planned to do it for a week anyways, so I'll stick it out. I have several ideas on how to proceed, and 3.5 weeks left until I bubble in my vote, so I hope you'll stay with me in my experiment.

finding a candidate week 1

When last we talked on this topic I had narrowed my choice to 4 candidates. In full disclosure, I do have some preconceived notions and leanings that I haven't discussed yet, but I most likely will as time goes on. I decided that I needed some more definitive information. To see how the rest of the country might make these decisions I am *gasp* reading the news. One election related story a day from my google homepage top stories. These change over the course of the day, but I don't have infinite time, so these are what I got when I happened to glance.

Monday: Obama rocks past Clinton in New Hampshire
This is a story about a "running poll" leading up to the famed New Hampshire primary. The central focus is that Obama has pulled ahead in this poll. He has pulled ahead of Clinton by 10 points, not knowing much about politics that seems to me like the difference between an A paper and a B paper (both still passing). Read a little further, however and the poll has an error of 3.4 points in either direction. Now any person with an understanding of elementary school mathematics can infer that this error margin means the actual difference between the two candidates can be as large at 16.8 points (Now were talking A student to C student) or as small as 3.2 points. In my world that the difference between an A and an A+. At my university and A+ is a grade which cannot be granted on an undergraduate transcript, making the two almost equivelent. That is a much grayer area as far as polls go in my mind. My quest has not been furthered at all, as I know nothing more about the candidates themselves, just a fairly vague, pseudo-quantitative measure of their predicted performance in 1 out of 50 states.

Tuesday: Tuesday's "top story" click was nearly identical to Monday's. I'm serious the article was almost word for word talking about the same poll and the now 13 point difference between Obama and Hillary. It did mention that Clinton is a former first lady, a fact that only those living under a rock wouldn't know, but not information on candidate views at all!. Since this has done nothing to help me make a good decision, I may try a second click later in the day. I did manage a second click, which surprisingly took me to MTV. Why the election is about you. As opposed to my previous attempts this information had actual quotes from an actual candidate. Does anyone else find it scary that my most informative article so far is from MTV?

I had originally decided to post all 5 weekdays at once, but it might become a very long post, so here you go. I'll be back later in the week. :)

Well, I guess it's time to pay attention

Election year is upon us. The primaries have started and what happens from here on out actually matters, so I guess it's time to pay attention. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I'm a democratic. I guess I've always been a democrat, but I only changed my official party status from my original choice of unaffiliated around the time we moved into our house (July 2004), so this is my first presidential primary. I was unaffiliated because when I was 18 I felt I didn't really understand the differences between the parties to choose, so not choosing was the more responsible decision at that time. I always voted, no matter what state I was temporiarly inhabiting when an election came around, if I couldn't go to the polls I voted absentee, but never before in a primary. Until this morning I actually thought that I wouldn't have to vote in the primary until the summer. It turns out that really I have to do it next month. So time to pay attention.

Like everyone else in the world I have heard many of the sound bites, seen snippets of the debates, some interviews on the daily show, etc. I whole heartedly no not watch the news, I hate it; it is depressing and life is too short to be depressed on a regular basis. I do listen to NPR almost daily, but my commute usually misses the peak newscasts and instead we hear the interesting stuff. Typically, we hear one interesting story and spend the rest of the commute discussing it so I guess I don't really listen to NPR either. I have formulated rudimentary opinions of the top candidates, but I'm still unsure of who to vote for.

Paul's blog post this morning did prompt me to spend a little time pursuing it more. The glassbooth quiz aligns me most closely with Kucinich (87%). I don't know anything more about him than that, and it's clear to me that he will not be the nominee, so he won't get my vote. Next up was John Edwards (85%) followed closely by Hillary Clinton (83%). Obama and Richardson came in tied at 81% aligning with my views. These were the four I had already narrowed it down to anyways, and a 4 percent span on a survey like this isn't enough to make up my mind. I went to the more detailed results, which tell you how well each candidates views align with your own on the key issues. The only topic that got a complete disagree for all five candidates was gay marriage. No candidate will come out and support same sex marriage, but all support civil unions. I personally don't see the difference, it's just semantics. If a civil union supplies all the same rights as marriage, why can't we just call it marriage? Because it wouldn't be recognized by a church? I wasn't married in a church, does that mean I only have a civil union? I'm a smart gal and I just can't get my head wrapped around the nuance's of this issue. Apples to apples in my book.

So really, all glassbooth proved is that I'm a democrat. Granted they figured it out in 10 minutes and it took me 8 years, but no real new material to work with.

I have 30 days to make a decision on which bubble to fill in.

So I guess it's time to pay some more attention.