Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act January 29, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Civics, Life, Superfluous musings, Work.add a comment
President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law just a few minutes ago. I watched it live on TV. It brought me to tears. I am so proud.
27 January 26, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Family, Gibberish, Grad school, International Relations, Life, Media, New Media, Reminiscing, Superfluous musings.add a comment
I turn 27 on the 27th. I used to look ahead to this distant date and wonder what exciting things I would be up to. Turns out – not much. I do love my life – I have a wonderful family that isn’t too scattered. I live in a nice town. I have beautiful memories – recent and old. I feel peaceful and happy at home. But there are also many things I’ve yet to reach for – graduate school and the pursuit of more knowledge being the primary star.
But then I look around the world and realize that I don’t deserve to complain and whine about the things I’ve yet to achieve. I just have to do them. And what’s a better time than now – when the world is so involved, so open and yet mysterious. There is an international economic crisis. There are the persistent hunger, disease, violence and suppression problems with the difference that nowadays they are as familiar and proximate as the Internet and all of its media ancesorts can make them, ushering them into our living rooms continuously. There is so much impact to have. It’s definitely overwhelming, but it is also urgent and inviting at the same time.
Perhaps that is the significance of 27 – the year I will take the ultimate tangable action towards those abstract dreams. Amen.
This is not one of those age-related crises. At least I don’t htink it is. If anything it is an interesting fascination with the number. Besides the fact that it is 27 on the 27th, it has also been sort of dear number. The favorite of mine is 3, 2+7=9=3^3.
Historical moments January 26, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Civics, Elections 2008, Life, Work.add a comment
Inauguration Day 2009 is one of those dates taht I believe people will recall with the “where were you when …” prompt. I was at home, then listening to NPR on my commute (on foot and Max) and then at my desk at work, watching the event on NYTimes.com. That evening, my boyfriend and I went to the Oregon Democratic Party celebration (the dance party at a local club one, not the $100+ per plate dinner). The sight and sounds were incredible. Young and not-so-young people, dance music, live DJ. And then they stopped all and replayed the President’s inaugural speech on two large screens. Everyone listened, everyone applauded right at the natural pauses. It was elecrtifying. What a difference a crowd makes – feeling connected and experiencing other people’s reactions elicited one more wave of emotionally overwhelming thrill.
The one morsel I would like to take away from the experience is the call to action – to volunteer and to keep a strong work ethic in these trouble times. May we all remain as driven and active as the President has demonstrated to be the day after.
Fish tales January 26, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Dogs, Superfluous musings.add a comment
My boyfriend gave me a betta as an early birthday present this weekend. I used to have one in college when we first met. It feels great to finally have a pet – our first one together. Named him Leo McGarry – after the chief of staff in The West Wing. We’ve been watching the show on DVD via Netflix and loving how well it parallels with the current political situation. That same day, after we set up Leo in his fish bowl, we sat down to watch an episode of the fourth season and the character Leo McGarry said in a conversation with the President that he doesn’t like human names for pets. Hah! Perfect.
For the record, we love Toby Ziegler as a pet name, but we are saving that one for the Boston terrier we will someday adopt.
Transparent and accessible government January 14, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Civics, Elections 2008, New Media, Superfluous musings.add a comment
The Obama transition team continues to amaze me. I am in awe at how accessible and engaged they are portraying the President-elect to be.
I was very pleasantly … well, not surprised, not really … when the team announced, via Michelle Obama, their call for a day (and/or weekend) of volunteer service for the MLK Jr. holiday this year, just before the innauguraiton. But what is truly an innovative idea is the “Citizen’s Briefing Book.” I first received the e-mail addressed from Valerie Jarrett (co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Project ) this morning. It may have been distributed earlier and only reached me recently, but nonetheless, it is impressive when I log in the afternoon of the same day and there are already several thousand ideas collected. A glance at the list of recent topics and it is obvious these are serious, thoughtful ideas… no spamming here. Well, either that gets filtered out (which would also be indicative of the commitment on the Obama team’s side) or people are considerate and eager to get engaged. It’s probably a bit of both.
So, the book itself will be a collection of the most popular ideas submitted to this web site and it will be assembled in the same binder as the incoming President’s other briefing documents. He will actually look at it himself. Talk about a direct line to your top leader! Genious.
I hope his administration keeps up the fantastic job the campaign and transition team have done thus far to make ordinary people feel connected and engaged once again. It’s a mighty feat in today’s communication tools onslaught.
