Palin re-post

From the New Yorker:

For a seventy-two-year-old cancer survivor to have placed Sarah Palin directly behind himself in line for the Presidency was an act of almost incomprehensible cynicism and irresponsibility…

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Obama re-post

Sometimes it's just easier to re-post somebody's email that I received from somebody else:

Hello,

I wanted to write to all of you because I just got back from a very exhausting and fulfilling day of door knocking and canvassing for Obama in NE Philadelphia. I drove with four other women to a part of Philly that went for Hillary in the primaries, but has yet to go for Obama. None of us had ever done anything like this before in our lives,
but we decided this election was TOO important and we had to DO something. The Obama campaign had organized the event, (and many more in the coming months) and helped prepare us with talking points and gave us a sense of what to expect.

It was a totally inspiring and overwhelming experience. I met the 10% who are undecided, and in NE Philly the undecided made up about 70% of the people I met!! (that is not a typo... 70%). I got to meet the Hillary supporters who are backing McCain because he chose a woman, (even though that woman is the antithesis to Hillary).

I saw first hand, working class Americans who have been hurt the most by this administration, and who are having to overcome their own fears and prejudices to vote for the candidate that will best represent them, even though they may be more comfortable with the look and the feel of the republican ticket.

I was able to register families who had never voted before. I think it is important for you to understand that it is a "street fight" that is happening for this 10-13% of the undecided vote. Many of the people I met, knew in their guts that they should not support McCain/Palin, but it seemed easier than supporting the guy who, "stole it from Hillary", or who "went to that horrible Reverend Wright".

I also learned why it has to be won on a grass roots level because, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN ON THEIR TELEVISION SETS. However, it might happen if passionate people like ourselves are able to have engaging conversations with people on the fence. We all owe it to our country to make this election about our future and our children/grandchildren's future.

Therefore we tried to encourage them not to make such an important decision out of spite or fear. When we were able to bring things down to the economy, our families and the future of the country, we were able to see some of the fear and prejudice waver a bit, and that's what we need to break through.

It's a lot easier to make that happen sitting on someone's porch talking with them, than sitting back on your sofa and hoping that "those people" are watching the debates. I guess I was most surprised by people's willingness to engage and discuss what mattered to them, and in most instances they were very appreciative that we had made the effort to reach out.

I am sending this e-mail to YOU, because I think you should get out there too. There are many ways to do it, and like I said all five of my friends who went with me this weekend had never done anything like this before in their lives. Many of you live in or near swing states, please get out there in the next 45 days and help put Obama in the White House.

Here is what you can do:

Go to Obama's website, login and get involved: http://my.barackobama.com /

GO SOMEWHERE AND CAMPAIGN: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages


Of Course, DONATE: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/glencadia


For those of you in NY or PA, here is the link to the volunteer in PA: http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/PABorder .

Please contact everyone you know and let's get going.

Picture above by my man Mike! (credit card # I just used to make my donation to Obama, also my man Mike's!)

NURTUREart benefit - save the date - October 27

NURTUREart benefit - save the date - October 27




The 2008 NURTUREart benefit is scheduled for October 27th. It's a terrific opportunity to bring home some art, so put it in your calendars: The bash will be in Manhattan, at James Cohan Gallery on West 26th Street. More details as we get closer to the date.

(James Wagner's blog reminded me of this upcoming event!)

New show at Pocket U!

Marching red rabbits, starry skies and broken plates greet the visitor to the new show, second season at Pocket Utopia! Come perch in the backyard, meet Amy Lincoln, the new resident artist.

Women Say No to Palin

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce—on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate—that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here (womensaynopalin@gmail.com) with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called "Women Against Sarah Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience—the greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

image Jenny Holzer

Deckscaping - part 1

The backyard at Pocket Utopia is a well-used space. The Chinese take-out establishment next door uses the space to store cooking oil, stack cardboard boxes, and their offspring play back there (they dig, climb, and run around crazy). The potential for a fully realized outdoor space is huge.

Kicking aside muddy toys, barrels of MSG, and the miscellaneous chopstick, and with the help of Matthew (he couldn’t move the next day), we reclaimed an area of the backyard by “deckscaping” it. Using former perch platforms and staining them black, we placed the deck tops within and over the muck and grassy weeds. We hung birdhouses, used other former perch sculptural parts as trellises, bought mums and potted shrubbery. We also gave a dirty, dingy picnic table a new home. It’s a start.