hope

John Mayer wrote a surprisingly good piece on HuffPo yesterday. I think he is absolutely right.

I was 23 years old when the nation was attacked on September 11, 2001. I can remember hearing pundits say "this changes everything" and "things will never be the same." Obviously it was a tragic and traumatic event, but that sentiment has carried on through the better part of my twenties. If you were 43 years old on that day, I would imagine it was a difficult concept to get your head around as well, but if you were a young adult just entering his or her individual life, there was an added twist; how can you process the idea of everything changing and things never being the same when you have no point of reference for what "everything" and "the same" is? I was just beginning to put my hands on the world around me, to interact and engage with it, and to actualize the dream of being an adult in a free society. To wait in line for 23 years only to have the "sorry, future canceled" sign flipped in my face was depressing, to say the least.

The social and political narrative of the last eight years, if you're a young adult, has been "you are the first generation of the second half of the rest of human existence." That's a huge psychological undertaking, and I believe it's one that will someday be diagnosed on a massive scale as having led to a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Something has to explain away our premature obsession with 1980s nostalgia.) My generation has come to know itself as the generation that should have seen the good days, my, were they spectacular, now take off your shoes and place them on the belt.

What Barack Obama says to me is these days are good for something. Just when I'd thought my only role as an adult was to help shoulder the nation through its darkest days (known to us as "the rest of them"), Obama gives me the feeling that I could be alive to witness one of the most brilliant upturns in a country's history. Imagine that -- a young adult in this day and age being given something to someday brag to his children about having being alive to witness. What a concept.

That's why hope is a worthwhile commodity. To those who question whether hope is a tangible product worth building a campaign around, I'd say take a look at despair and how powerful that has been in reshaping how people think and live. I believe the definition of the "hope" that Barack Obama enthuses operates on the unspoken thesis that there has to be a polar opposite to the despair of 9/11. Because if we accept that there's not, the will to live becomes forever altered. To adults who will vote for him, Barack Obama represents a return to prosperity. To the youth, he represents an introduction to it.

don't cry for me, Sarah Palin

This is brilliant. She even has a nice singing voice.

Muslim does not equal Terrorist

Colin Powell on Obama:

"Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian," he said. "But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

I have been waiting three months for someone to say this. The anti-Muslim sentiment in America echoes the anti-Japanese feelings of WWII and frankly, the antisemitism in Europe pre Holocaust. I'm a little disappointed that Obama hasn't brought this up, in response to all the flak that is pointed HIS way, but I can understand that the words, "What is wrong with being a Muslim" coming out of his mouth would be skewed and used in a commercial against him. I'm relieved that Powell finally brought this up. His words carry a lot of weight.

the year 2004

I'm cleaning out my old computer and found this...

The Year 2004

Start the year off right at Planned Parenthood
Max weird 2nd dinner
Salinity Experiment
Anna Bday at Indian restaurant
RDG's Shabbat dinner
Jenny and Aaron engagement party
Miriam Cat in the Fiddle and meet Josh
Awful Kaiser Dr. Rice exam
Ramah Winter Weekend
keep subbing for Rasa
meeting with Evan in Valencia
Smallville w/ Ronen
Rachel SaddleRanch Bday
Drinks with Jeremy at St. Nick's
Mission San Juan Capistrano field trip
Sierra to Smallville at Ronen's
Friday Night Live
Ramah Winter Weekend
Purim Carnival
Humantaschen with Miriam and roommate Stephanie
DOTs at CAF with Vanessa
Adat Ari El Music Man
Ramah VBS winter weekend
dinners with Justin to plan HaHa weekend
KidBid Day at the Zoo with Brigitte
Yoga Booty Ballet with Eve, Tova, Margaret
San Diego with Miriam - stay at Bev's, see Fusion
Pesach in Oakland with Anna
Lakers playoffs with Jeremy
Daniel Z dates at Thai and Drinks and ew kiss
Rachel sleep overs
Ramah Shomrei weekend with parents
KidBid dinner party with Rasa
Mexican cave restaurant with Justin
HaHa weekend meeting Nicole
Fumigating the apt
Noura CafÈ with Ronen
meeting Abbey at the Grove with Ronen and Heath
Mummy's dinner at VBS
Cheesecake dinner, The Ring at Ronen's 3am hookup
ISRAEL Sabba's grave, Nadav's BM, Ceasarea, back spasm, West Bank jeep tour, backpack stolen, flu, lice
DMV new license
Open House at TIOH
Benja's graduation at Ebell Theatre - Moshe Joseph
Miriam sublets room
Pacific Palisades with Ronen
Camp Ramah HaHa Nitzanim
BFF with Nicole and Hilary
Haley pregnant
Liz and Dale engaged
MattLowe engaged!?
fabulous apt with Miriam and Abbey
Paint room and Norah Jones
Jenny wedding shower
IKEA with brother Aaron
Eve goodbye party
Meet Julie K at TIOH and back to 4th grade
Ronen
Nicole and MattLowe Nathan's party
series of cancelled dinner plans
Adam and Miri visit
Miriam's potluck at La Cienega park
LA County Fair with Abbey
Brunch with Anna, Van, Jenny, Becca
sing at Neilah with Daddy
hear about Ronen's mom Dinner at apt with Tova and Margaret
LICE
funeral and shivas
Shabbat dinner at Graff's
TIOH sub for Gala Hebrew School
Chocolate Martini with Zach at WoodRanch
Sukkot dinner at Graff's with Rachel and Felice
new retainers, fix tooth
Glenda's Friday night dinner
bowling with Aaron
Smallville party
Pythos and Damian dinner with Van and Jenny
Mador Shabbat
I Heart Huckabees
Bacci with Naomi, Ezra, Irvine Bacci League
Crap with Ronen
Abbey Bday Mexican Cantina and Bowling
Red Sox win World Series
Desperate Housewives TV
Nomi, Raphael, Zohar visit
Kerry vs Bush election
My birthday game night Taboo
Jenny Bachelorette Party at Pearl
Family Bday dinner at Cheesecake
Palm Springs with Rachel, Mummy
dead cell phone business
Tova and Karen house party
Friday Night Lights movie disaster
Sigal, Barbara Hacker's niece from Israel
brunch with Jeremy at Nick's
brunch with Anna at Le Conversation
Rachel R never speaks to me again
Brunch with roomies at Blueberry Morning in SaMo
Free UCLA a capella with Sigal and Abbey
Hannukah magazine presents to family
First Shabbat dinner at apt with guests
Aaron Drivers' Ed
tell all to Glenda
Jenny and Aaron's wedding
New York with Nicole! Hillary, The Met, Sushi Shabbat, Saved!, Midnight Mass, H&M, Mexican work party, Italians, Roee, Modern Orthodox play, button necklaces and Chinese with Sarra and Betsey, snow!
Glenda "sleep over" party

bitter flashbacks of bureaocracy

THIS is why I am so deliriously happy to be out of the shithole district we call LAUSD. I used to get new students with only thirty seconds of warning. My first year teaching, it happened TEN TIMES. Two of the times were students who didn't speak a word of English. I secured parent agreements to retain two students who were seriously not up to par and the school office passed them on. They claimed the parents hadn't agreed but it was pure baloney.

they are learning and even APPLYING!!!!!

I asked my students this morning if any of them had actually watched the debate and Julie's hand stuck up in the air like she was about to burst, so I called on her and she exclaimed with pride, "I watched and took Cornell Notes!" She opened her binder and sure enough, there were her two column notes complete with topics and bullet points and even a few quotes.