\\kristin.socci.com\life$

Haiku Poem
March 23, 2008
When does it all stop -
Embracing this foul hatred -
From so far away?

Arrogance or pride?
What makes it so plain for you -
That which puzzles me?

Would you stone them all -
Adulterers, perverts, queers?
Can YOU cast the first?

Suffering the same
You and I are no different
We can both feel pain

We both have a heart
With truth it only opens
With hate it slams shut

Water, carbon, more -
We are made from the same dust,
Brother and sister

There are days that I am completely amazed that my brother and I came out of the same womb. The other amazing thing is we grew up NOT discussing politics. The family lore is that my father’s parents got into a huge fight for voting for opposite people so we NEVER discussed politics when we were kids. We also never ate liver..but that’s another thing all together.

Tonight I stumbled upon my brother’s blog and what he had to say about Obama winning completely blew me out of the water.

His concerns were that Obama is one of the most pro-choice presidents to ever be elected. And, the other two points he made were about affirmative action and “cleaning up the black culture”. Now, my brother got married when he was 19 and was very proud of being a virgin…so he had no frame of reference for what a “pregnancy scare” feels like. He also has spent most of his life in a basement reading or studing rare coins on the internet…not traveling the world, or experiencing different cultures, or living in a racially diverse community.

I have always been extremely pro-choice. I don’t think it is anyone’s business what I, or any woman for that matter, does with her body. Some of my favorite pro-choice bumper-stickers are “keep you laws off my body”, “us out of my uterus” and the best “against abortion, don’t have one”. I also think abortion should be safe, legal, available, and rare. Abortions could be rare if we took the time to educate women and men in appropriate forms of birth control. Abstinence is not birth control.

He also went on about “cleaning up the black culture”…well who the fuck do you think you are? How is “gangsta-rap” hurting you? And to imply that the only single mothers and delinquent dads are black??? How dare you! Why don’t you come to NYC and see that single mothers come from women of all shapes, sizes, and colors. My WHITE step-son was born with a serious birth defect and needed many surgeries, his mother was on public assistance because she had no other option for health care being that she was self employed.

I may be starting another family feud by posting this but I just couldn’t believe how narrow and racist of a post my brother made.

And now I am going to post a few really inspirational things:

First a note from my friend’s 79 year old mother about the election

I’m happy we are here. Not like 1952 when I worked at J.M.Birchfield and sons wholesale grocer. A tall well dressed black man who owned a little store in the country came in for supplies. One of the oldest customers on Birchfield’s books. He paid cash and I said, “thank you, Mr. Johnson”. Well, everybody in the office surrounded me and told me that we never called a ‘nigra’ Mr. I asked what I should call him and they said ‘Uncle Willie’ or whatever his name was. To which THIS liberal Yankee said, “Well, He may be kin of yours but he’s no kin of mine!” To the credit of the office manager (he had a crush on me), I wasn’t fired. I had lots of adventures like that in the Tuscaloosa of 1952-1953. Your dad said someone might light a cross in front of our apartment! The whole point of that story is that times have indeed changed–and it’s about time. Love you, mom

And this video created by some wonderful bay area girls:

The feeling of hope was palpable in the air of Washington Heights the morning after the election.  I was walking to the garage and there was a black guy holding is little son, maybe 2yr old, in his arms.  The boy started to open and close his hand waving to me.  I said “hi, are you waving to me, good morning” in that high pitched talking to a little kid voice.  My eyes started to tear when I thought that this child’s entire life just changed.  That America had spoken and all the fear of Obama not being elected due to his race was over.   Now, I am not naive to think that means racism no longer exists…and that the country is suddenly going to be OK.  Obama has a lot of work ahead of him…but at least he and his staff are going to be in the drivers seat vs Bush.

The other amazing thing for me is my experience on Facebook.  I never thought I’d join a “social networking” site.  My childhood friend sent me an invite so I decided to join.  I have made connections with people from almost every part of my life…a few high school friends, college friends, my old roommate from Seattle, almost the entire cast of the “A Chorus Line” tour I went on from 97-98!, Broadway friends, IT friends, and to see the connections between each of them is also kind of amazing.

History is one of the best things you can have with a friend.  And, those friends that I have that kind of history with…that I won’t see them for months or years and then it picks right backup…that’s amazing.

Waiting for him to wake up…why did we stay up till 3am.

tick, tick, the hands on the big clock are the only sound

aside from…

click, click the sound of my fingers on the keyboard

thelma sleeps in the sunshine

netflix, wii, or dvr?

MELT at 7:30

solitude in the city

I never thought of the eyes as an internal organ!

I named 17 organs in 4 minutes!

I did really well on this one:

My spelling sucks so this became a little challenging

I named 50 US states in 10 minutes

How I missed the TWIX is beyond me.

I was stumbling and found this…

This was the picture from my old blog’s masthead.  We recently switched hosting companies because our old hosting company started to suck so much we couldn’t take it anymore.

I’m settled into my new job.  I have realized that I don’t have even 1/1oth of the passion for technology that my husband does. I am very good at solving problems and using my resources to find answers…but, I don’t feel like I will ever be a sys admin rock star.   However, the cool thing about my company is there are other places to grow….and this upcoming week I have my “development” meeting.  What I realize is that I am very good with developing relationships with people and people even take my advice and respect what I have to say…which is such a difference from how I felt in my last career.  So, I would like to grow into a team lead or a relationship manager position.

And I still have dreams of a simpler life, living in the country, rescuing dogs and maybe even keeping bees like my grandfather did.  I remember how wonderful the honeycomb tasted all squashed onto toast.

Only time will tell.

Dear Friends and Family,

I didn’t grow up talking about politics, but one very influential person in my college life got me pretty fired up.  Now, going on 40, and living thru the Bush, Clinton, and Bush years…and living through the 9-11 attacks as a New York City resident…my opinions have taken shape.

Above all I am pro-choice.  Right now we need to think of our daughters, nieces, and sisters.  Palin would make abortion illegal for anyone…even rape and incest victims.  I mean, are you kidding me?  She also believes in teaching abstinence only…look how good that turned out in her own home!  I don’t mean that as an attack, just that if her daughter had been given ANY option for birth control she may not be finding herself pregnant and forced into marriage at 17.  And what kind of message is that sending to our young women?

I also strongly believe in the separation of church and state.  I’ll keep my state out of your church…you keep your church out of my state.   

I went to the kind of church that Sarah Palin grew up in while in high school…extremism on either side of the fence is not good.  This is not the kind of person that should be in politics as her religious beliefs are so ingrained into her being and I don’t believe she can seperate church and state.  I know there are so many other issues but, it’s time to move forward, and to respect the work that our mother’s and grandmother’s have done before us. 

My grandmother, who died three years ago tomorrow, voted for Bill Clinton because “We need a change”…

A vote for McCain/Palin is not a pro-woman vote!

so, next is the email that prompted this post!!!

—————————–

    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 <mailto: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 ournation.*

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.

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston

New York, NY

womensaynopalin@gmail.com <mailto: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.

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I received nice gifts from my Mom….she is getting really good at picking stuff out for me and my Amazon.com Wish List doesn’t hurt either.

Anyway, today I received a call from Norma.  It was so great to hear from her.  I could not have asked for anything more surprising and wonderful.

Love ya kiddo!